Friday's Fitting Farewell to International Education Week

We've had a good run this week, but it's time to say goodbye to IEW - or in the mother tongues of the Top 20 Study Abroad Destinations (Mandarin), la vista, - cheerio, arrivederci, adiós, au revoir, zai jiang'bye mate (I made that one up), hasta luego, auf wiedersehen, slán (Gaelic), hastasayonara, hasta pronto (I'm running out of Spanish ones), antio sas, totsiens (Afrikaans), na shledanou, tschüß, namaste (Hindi), nos vemos, hasta mañana, tchau!

Here's one final quiz (the toughest yet), one final article to convince you to go abroad, and one final reminder to those of you planning on studying next semester from Boston College,
Boston University, Brandeis University, Columbia University, Georgetown University, George Washington University, New York University and Villanova University:

Collegeboxes Study Abroad Storage and Shipping is the perfect solution for students spending a semester (or more!) away from campus who are wondering what to do with their stuff - using the service is as easy as 1 - 2 - 3 - check out www.collegeboxes.com for all the info you need and to sign up today!

It's Thursday, and I'm Thirsty for more International Education Week

Been breezing through the quizzes this week? Alright then, can you name the flags of the world? Yeah... me neither.

IEW on Facebook: Join the group, become a fan, or friend... it.

Want to know how you can get involved in IEW? Check out their listing of events (worldwide!) or submit your own. Planning on attending an event? Send your photos and stories to the powers-that-be at IEW - you might end up featured in their slideshow! Here's the 2008 edition:

Or, better yet, email your best study abroad pix/stories to me (avaivoda [at] collegeboxes [dot] com) and we'll get them up on the blog (trust me, getting security clearance for Collegeboxes is significantly less scary/time-consuming than the state department.)

Speaking of Collegeboxes, did you know we've got this handy little service called Study Abroad Storage and Shipping? That's right - if you're going abroad next semester and attend one of our Study Abroad schools (BC, BU, Brandeis, Columbia, Georgetown, GWU, NYU and Villanova) Collegeboxes will deal with all the stuff you've accumulated in your dorm room. It's as easy as 1 ... 2 ...

Step 3: Our movers will arrive to pick up to pick up your stuff and either ship it via UPS or store it in our secure climate-controlled facility for the spring and summer (or as long as you need!) before delivering it back to your new address on campus.

(Visit www.collegeboxes.com for all the info you need!)

Happy International Education Week Hump Day

You didn't think I'd let a day go by without a quiz, did you? Here's the last official IEW one: Physical and Cultural IQ Quiz and for the bonus round, can you guess the 24 countries that only have 5-letter names?

So where is everyone going abroad anyway? Well, according to a brand-new press release from OpenDoors, when it comes to U.S. students, 56% skip across the pond to Europe, 15% take it south of the border in Latin America, 11% explore Eastern cultures in Asia, The islands of Oceania host 5%, and another 5% study in Africa. The Middle East is the choice of 2% of students, and 6% keep the data on its toes by studying in more than one location during their tenure abroad.

The Top 20 Study Abroad Destinations Are:

1. United Kingdom
2. Italy
3. Spain
4. France
5. China
6. Australia
7. Mexico
8. Germany
9. Ireland
10. Costa Rica
11. Japan
12. Argentina
13. Greece
14. South Africa
15. Czech Republic
16. Austria
17. India
18. Ecuador
19. Chile
20. Brazil

Going to one of the top 20? Taking a road less traveled? No matter where you're going, Collegeboxes Study Abroad Storage and Shipping can solve the problem of what to do with the stuff you've accumulated on campus. Servicing Boston College, Boston University, Brandeis, Columbia, Georgetown, GWU, NYU and Villanova, Collegeboxes handles the hassle in three easy steps:

Step 2: Once you receive your supply kit, select a pickup window, pack up your belongings and enter your inventory through your online account dashboard.

(See yesterday's post for Step 1, and tomorrow for Step 3 - or cut to the chase and visit www.collegeboxes.com for all the info you need!)

