Today's Friday Whip
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JOE WITTE, announcer: TODAY'S FRIDAY WHIP is brought to you by...
DAVID GREGORY, co-host:
Back now at 8:18 with TODAY'S FRIDAY WHIP. It's time to head back to school and for high school graduates that means starting a whole new chapter in life, this time in college.
ANN CURRY, co-host:
That's right. So we've assembled four experts, all currently students or recent graduates to offer insight on everything to what to bring to how to study.
And first up we've got Scott Gamm, he's a sophomore at New York University Stern School of Business and the founder of helpsavemydollars.com.
Scott, good morning to you.
Mr. SCOTT GAMM (Founder, helpsavemydollars.com): Ann, good morning.
CURRY: First up, credit cards. How many do our students need in college?
Mr. GAMM: Only one. A lot of students will open up three or four credit cards, it's way too many and you want to think about this credit card as a way to build good credit and not as a way to extend your spending habits.
CURRY: OK. Meantime, we would hope that people would keep track of their spending habits, but can we really expect that of our college students?
Mr. GAMM: Well, with the iPhone you can. There's a great app, the ABUKAI app. It allows you to take a picture of the receipt after making a purchase in the store. The app will store that data, allowing you to easily track your expenses.
CURRY: OK. And what should parents say to their students, to their kids about finances? How serious a talk and what should be said?
Mr. GAMM: It's very serious. You always want to ask your kids how much are they spending on coffee or at restaurants. You also want to remind them to pay their bills on time. I think it's really important to have that open dialogue.
CURRY: OK. Meantime, you've got a new way to save money on textbooks because they can be very expensive.
Mr. GAMM: Exactly. You can rent textbooks on amazon.com on your Kindle, save about 80 percent, or the Textbooks app for the iPad has over 100,000 textbooks.
CURRY: OK. And you can save a significant amount of money that way?
Mr. GAMM: Exactly. Thirty to 50 percent off by getting them on your iPad.
CURRY: Meantime, you actually say that the beginning of college is the time to start saving for retirement.
Mr. GAMM: And it sounds crazy to think about something so far away, but as you get older, yes, your income increases, but your expenses also increase, so you want to make sure that you take advantage of your youth. Start putting 15 or $20 a month into that Roth IRA retirement account. You'll benefit from the compounding interest and watch your money grow.
CURRY: Scott Gamm, taking advantage of his own youth. Congratulations and thank you so much. I predict you will go far.
Mr. GAMM: Thank you.
CURRY: It is now 7 or 8:20. Now here's David.
GREGORY: Thank you, Ann. The bell is ringing. We have to get right to it.
What to bring to your door room--dorm room, rather. Victoria Reitano is the managing editor of universitychic.com and a 2010 graduate of Quinnipiac University.
Victoria, good morning.
Ms. VICTORIA REITANO (Managing Editor, universitychic.com): Good morning.
GREGORY: So you've got the emergency essentials. For me it was my kindergarten lunch box which my dorm room mate thought was a little weird, but I did it, anyway. What's on your emergency list?
Ms. REITANO: Well, these are great because you really can't make any holes in the walls so double stick tape and Command hooks are essential.
GREGORY: OK.
Ms. REITANO: And then all of this stuff is really just to have in case of, you know, batteries...
GREGORY: Batteries, surge protectors...
Ms. REITANO: Right, for your gadgets.
GREGORY: ...good if you're plugging in 47 different things.
Ms. REITANO: Right, exactly.
TEXT:
Dorm Room Essentials
Pack handy tools and supplies for repairs, decorating and emergencies
GREGORY: All right, space becomes an issue to hang up all your clothes that you're bringing.
Ms. REITANO: Yes.
GREGORY: Maybe you could bring a little bit less, that might be a good idea.
Ms. REITANO: Well, if you want to be a fashionista, you have to bring a lot.
GREGORY: Yeah, that's true.
TEXT:
Dorm Room Essentials
Multiple hangers, clothes valet and storage boxes work for clothes storage
Ms. REITANO: So you know, the personal valet from clothesracks.com is really great because it lets you store a bunch of hangers with a bunch of different things.
