Océan Mer

For Your First Year

Ten apps for freshman students

Freshmen facts infographic

Choosing a major infographic

Pros & cons of going to a small college

Things to do during syllabus week

Making the most out of your syllabus

How to pass a hard college course

Why you should consider community college

Preparing for your freshman year

Nearly two hundred freshman tips

Mistakes to avoid in classes

Figuring out what you really want to do

Career advice no one will tell you

Surviving your first month

Choosing a major

Tips for the self-conscious freshman

College preparation timeline

Writing college application essays

Scheduling classes

College visit tips

Studying

How to create a study guide

Make online flashcards

Learn absolutely anything

Math homework help

The five best note taking systems

How to take notes from a textbook

Math study tips

Making a study schedule

How to form good study habits

How to be effective when studying

Study playlists

Are you study savvy?

Study tips & learning styles

Ways to study flow chart

College study habits infographic

Study hacks

Essays

How to write long papers (the formula)

Write a perfect essay

Have someone proofread your writing for free

Easily cite & manage your paper with a team of people

College essay topics

Writing a research question

Research terms defined

Making your paper stand out

Writing with clarity cheat sheet

How to make your papers longer or shorter cheat sheet

What to do if you don’t have time to finish an essay

Writing & editing your paper

Six tips to make your paper 3X better

MLA formatting printable

Word frequency counter

Ways to start and end an essay

Exams & Tests

Exam preparation tips

How to make a finals study schedule

How to beat test anxiety

Reducing stress during finals

How to study for finals

Study tips 

Final exams infographic

Finals study checklist

Final exams cheat sheet

Finances

Couponing for college girls

Paying for college: beyond the basic costs

Student discounts

More student discounts

Even more student discounts

Seven ways to go to college for free

Top five ways to save on college expenses

Financial aid roadmap 

Seven questions to ask about student loans

Financial advice for students

Get cheap or free school supplies

Side jobs for students

Student loan mistakes

Making money in college

Smart ways to cut college costs

Financial planning printables

Easy ways to save money

A guide to the cheapest college textbooks

Online jobs for students

Money-saving apps

How to get an Apple student discount

Ways students can live on a budget

Sell your notes online

Over fifty things you can score with your student ID

Financial management tips for students

Student discounts pocket guide

Things people in their twenties need to know about finances

Financial guidance

Relationships & Social Life

Tips for owning your college hookups

Asking a professor to change your grade

E-mailing professors the right way

Truths about sex in college

Tips for having a successful college relationship

Pros & cons of being taken in college

Seven ways to make new friends

How to start conversations with strangers

Dealing with social anxiety in college

Ideas for sober coed socials

How to get along with your roommate

Perfecting the art of small talk

The introvert’s guide to making friends in college

How to be a great roommate

Conversation starters for painful first dates

Tips on surviving your first party

What you need to know about trying drugs in college

Simple ways to impress your professor

Mental & Physical Health

Juggling work & school

A college girl’s guide to being healthy

Remedies for homesickness

A healthy girl’s grocery list

When life challenges threaten your academic success

Eating healthy in college

How to reduce college stress

Dealing with mental illness in college

Staying healthy

Getting through college when you don’t like to party

Advice on mental illness from college graduates

Stressed out students infographic

What to do when you can’t afford therapy

How to calm your brain after a busy day

A cure for the life of a stressed out student infographic

Ways to avoid burnout

Top five mental health issues college students face

The truth about sexual assault on campuses

Here’s an easy resolution: This stuff is all free as long as you have access to a computer, and the skills you learn will be invaluable in your career, and/or life in general. 

1. Become awesome at Excel.

Chandoo is one of many gracious Excel experts who wants to share their knowledge with the world. Excel excellence is one of those skills that will improve your chances of getting a good job instantly, and it will continue to prove invaluable over the course of your career. What are you waiting for?

2. Learn how to code.

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Perhaps no other skill you can learn for free online has as much potential to lead to a lucrative career. Want to build a site for your startup? Want to build the next big app? Want to get hired at a place like BuzzFeed? You should learn to code. There are a lot of places that offer free or cheap online coding tutorials, but I recommend Code Academy for their breadth and innovative program. If you want to try a more traditional route, Harvard offers its excellent Introduction to Computer Science course online for free.

3. Make a dynamic website.

You could use a pre-existing template or blogging service, or you could learn Ruby on Rails and probably change your life forever. Here’s an extremely helpful long list of free Ruby learning tools that includes everything from Rails for Zombies to Learn Ruby The Hard Way. Go! Ruby! Some basic programming experience, like one of the courses above, might be helpful (but not necessarily required if you’re patient with yourself).

4. Learn to make a mobile game.

If you’re not interested in coding anything other than fun game apps, you could trythis course from the University of Reading. It promises to teach you how to build a game in Java, even if you don’t have programming experience! If you want to make a truly great game, you might want to read/listen up on Game Theory first.