International Education Week - Day Two

It's the second day of International Education Week and the party's just getting started! Let's kick it off with another quiz (or two): test your Cultural Geography IQ or if you're lists are more your style, try your hand at the most populous nations and most populous cities. Good catch, math whiz, that was three - sorry, I can't help myself.

Tuesday's Fun Fact: International education is also a vital service industry, contributing more than $15.5 billion to the U.S. economy.

It might seem like a cliche, but it's true - one of the biggest regrets many people have about their college careers is not going abroad. Those who did go? They encourage those still undecided about leaping into the unknown with a rallying cry of "Seriously - DO IT!"

I was fortunate enough to go abroad - I spent two months of a summer in Salamanca, Spain enrolled in an intensive Spanish language school to fulfill a major requirement, but I wish I'd gone for a whole semester, or even a year. The immersion aspect was great for learning, and the travel opportunities when you're already in some far-flung locale are unbeatable.















(Me in Italy - a trip I'm so glad I squeezed in / Me (left) gettin' some schoolin')

But don't take my word for it - Here are a plethora of articles about why you should go:
- Top 10 Reasons to Study Abroad
- Considering the Reasons to Study Abroad - For Dummies
- Why Study Abroad?

Already made up your mind to study abroad? Great! In Spring 2010? Even better! As mentioned yesterday, Collegeboxes offers Study Abroad Storage and Shipping at Boston College, Boston University, Brandeis, Columbia, Georgetown, GWU, NYU and Villanova, making move-out easy as pie.

Step 1: Log onto www.collegeboxes.com, select Study Abroad Storage and Shipping, and order for Collegeboxes services at your school - we'll send you a supply kit, complete with boxes and packing materials.

Tune in tomorrow for Step 2 (or if the suspense is killing you, head to the Collegeboxes site to get the full run-down and sign up!)

Let's Kick Off International Education Week Right!

Guess what -- It's International Education Week! This joint initiative between the U.S. Departments of State and Education is all about "celebrating and promoting international educational exchange" and the Collegeboxes team is looking to get in on the fun, so I'll be posting interesting tidbits, lists, and the like related to studying abroad all week.

Full disclosure: I'm a self-professed geography nerd who's been known to dominate a late-night state-capital-off or two, so maybe it's just me, but I love stuff like this Continent IQ Quiz. Too elementary, you say? This brain buster will have you sayin' uncle in no time (or 15 minutes to be exact).

Monday's Fun Fact: According to Open Doors, 241,791 U.S. students studied abroad in 2006/07, and 623,805 international students from over 200 countries studied in the U.S. in 2007/08.

Are you one or a friend of the hundreds of thousands of U.S. Students going abroad next year? Feeling a little lost about to do with all your stuff once you ship out?

Collegeboxes offers Study Abroad Storage and Shipping - the easiest way to deal with the hassle of a mid-year move out - at the following schools:
Boston College, Boston University, Brandeis University, Columbia University, Georgetown University, George Washington University, New York University, and Villanova University
We pick up your stuff at the end of the semester and either ship it home via UPS or store it for the spring and summer (or as long as you'll be away from school), and then redeliver it to your new address when you return.

Seriously, it's that easy! Check out the website for more information on Collegeboxes Study Abroad Services and give yourself one less thing to worry about!

Happy Birthday Barcode

It's time we showed the hardest working optical machine-readable representation of data a little love - Happy 57th birthday barcode! The internet is abuzz with interesting tidbits about those black-and-white stripes after Google commemorated the occasion on their main page today. The two birthdays they considered noteworthy last week were those of Confucius and Ghandi, so at the very least, the humble barcode is in very good Google holiday logo company.

Now, some of you might wonder why I'm getting so giddy about a stack of little black lines - question my sincerity even - but barcodes are pretty important here at Collegeboxes. We've developed an awesome system (if I do say so myself) that uses barcodes to track customers' inventory, manage containerized storage, keep up-to-date with on-campus crews' locations during pick-up and delivery windows, and just in general provide the most streamlined, transparent service in the business.