TEXT:
Dorm Room Essentials
Double laundry bag stand $29.99 containerstore.com
GREGORY: This is good. And I have actually have these--incidentally, I also have these pants, which is nice.
Ms. REITANO: I like these.
GREGORY: Yeah. They're terrific.
Ms. REITANO: You could use your necklaces on there, too, so.
GREGORY: So.
Ms. REITANO: It's great.
TEXT:
Dorm Room Essentials
Travel steam iron $35.00 brookstone.com
GREGORY: This is a steamer.
Ms. REITANO: Mm-hmm.
GREGORY: Which could really come in handy.
Ms. REITANO: Yes. It's really great because my mom hates when I'm wrinkled, so you know.
GREGORY: Right.
Ms. REITANO: Then I look really great all the time...(unintelligible).
GREGORY: Well, especially to the young guys that you actually don't have to look that bad when you go to something formal, so you can use the steamer.
Ms. REITANO: Exactly.
GREGORY: This is good.
Ms. REITANO: Yeah. It lets you bring your dirty laundry home to your mom and it's kind of colorful, so it keeps it, you know, nice in your dorm room.
GREGORY: Right.
Ms. REITANO: And you don't bother your roommates.
TEXT:
Dorm Room Essentials
Bed bug resistant storage bags $14.99 and up bugzip.com
GREGORY: And it wouldn't be going to college if you didn't have to worry about bedbugs, which is actually a serious thing that's moving on to college campuses now.
Ms. REITANO: Yes. Absolutely.
TEXT:
Dorm Room Essentials
Bed risers $9.99 walmart.com
GREGORY: So what is it we've got here? This seems like a lot of protection.
Ms. REITANO: Yeah. But when we're at, you know, at universitychic.com everybody talks about keeping away homesickness, so we recommend bringing your own private blankets and stuff like that. So you want to store them in a BugZip bedbug bag because it can go underneath the bed in these--with these risers, you can lift your bed and then the bags keep your mattresses clear from bedbugs.
GREGORY: And you've got some extra storage.
Ms. REITANO: Mm-hmm.
GREGORY: And you just have to worry that it doesn't get off balance.
Ms. REITANO: Exactly.
TEXT:
Dorm Room Essentials
iHome clock radio $49.99 ihome.com
GREGORY: And here you've got the iHome thing. This is actually an alarm clock so you actually get up for class.
Ms. REITANO: Yes.
GREGORY: Assuming that's something you intend to do.
Ms. REITANO: Yes, yes, yes. To make your 8 AM classes. And you kind of should give out earplugs if you're going to use this in your dorm room for your roommates.
GREGORY: All right. Victoria, thank you very much.
Ms. REITANO: Thank you.
GREGORY: I think the bell might actually begin to ring, now here's Savannah.
SAVANNAH GUTHRIE reporting:
All right, David, thank you. There's that bell.
You know, you can't go to college these days without a computer. Sharon Vaknin, a 2011 San Francisco State University graduate is also a cnet.com columnist and also a techie.
Sharon, good morning.
Ms. SHARON VAKNIN (Columnist, Cnet.com): Yes. Good morning.
GUTHRIE: So you have to bring a computer. You don't need a super expensive one. The first one is the Portege from Toshiba.
Ms. VAKNIN: The Portege.
GUTHRIE: Why do you like it?
TEXT:
College Bound Computers
Toshiba Portege $800.00 toshibadirect.com
Ms. VAKNIN: There are three things I look for in a laptop. Is it affordable, is it light, and does it have a long battery life? Yes. This computer's also a great multitasker so you can do all of your work and not worrying about it crashing. And it has a 13-inch screen, so you can watch your movies when you're done studying at the end of the day.
GUTHRIE: And you say you wouldn't go any bigger than a 13-inch screen?
Ms. VAKNIN: I would not go any bigger than that.
GUTHRIE: OK. The next one is a little bit cheaper and you say this is for basically what you need to do in college, write essays, surf the Internet, this is fine.
