Blog Posts

Mountaineer Football Tailgating Tips and Tricks-image

School is finally back in session and that means Mountaineer Football is back. We’re so excited to get into the season and cheer our team on! You’re going to be doing a lot of tailgating over the next few months. You need to be prepared because WVU tailgating is on another level. We’ve rounded up the best tips and tricks for having the best tailgating experience ever! For your table, you want something to keep the crumbs and mess off of the table while still looking festive for your team. Find a navy or bright yellow fitted bed sheet and put it on your table the same way you would stretch it across your bed. The fitted edges keep the sheet flat and stuck to the table when the wind blows. When you’re done tailgating, just gather it up, dump all of the crumbs into the trash and toss it in the wash. You can sport your colors and keep your tables clean at the same time. If you can never find your cups and utensils, keep a behind the door shoe organizer and stick your essentials in there. It keeps them all in one place and keeps them clean at the same time. Hang your organizer from the top of your canopy tent so everyone knows where it’s at. For those who aren’t tailgating out of their own car and are meeting friends, it might be a while until you can track them down. You don’t want to have to carry around your cooler full of drinks and snacks. Make sure you have a cooler with wheels so you’re not lugging it around from Pierpont all the way to your parking lot of choice. If you have a little money to spare, the Coolest Cooler is the ultimate tailgating accessory. It comes with a built-in blender, bluetooth speaker, bottle opener and tons more. If you want to get really into it, you need a football shaped cheeseball . Carve out the shape and then cover that baby in pepperoni. Your tailgating guests will love it if there is still any left after you get your paws on it. Tailgating at a WVU Mountaineer game is an experience you won’t get anywhere else. We’re all a part of the football family here and we welcome all to the tailgate! For information on WVU’s tailgating and parking for the games, check here . What are your favorite tailgate memories? Make sure to share them with us on Facebook and Twitter.

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A Crash Course in Conquering 8 AM’s-image

If you weren’t a morning person in high school, chances are that you’re not going to be a morning person in college either. 8 AM just doesn’t exist on your clock. Unfortunately, a lot of students get saddled with early morning classes and the adjustment to the early hour takes its toll. There are some ways of getting your brain and your body to settle into a new routine but it takes a little bit of work. Here are some tips for becoming the ultimate morning person: Get Your Z’s Earlier First things first, you’re going to have to start going to bed earlier. Getting to bed earlier allows you to wake up earlier but something like that doesn’t just happen overnight. Give yourself some time to adjust to the change by setting your alarm and your bedtime back just 5 minutes every day. The slow move backwards won’t shock your system and allow you to acclimate gradually rather than setting your alarm back an hour all at once. Get Into The Groove Set yourself up a morning routine so that you don’t have to think too hard about what you need to do next to get yourself out the door. So, even on the days when your body is trying to give up and you can barely keep your eyes open, your feet will still shuffle you in the direction you need to go. If you have to, set yourself a specific task that you have to complete in the morning, like hitting Pierpont’s fitness center before breakfast. The app Morning Routine times exactly how long each of your tasks take and then sets you up a schedule with timers to make sure you’re completing everything at the pace you should be. Start The Day Before You Fall Asleep If you’ve ever been rushing to get ready in the morning, you know how frustrating it can be to have to find an appropriate outfit before you rush out the door. Instead, get everything ready before you fall asleep the night before. Being able to wake up and throw your outfit on without thinking about it is a great feeling. Waking up early sucks. There’s no other way to slice it. You can make it a little easier on yourself though. Follow these tips and you can become a morning person in no time.

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Fall Concert Series in Morgantown-image

You might not think that Morgantown is exactly a hub for live music and musical performances. That’s mostly true but West Virginia University and a few others are trying to change the game. More and more artists and music acts have been coming through Motown to play for us that we’re starting to think we might actually be a bit of a music center. Here’s what acts are coming to Morgantown this fall. Brad Paisley is making a pitstop at West Virginia University Friday, September 9th for a concert in the Brown Parking Lot of the West Virginia University Law School. The best part? The concert is free! Paisley is a West Virginia native so he’s coming home to celebrate the Mountaineers. His song Country Nation even name-drops the Mountaineers! We can’t wait to see fellow West Virginian Brad Paisley perform. We’re sure that by now you’ve heard the song Wagon Wheel. You might not know that it was made famous by Old Crow Medicine Show . They’re coming to West Virginia University’s Creative Arts Center for a show on Tuesday, September 13th and tickets are only $23 for WVU students. September 30th brings with it Sammy Adams and C-Trox for a stop on the Long Way Tour. They’ll be performing at Mainstage Morgantown which is only a 6 minute drive away from Pierpont Place . Get your $20 tickets from Mainstage Morgantown here . If those artists aren’t your speed, West Virginia University is also hosting a performance of the nationally touring STOMP . The eight member performance group uses everything but actual percussion instruments to create their music. This is the same show that people are seeing on Broadway and West Virginia University students can pay $23 to see it! Don’t miss out on this opportunity. The show stomps into town October 25th. It’s easy to indulge in all of the musical acts coming through Morgantown when you’re a West Virginia University student. Which acts are you most looking forward to? Let us know on Facebook and Twitter.