When a student uses Collegeboxes, they log on to their online account management dashboard to create and print labels with barcodes, which are scanned four times - when Collegeboxes picks up their stuff, when (and where!) they are put into storage, when they are loaded for delivery, and when they are delivered - and each scan is visible to the student through their online dashboard.

So celebrate barcodes - and the extra level of security and peace-of-mind they bring to Collegeboxes - by reading about the rise of the barcode, checking out some barcode portraits (and barcoding yourself!), reminiscing about the allure of that twinkly red laser, or creating your own barcode.

Attention time-crunched news junkies

Wishing you could keep current but so busy juggling school, work, and a social life that you can barely spare a minute to sleep? Make quick work of the headlines with Google Fast Flip. Another handy application from Google Labs (we featured the laughable-until-it-saves-you-from-firing-off-a-3am-rant Mail Goggles earlier this year), this clean and simple news aggregate lets you catch up between classes with little more than the click of a mouse.

Skim through screen-grabs of popular articles (and click through to read the full text) sorted as "Recent" or "Most Viewed" or filter by section, topic, or source. A cheat-sheet to what's up in the world (or politics, or sports, or entertainment), Google Fast Flip is a painless way to stay informed.

Politics across the pond

This summer, I am going to London to intern for the British Parliament as part of a study abroad program offered by my university, The Catholic University of America. Obviously I will be using Collegeboxes for both storage and shipping for my things after school ends and I am on a plane to Heathrow. As I will be spending the summer in merry ol' England, I decided it was best to research on the British political system. What surprised me the most is the difference between the political campaign process between theirs and our own American brand. Where our airwaves are blanketed for months with campaign ads and attack spots, the British system forbids any television or radio advertisements by a party's nominee. The process itself only takes place between when the Prime Minister and Queen dissolve Parliament and when it is reinstated, a length of only a few months. When tens of millions of dollars are donated to campaigns by individuals and companies for a hockey season worth of campaigning, how much of that money would find its way into better pockets or to better causes if our own sycophantic electoral process was shortened to a Congressional recess? Of course, they still also have a monarch ruling over decaying empire, so what do they really know anyway? Despite our own faults, we'll always have Yorktown.

- John

Catholic University Campus Manager

Rent your textbooks and save some green

Earlier this semester I was doing my usual routine of reading several blogs and I ran into a story about a website called chegg.com. It was featured on the Cheapskate blog, and I figured anything that can help me save some money on my ridiculously overpriced textbooks had to be a good thing. I checked out the website and Chegg allows you to rent your textbooks instead of buying them and helps you save some serious green - both the environment and some cash. They even plant a tree for every book you rent from them. At the end of the quarter, trimester, semester, or year you just send your textbooks back with prepaid postage and part ways with those textbooks forever!

- Scott
Emory University Campus Manager

What's Happening in DC

Hi Everyone!!! With the new president and all the crazy things happening in the world it seems that DC has become buzzing with activity (even more so than before!). And even though I am somewhat crippled with a broken foot and can't do a lot of the things doesn't mean they aren't still happening! Right now, the best thing is the Cherry Blossom Festival! Flowers are already blooming in DC and once a year the cherry blossoms are so outstanding that people come from all around the world to see them! There is a big parade and a TON of people!!!

Other than that I am glad to be moving into spring and summer! This summer I am (hopefully...foot healing permitting) heading off to Hong Kong to study for five weeks then back to Boston to work. It will be good to get out of that DC humidity!!!

Lia

Give your music some Mojo

We all know iTunes. It kicks some serious tush. Everything from the basic organization abilities to the latest and greatest genius feature makes it easy to see why its so popular.

Unfortunately however, not all of us can afford to purchase all the music that we want off iTunes. This lead us to all of those crazy peer-to-peer sites. Don't get me wrong, they are great, but the viruses and crappy quality that go along with them eventually get old. Torrents are great too, but if you live in a place with a network (HELLO DORM KIDS?!) I am about to change your life. Change it, without stopping the use of iTunes.