TEXT:
College Bound Computers
HP Pavilion DM1Z $400.00 hp.com
Ms. VAKNIN: Right. So this is your poster child for a budget computer. It's $500. And perfect for students in those first two years who need to do basic word processing, research, and note taking in class. It's 11 inches, really compact and it won't weigh you down when you're running around campus.
GUTHRIE: All right. Now if you have a little more money, you can buy the MacBook Air. I have this computer. When I opened it, I didn't know if I should turn it on or hug it, it's so cute.
TEXT:
College Bound Computers
Apple MacBook Air $949.00 apple.com
Ms. VAKNIN: It is very cute.
GUTHRIE: Why do you like this computer?
Ms. VAKNIN: Well, first of all, a MacBook got me through college and it's very reliable. So when you're juggling 20 projects, trying to meet deadlines, it's important to have a computer that will--is a workhorse and that's the MacBook Air. It's very thin, but it does have a long battery life. So it'll last you all day.
GUTHRIE: Some people think they could use an iPad 2. Could this work for college? I mean, could you really write an essay on this?
TEXT:
College Bound Computers
Apple iPad 2 $500.00 apple.com
Ms. VAKNIN: Yeah. You totally could. It has a big enough work space that you can write essays, there are apps for that.
GUTHRIE: Yeah.
Ms. VAKNIN: You can take notes and you can do your research on this. Not for the graphic design student.
GUTHRIE: OK.
Ms. VAKNIN: Not for the science student, though.
GUTHRIE: All right. An app to write your essays, that sounds good. Sharon Vaknin, thank you.
Now here's Natalie.
NATALIE MORALES, anchor:
All right. Thank you, Savannah.
Last but not least, how to study and get those good grades. Donna Kim is currently a student at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism.
Donna, good morning.
Ms. DONNA KIM (Student, Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism): Good morning.
MORALES: So only you and you alone are in charge of your schedule. So how do you make the most out of scheduling your classes so that you don't end up on that five-year plan or plus?
Ms. KIM: Right. Well, the difference between high school is that they have a fixed schedule. So in college you can pick and choose what you want to do.
MORALES: Mm-hmm.
Ms. KIM: So for me I like to allocate my time two to three days a week, back-to-back classes. So the rest of the week...
MORALES: Load up.
Ms. KIM: Yes, load up. That was just what worked for me. So I had the rest of the week where I could intern and get a part-time job and had other days just solely dedicated to studying.
MORALES: And of course, important to go to class, unlike David Gregory said.
Ms. KIM: Very important.
MORALES: Exactly.
Ms. KIM: Right.
MORALES: And you say when you do that, you want to also make sure you take good notes.
Ms. KIM: It's very important to take good notes because lectures can be hours and hours long and it sometimes feels like you're trapped in there forever. So make that note process a lot more easy...
MORALES: Mm-hmm.
Ms. KIM: ...by getting the right school supplies. Like she said, computers and...
MORALES: Being organized.
Ms. KIM: Exactly. And so it just makes that note taking process a lot easier.
MORALES: OK, now exam time, what's the best way to study, because everybody has a different system.
Ms. KIM: Well, go on a social networking diet, is what I like to say.
MORALES: OK.
Ms. KIM: So send your last tweet, your last Facebook update and just say, `You know what, it's time to study for finals and midterms.' And surround yourself with study groups. And make sure that everyone you surround yourself with is going to support you with what you're going to be doing.
MORALES: And quickly, if you...
Ms. KIM: Exactly.
MORALES: ...are going to class, doing all of that, one important thing that you definitely want to have.
Ms. KIM: The syllabus is your best friend. In high school, you get blindsided sometimes with pop quizzes and assignments that are just thrown under.
MORALES: Mm-hmm.
Ms. KIM: And so in college, they have it right there for you. So you're well prepared and there's really no excuse why you won't have anything done on time.
MORALES: All right. Donna Kim, great advice.
Ms. KIM: Thank you.
MORALES: Thanks and good luck with that degree.
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