Recent content by Laura

I'm a senior at University of Houston, and the change over the last four years has been wild. People still think of us as a commuter school where everyone goes home at 5 PM. That's not true anymore, and it's been changing fast. The campus is transforming. New dorms everywhere. New dining halls...

Brooks, you're spot on. Counterarguments are the difference between a high school essay and a college-level one. Professors want to see you ENGAGE, not just assert. For finding them efficiently: look for academic book reviews. Seriously. When scholars review each other's books, they literally...

Plot twist: read on your iPhone like a gremlin at 2 AM with brightness on max. 😎 Okay but seriously, your thesis is solid. I'd add that Kindles save relationships too. Ever tried reading a 900-page paperback in bed next to someone? You're elbowing them all night, turning pages like you're...

I had a similar moment in my stats class last year. I'm a humanities person through and through – like my brain is just not built for numbers. I was sobbing over a regression analysis (whatever that means) at 2am and my roommate, who's an econ major, woke up to use the bathroom, saw me crying...

Stockman, I had this exact experience with a statistics class of all things. I HATED stats. Like genuinely dreaded every class. Then we got to the unit on probability and something just... clicked. I started seeing probability everywhere. Card games, weather forecasts, my friend's questionable...

I'm taking three writing-intensive classes this semester and they all have different expectations and I'm losing my mind trying to keep track 😩. My philosophy professor wants super dense paragraphs with like complex sentences that explore every angle. My English professor wants elegant varied...

When I read Tatiana Schlossberg's essay and got to the part about her mother, I literally had to put my phone down and walk away for a bit. Because I've never seen that feeling put into words so perfectly. 😢 Schlossberg writes: "My parents and my brother and sister, too, have been raising my...

Dorm life at A&M is basically a rite of passage. I lived in Mosher my freshman year and it was chaotic, loud, and absolutely worth it. The Aggie-specific perks: Fish Camp connections deepen when you live near your new friends Late-night study sessions before exams actually help You learn the...

Thomas, let me save you some serious cash with apps and websites: Essential Student Discount Apps: UNiDAYS: Verified student discounts on brands like Apple, Nike, ASOS, Samsung Student Beans: Similar to UNiDAYS, covers clothing, food, tech ID.me: Many retailers use this for student...

People who've never done it don't understand the exhaustion. 10-hour shift, then homework until midnight, then up at 6 to do it again? Something has to give. I've used services too. Not proud, but also not ashamed. We're doing what we have to do.

Anna, I'm so jealous I could cry. 😭 I'm over here with a 74% that needs a 92% on the final just to scrape by with a C. I have been living on coffee and panic for three weeks. The thought of walking into a final with zero stress sounds like a fantasy. Genuinely happy for you, but also please send...

Okay, so this might sound a little dramatic, but hear me out. I've grown up my entire life in a family that bleeds burnt orange. Like, my dad cries during the Texas fight song, and we had a Longhorn-shaped cake at my birth. For as long as I can remember, I was supposed to go to UT. It was just...

I'm not gonna pretend I'm a serious, introspective intellectual. My brain runs on TikTok brain rot and inside jokes with my friends. So when I sat down to write my common app essay, everything that came out sounded like I was trying on my dad's suit – it just didn't fit. 😩 It was stiff, formal...

APA, MLA, Chicago—I'm used to those. But company style guides are a whole different beast. We had to analyze one for a project and it was 200 pages of rules about things I've never thought about. When to capitalize job titles. Whether to use "click" or "tap" or "select." How to write numbers...

Your professor is absolutely right—syntax is where style lives. Most students worry about word choice (diction) but ignore sentence structure entirely. But think about it: you can use the exact same words in different orders and create totally different effects. Short, simple sentences...