Its called Mojo. Once you've loaded it, it comes up on your screen similar to a buddy list. All the people on that list, are people currently online who also have Mojo. When you click on their username, you see their itunes. Best part is, not only can you see it, but you can take it. Yes take it. All of it. There are privacy settings to keep people from taking personal music/videos/etc, so don't worry about keeping your latest recording safe. It also locks music purchased on itunes as well (if they bought it, you have to too), but aside from that its all available.

Spread the word on your campus, dorm, apartment building, wherever. Just get it moving, and once it starts, the gigabytes pile up and you are loving your ipod more than you have in your entire life. Personally, it took about 3 weeks to get popular in my dorm (with almost 600 people living here), and it took one week to add over 4 thousand songs to my own library. Its easy to share with friends too, especially considering you can see individual playlists.

And yes ladies and gents, its free:
Mojo - Deusty Designs

Peace, Love, Rock and Roll
-Kaitlyn Hope Polles
your friendly School of the Art Institute of Chicago's campus manager

Campus Manager of the YEAR….Daytona here I COME!

Yep. It was I. She is me. I am Her. I was this year’s Collegeboxes Campus Manager of the Year. Just FYI, I NEVER win anything (lol). So you can only image my surprise when I received just a great honor (Total Shock!!) With my reward, I when to DAYTONA BEACH!!! Fun times. Four of my friends as well as myself traveled to a place where the sun was warm and the days never ended…..or we never slept….the line between the two got kind of blurry. Any “whoo” it was a much need break from chemistry and biology. I had an AMAZING time and I want to THANK Collegeboxes again for sponsoring my spring break event~! Thanks guys! Well for now ttyl :)

-Chastidy

Back and better than ever

Whether you're just tuning in or have been eagerly anticipating our return, allow me to (re)introduce the new and improved official blog of Collegeboxes "Inside the Box"! We've revamped the look and changed the way we're doing things around here, so check back often for updates from the Collegeboxes marketing team and our Campus Managers from the school we service across the country.

My name is Anna Vaivoda and I'm the Director of Marketing here at Collegeboxes HQ in Woburn, MA (about 15 minutes outside of Boston). Raised in a tiny town called Skaneateles in the Finger Lakes region of Upstate New York, I studied creative writing at Johns Hopkins and will always have a soft spot of Charm City, home of the world's greatest sandwich - the Baltimore Club is a jumbo lump crabcake with bacon on a kaiser roll. I enjoy any sport/activity that gets me outside (climbing trees, pick-up whiffleball games, whatever), live music, long roadtrips, and laughing at my own jokes.

That being said, friends, family, coworkers, and complete strangers often remind me I'm not quite as funny as I think I am. So this spring, we'll be turning over the reins to our charming, clever, ceaselessly talented Campus Managers (no pressure guys)! Hopefully their posts (about stuff other than CB business) will be interesting and entertaining enough to keep you coming back for more - I'll chime in now and then, but I think it will be pretty cool to see what 40+ college kids from Boston to Miami to San Francisco have to bring to the table.

So bookmark this page and then head over to www.collegeboxes.com to find out if we offer any of our awesome services on your campus. Trust me - when it's finals week and your parents don't have to rent a truck, take a day off work, book a hotel and hover over your shoulder nagging you about your sweater-packing technique - you'll thank me.

School of the Month: UMiami

We're starting a new trend here on Inside the Box. Each month I will profile one of the schools we service at Collegeboxes. I will highlight basic information so you can learn more about each school. January's school of the month is The University of Miami.

Founded: 1925
Location: Coral Gables, Florida . . . only 20 minutes from South Beach!
Enrollment: 9,500 undergraduate, 5,000 graduate
Endowment: $741 million
US News & World Report ranking: 51
Athletics: Football team won the BCS championship in 2001.
Notable Alumni: Sylvester Stallone ('99), Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson ('95), Suzy Kolber ('86), Gloria Estefan ('78)

Bottom Line: A gorgeous campus decorated with palms trees, just minutes from the beach. Life doesn't get much better than that for a college student.