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Setting the Tone for an Amazing Semester-image

Image courtesy of Pixabay So, now that you’re back to school that’s it, right? You can just coast through and get great grades. Sadly, no. You have work to do! The first few weeks are crucial as they’ll set the tone for the rest of your semester. There are a couple of things that you need to hammer out before the semester really starts. Stake Your Claim Find a study area that suits your needs. You’ll spend a lot of your precious time studying. Whether you need complete quiet or background noise, you have to find a spot that fits your study style. Find an off campus coffee shop with quiet background conversations, a busy dining area so you can snack while you study, or a silent corner of the library. Make sure that wherever you choose is the best place for you to study at. If you can’t find the perfect study spot for you, there’s always Pierpont’s reservable study room to hide out in. You can keep away from the crowds and listen to your favorite study playlist out loud if that’s what helps you get in the zone. Stock Up Obviously, you’ll need furniture for your apartment but it’s important to stock up on other things so you’re not worrying about running out for something you’ve forgotten every day. Choose a Saturday and make a trip where you vow to get everything you’re going to need. Forgot a shower curtain liner? Grab it. Didn’t bring your favorite chips? Get them. Stock up on some healthy frozen meals for nutrition on the go. It’s much better than instant noodles or microwave macaroni and cheese. Find Your Zen Once the semester really kicks into high gear, you’re going to be busy nonstop. From group meetings to homework to part-time jobs, you’ll have a lot on your plate for the foreseeable future. You need a tried and true method for unwinding. Even if it’s something small like a hot mug of tea, if it helps, you’ll probably need it at some point this semester. Try venting your frustrations at the fitness center or one of the crossfit gyms around town like Crossfit Ridgeline . Find a bench in a secluded part of town and dedicate 30 minutes to just sitting in peace. Whatever helps you find your peace of mind and realign is what you need. The first couple of weeks are usually a blur but if you approach them with a good attitude and preparation, you can set a good tone for the rest of the semester. Do you have any first-week tips that help you get back into the swing of things? Share them with us on Facebook and Twitter.

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Movies That Lied To Us About College-image

Leaving high school behind was probably a frightening but exciting experience. We knew college was going to be a different world than our small town high schools but how exactly? You’ve probably watched tons of movies and TV shows that depicted kids going off to colleges and living the life. Did it turn out for you the way it looked on TV? Probably not. A lot of shows and movies portray college differently than we actually experience it. But what exactly have they lied about? Accepted (2009) Accepted is a prime example of “Do Not Try This At Home.” The movie is about a group of kids who don’t get into the colleges they applied to so instead, they create their own college. While their fake college certainly seems like fun with classes like “The Rise and Fall of Chevy Chase” and “Walking Around Thinking About Stuff”, the point of college is to learn valuable skills and knowledge. Just because you didn’t get accepted to college doesn’t mean you can just create your own. Sorry, folks. Pitch Perfect (2012) While we’ve all dreamed of joining a cool a capella group in college (No? Just us?), people don’t really just break out into song that often. (We’re looking at you too, High School Musical) As much as we’d love to have groups of people harmonizing in the hallways and rap-battling in the bathrooms, it just doesn’t happen. Instead, join one of WVU’s on-campus groups (or start one!) that center around singing. They’re much more laidback than the Bellas but you’ll have just as much fun. The Social Network (2010) Sure, it would be absolutely amazing to be in Mark Zuckerberg’s shoes right now. The man is loaded! However, in the movie, before he creates “The Facebook”, he creates a website called Face Smash that has users comparing their classmates based on their attractiveness. Not very cool, Mark. We also don’t recommend alienating your friends and peers or stealing intellectual property. It’s not a great way to create lasting friendships. It might have worked for Zuckerberg (How many Facebook friends do you think he has?), but it probably won’t work for us. If you need a location to craft the next Facebook, Pierpont’s cyber lounge is open 24 hours a day! No matter how much we love all of these movies and the countless others just like them, they don’t paint the most realistic picture of what the college experience is like. What expectations of college did you have that you learned from movies or TV?

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School Supplies Things You Didn’t Think Of-image

The move in process is currently happening which means that West Virginia University’s first day of classes (August 17th) is almost upon us too. Everyone will be back in their classrooms before long and your brains will be filling up with the knowledge and skills to carry you into your professional lives. You need to be equipped to handle it. You know you’ll need the basics: notebooks, pencils, laptops, etc. But what else? We talked a couple of weeks ago about the things you’ll need for your apartment but these are the school supply essentials! We’ve put together a list of some cool supplies that you might not have thought of. You might not need all of these things in order to get an education but they will help make the process more enjoyable! Audiobooks You’re going to have a lot of reading to do once school starts back up. Not fun reading either because your professor probably won’t be assigning Harry Potter for your weekly reading. And reading takes time. That’s time you could be doing other things. Instead of setting aside tons of time to commit all of this information to memory, multitask. Head to the gym and listen to an audiobook of your recommended reading while you pump iron. Not only will it keep your mind occupied while you’re on the treadmill or lifting but it might help you commit the info to memory a little easier. Try Audible for buying or borrowing your audiobooks. Distraction-Free Writing It’s really easy to sit down to write a paper or complete a homework assignment and get distracted by the internet. It’s an endless pit of memes and cute animal videos that once you’re in is very difficult to extract yourself from. You need a distraction free workspace. Website blockers keep you from bouncing around the internet to Facebook, Twitter, or Reddit. Try StayFocusd , Self Control , or Cold Turkey to keep yourself on track. A minimalist writing application might be the other tool you need to keep yourself focused. Writer and Write ! are great options that leave you with just the bare bones of what you’ll need to get your writing done. Planners You’re going to be taking multiple courses throughout the semester and each class will have its own workload. It can be hard to keep it all straight. You might have carried around a school planner when you were in elementary school or high school but those can still be helpful in your college life. Grab yourself a paper planner as simple or as fancy as you like and start writing down those assignments. If a physical planner isn’t your style, try an app! We all have phones and they’re attached to our hips at all times, so you’ll never have an excuse to not put your assignments and projects into your calendar app. Going back to school might not be the most fun experience but it doesn’t have to be difficult. These simple tools will give you an extra boost to being the best student you can be. What school supplies do you utilize that other people might not have thought of?

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