5. Start reading faster.

Spreeder is a free online program that will improve your reading skill and comprehension no matter how old you are. With enough practice, you could learn to double, triple, or even quadruple the speed at which you read passages currently, which is basically like adding years to your life.

6. Learn a language!

With Duolingo, you can learn Spanish, French, Portuguese, Italian, or English (from any of the above or more). There’s a mobile app and a website, and the extensive courses are completely free.

Full disclosure: BuzzFeed and other websites are in a partnership with DuoLingo, but they did not pay or ask for this placement.

7. Pickle your own vegetables.

Tired of your farmer’s market haul going bad before you use it all? Or do you just love tangy pickled veggies? You too can pickle like a pro thanks to SkillShare and Travis Grillo.

8. Improve your public speaking skills.

You can take the University of Washington’s Intro to Public Speaking for free online. Once you learn a few tricks of the trade, you’ll be able to go into situations like being asked to present at a company meeting or giving a presentation in class without nearly as much fear and loathing.

9. Get a basic handle of statistics.

UC Berkeley put a stats intro class on iTunes. Once you know how to understand the numbers yourself, you’ll never read a biased “news” article the same way again — 100% of authors of this post agree!

10. Understand basic psychology.

Knowing the basics of psych will bring context to your understanding of yourself, the dynamics of your family and friendships, what’s really going on with your coworkers, and the woes and wonders of society in general. Yale University has its Intro to Psychology lectures online for free.

11. Make your own music.

Step one: Learn how to play guitar: Justin Guitar is a fine and free place to start learning chords and the basic skills you’ll need to be able to play guitar — from there, it’s up to you, but once you know the basics, just looking up tabs for your favorite songs and learning them on your own is how many young guitar players get their start (plus it’s an excellent party trick).

Step two: A delightful free voice lesson from Berklee College Of Music.

Step three: Have you always thought you had an inner TSwift? Berklee College of Music offers an Introduction to Songwriting course completely for free online. The course is six weeks long, and by the end of the lesson you’ll have at least one completed song.

Step four: Lifehacker’s basics of music production will help you put it all together once you have the skills down! You’ll be recording your own music, ready to share with your valentine or the entire world, in no time!

12. Learn to negotiate.

Let Stanford’s Stan Christensen explain how to negotiate in business and your personal life, managing relationships for your personal gain and not letting yourself be steamrolled. There are a lot of football metaphors and it’s great.

13. Stop hating math.

If you struggled with math throughout school and now have trouble applying it in real-world situations when it crops up, try Saylor.org’s Real World Math course. It will reteach you basic math skills as they apply IRL. Very helpful!

14. Start drawing!

All kids draw — so why do we become so afraid of it as adults? Everyone should feel comfortable with a sketchbook and pencil, and sketching is a wonderful way to express your creativity. DrawSpace is a great place to start. (I also highly recommend the book Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain if you can drop a few dollars for a used copy.)

15. Make your own animated GIF.

BuzzFeed’s own Katie Notopoulos has a great, simple guide to making an animated GIF without Photoshop. This is all you need to be the king or queen of Tumblr or your favorite email chains.

16. Appreciate jazz.

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Have you never really “gotten” jazz? If you want to be able to participate in conversations at fancy parties and/or just add some context to your appreciation of all music, try this free online course from UT Austin.

17. Write well.

Macalester College’s lecture series is excellent. If you’re more interested in journalism, try Wikiversity’s course selection.

18. Get better at using Photoshop.

Another invaluable skill that will get you places in your career, learning Photoshop can be as fun as watching the hilarious videos on You Suck At Photoshop or as serious as this extensive Udemy training course (focused on photo retouching).

19. Take decent pictures.

Lifehacker’s basics of photography might be a good place to start. Learn how your camera works, the basic of composition, and editing images in post-production. If you finish that and you’re not sure what to do next, here’s a short course on displaying and sharing your digital photographs.

20. Learn to knit.

Instructables has a great course by a woman who is herself an online-taught knitter. You’ll be making baby hats and cute scarves before this winter’s over!

21. Get started with investing in stocks.

If you are lucky enough to have a regular income, you should start learning about savings and investment now. Investopedia has a ton of online resources, including this free stocks basics course. Invest away!

22. Clean your house in a short amount of time.

Unf$#k Your Habitat has a great emergency cleaning guide for when your mother-in-law springs a surprise visit on you. While you’re over there, the entire blog is good for getting organized and clean in the long term, not just in “emergencies.” You’ll be happier for it.

23. Start practicing yoga.

Most cities have free community classes (try just searching Google or inquiring at your local yoga studio), or if you’re more comfortable trying yoga at home, YogaGlohas a great 15-day trial and Yome is a compendium of 100% free yoga videos. If you’re already familiar with basic yoga positions but you need an easy way to practice at home, I recommend YogaTailor’s free trial as well.

24. Tie your shoelaces more efficiently.