Customer Survey Grand Prize Winner

We would like to congratulate Camille from NYU (pictured above) for winning the grand prize of $250 for the customer survey drawing. All customers who responded to our delivery survey were automatically entered in the contest. Congrats Camille!

Cost of Living Abroad

So I was surfing the net the other day and came across some interesting things related to living abroad. We all know that student spending must be monitored, especially in this economy. The cost of living in your study abroad location can be an important factor for many students. Every month, the U.S. Department of State publishes per diem allowances for government employees traveling abroad. They post allowed lodging and meal/incidental costs in USD per day for each worker. While the per diem allowances posted are over-priced for a student budget, much can be inferred from the relative price ranking of each city.

Below are the rankings of most expensive and least expensive cities to study abroad in (I only ranked cities that are potential study abroad destinations). Any surprises? I thought London would be top 5! And who thought Oxford was cheap? These rankings were determined based on highest and lowest per diem allowances allowed by the State Department (http://aoprals.state.gov/web920/per_diem.asp):

Most Expensive Cities

1. Tokyo
2. Rome
3. Venice
4. Paris
5. Dublin
6. Amsterdam
7. Geneva
8. Copenhagen
9. Florence
10. London
11. Hong Kong
15. Athens
19. Moscow
20. Tel Aviv
22. Galway, Ireland
24. Sydney

Least Expensive Cities

1. Buenos Aires
2. Lima, Peru
3. Phnom, Penh, Cambodia
4. Budapest
5. Christchurch, New Zealand
6. Cape Town, South Africa
7. Sao Paulo, Brazil
8. San Jose, Costa Rica
9. Oxford
10. Beijing
11. Mexico City
12. Panama City

Anyway, if you need to store your stuff while abroad, it's not too late! Sign up before December 10th and receive 5% off your storage costs. Just go to www.collegeboxes.com and enter promo code: ABROAD5

Top Study Abroad Destinations

Check out where students have been studying recently:
Top 10 Destinations for U.S. Students Studying Abroad
Data source: IIENetwork's OpenDoors 2005: Report on International Educational Exchange.

Country, # of students in 2003/04
1. United Kingdom, 32,237
2. Italy, 21,922
3. Spain, 20,080
4. France, 13,718
5. Australia, 11,418
6. Mexico, 9,293
7. Germany, 5,985
8. Ireland, 5,198
9. China, 4,737
10. Costa Rica, 4,510

Sign up for Study Abroad Shipping and Storage before November 20th and receive 15% off. Use promo code: ABROAD15

Survey Sweepstakes Winners!

Thank you to everyone who completed our annual 'We Are Listening' fall customer survey. It is my pleasure to announce the winners of the prize drawing:

Grand Prize Winner: Camille, NYU

Prize Winners:
Daniela, Georgetown
Lauren, George Washington
Barbara, NYU
Nora, Boston University
Emily, Holy Cross

Congratulations guys!

Twinkie-eating contest

Last week was the first annual Store to Door / Collegeboxes twinkie-eating contest. Contestants ate as many twinkies as possible in 5 minutes. Pat was the winner with 13 twinkies eaten. I came in second with 12 twinkies. My strategy was to dip the twinkies in milk to soften them and consume them as quickly as possible. I held the lead with 2 minutes remaining, but Pat soon overtook me. Try it out with your friends and send me the results. Can you beat 13 twinkies in 5 minutes?



I'm at the front left.

Mail Goggles

The geniuses at google have once again come up with a useful tool that some college students may appreciate. Mail Goggles can prevent you from sending those potentially harmful emails in an inebriated state. When this service is activated, you will be required to answer a few simple math questions to continue sending your emails. Check it out, it may help you prevent some regretful emails.