Like I mentioned, I'm not one to accomplish "online" shopping. I don't even have a credit card (or a driver's license, but let's not go down there, k?).
I don't blame you, since I know plenty of students that can't even drive and/or do not own a credit card. I'll admit - I don't have a credit card (well...I do have a debit card, but I never even used it once), so it's usually either my dad or my oldest brother that does the online shopping. I'm one of the students that takes the bus to my campus (thank god for free transit).
I've only bought 2 games this year (Kinetica[PS2] at EBGames for about $10, and GhostBusters: The Video Game at Rogers Video for about $20). In fact, the reason I decided to softmod my Wii was to enable me to "play" games I'd like to try out, but know it would cost me quite a sum to actually buy them. However, I do plan on buying them eventually; it's just not a priority at the moment.
Sadly, I don't own a Wii, so knowledge for someone like me that doesn't own a Wii is very limited. In terms of buying, as usual, take your time...pursue other higher priorities and come back to your lower priorities when the time comes. The only game that I bought this year, really, is Platinum (well, it was obvious anyway), but yeah.
I'll admit, I'm rather enjoying my College experience. It's not at all like anything I've ever been to. It's like school, but you have 1 class per day (which is unusual for me, having always had 1 day per class. And I've been used to this for my whole life. So imagine my surprise when I found this out).
In college life, it's pretty much anything goes, since it's their 'preference'. When I was in community college, I mainly took two classes every day (except Friday) in almost all the semesters I attended there, barring the last two, in which I had class every Mondays-Fridays. Now that I'm in a 4-year university, in the latest quarter I finished, I took one class on Mondays and Wednesdays, and two classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Workload's not really that bad, but even then, the exams compared to the ones I took in community college are even more intimidating, but hey - it's a 4-year university.
Also, due to how my program works, each of my exams is mostly a "hand on" assignment. In fact, I have a Flash exam on Friday, and 2 3DS Max 10 models also due for Friday (one of them is an assignment, the other is our actual exam). I'll admit, Game Development is a deceptively tricky course, but the thing is, if you don't apply yourself to it, it just drags (only 1 class I've done this, and for some reason I can't for the life of me figure out why...).
If I remember correctly, in classes where multiple computers are present (e.g. art classes, like Photoshop and Flash, as you mentioned), most of the exams are 'hands on', while the usual lecture classes (where the classroom only consists of desks) involve the usual multiple-choice exams. As I mentioned, I took an art class in which the classroom is full of Macs. There were no textbooks or exams when I took it...after all, it's an art class. I think I'll go ahead and assume that Flash falls under the 'Art' category, but then again, that's just me.
Also, for that "rate my teacher" site, I decided to try that for fun. Seems like I'm not the only one who has the same impression for this one teacher (ironically, he's the guy who apparently "set up" the entire program. Which... I have no idea how to put that kindly. He's not a bad guy, or mean, but he has a near sarcastic and "I know you probably know this, but pretend you don't" type attitude. It's very hard to describe. I need a good comparison of someone else for this to make sense). Every other one of my teachers are fun and genuinely great. Some are a bit more serious (which, for them, is kind of what makes them better teachers), while others know how to be fun, yet keep to the "truthfulness" of what they're saying.
Everyone has their own perspectives about a 'certain' teacher. There's this statistics teacher I took, and from other people's perspectives, they were insatiable with the teacher, since she gets mad when students ask her questions. To me, I didn't seem to find her that bad, but that's just my perspective. I did, however, know who in my class posted a negative comment on her reviews on ratemyprofessors.com. But then again, choose your poison. If a class becomes full before you could even get a chance to register...that pretty much negates your chances of survival in the upcoming future quarter/semester (it's happened to me already...and I don't think I'll survive my next quarter because of the crappy professors).
And the strangest thing is (maybe you can explain it for me), I find I'm actually more hungry here, than I am at home when I visit. It's very strange, and I don't quite know why.
This is probably me, but I just never eat...even the entire time I'm in campus. At least this is a good way for me to save money, and I'm not willing to pay $4 for a slice of pizza. Even my friends are aware that I hardly ever eat, so from time to time, they just order food for me, even though I didn't want it, but they forced me to eat it anyway, so I didn't really have that much of a choice, do I? How was I able to survive a long period of time without eating? Some family problem I went through 4 years ago... But really...you might just want to bring your own food - saves up money that way.
In terms of student loans, I find the timing of them a bit... strange. My first one came the second week of September on a Friday (I was in class by Wednseday, but it was just an introductory section), and the next one comes on the first week of January (the 4th, which I learned this afternoon). The problem comes when I'll be gone for all 3 weeks of my Christmas/New Years holiday, and won't be back till the second week. And I'm going to have to pay my January rent. I'll have my money on time, it's just going to be awkward to pay the guy who I'm renting the apartment room for a bit later than usual (but I've paid all my other months on time, and a good portion of the people in this apartment also go to either a College or University). Guess I'll figure this out when the time comes.
<C_L>
So I take it you go by the quarter system? Anyway, well...since I don't live in the dorms, I can't really say much about it, but I do live a couple miles away from the campus. Honestly, I've never actually paid rent, but it'll soon become an inevitable moment for me one of these days. Like all the smart money decision-makers, spend your money wisely.
(I doubt anyone else other than you would read this post, since this post is most likely
tl;dr, but if someone else is reading this post and that's the case, then skip this post.)
