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Do your boyfriends keep turning out to be criminals? Tired of finding out too late that your girlfriend is a compulsive liar and a kleptomaniac? In this day and age, you can never be too careful about you who date. Appearances can’t be trusted, and information new acquaintances give you could easily be false. How are we to know the whole truth about anyone we meet — and especially on a college campus, where people will say or do anything for personal gain or fulfillment.
Luckily for us, we have background checks. Of course, the information you have access to won’t be as comprehensive as if you went the legitimate government route (for which you’d need consent of the person you want searched), but there are several private companies that offer access to certain records, such as criminal records or marriage licenses, at the right price.

Ok, it might be a little paranoid, but what really is the harm in investigating your new beau? A criminal record obviously isn’t the kind of thing your sweetheart is going to wear on her sleeve, so why not do a little digging, just as insurance for your safety and your belongings?

The truth is that it’s hard to know who people are, and as time goes on, it seems like desires get darker, fetishes get stranger, and criminal behavior spreads to even the most unexpected corners of society. Wouldn’t you rather know if the guy who asked you out has a history of theft convictions or has a demonstrated tendency toward violence? What if he was married and you were just a new fling?

For most background checks, you’ll need your subject’s Social Security number, in addition to other basic personal information, such as first and last name (providing a middle name is a great help to the agencies that run checks), address, phone number, DOB. Any previous names your subject may have used will be beneficial as well.

A comprehensive background check will cost around $100 and will typically return results in about 24 hours. Now, if you only just started dating, it’s unlikely you will know your S/O’s SSN, or whether they have used any aliases or married names in the past. There probably wouldn’t be much point in running a background check on them if they trust you enough to give you their SSN.

There are less comprehensive background checkers, though, that only require a full name and state and city of residence. After inputting this information, you can refine your search to be certain you have identified the right person, and then you have the option of purchasing reports with different levels of completeness, generally ranging in price from about $15 to around $75. These reports will provide you with the kind of information you would want to know about your darling:

• Marriage & Divorce records
• Bankruptcies
• Civil Judgments
• Lawsuits

As good as it is to know who your acquaintances are, however, be prepared to find some things that might unravel the relationship. You can’t un­-discover something, so know that you’ll have to deal with whatever you find in the darkness. Good luck, and be safe!

Jane Smith is a freelance writer and blogger. She writes about free background checks for Backgroundcheck.org. Questions and comments can be sent to: janesmth161 @ gmail.com

If you ask your parents, there is one reason and one reason alone why you are attending college: to get an education (that will allow you to one day support yourself so you don’t end up living in their basement until you’re 35). But you probably have some other ideas.

You want to make friends, attend parties, join clubs, learn your way around a new city, and explore your interests in order to try to decide what makes you happy so that you can potentially choose a major. Oh, and you’ll no doubt learn something along the way. But when it comes to selecting a college to attend, you need to think about more than just the party rep.

You probably know plenty of good reasons to select a school, but you might not know what you should avoid. Here are some bad reasons to choose a college.

1. Reputation. This might sound like a good reason for selecting a particular school, but no matter how good it is, it won’t get you where you want to go if it doesn’t offer the program or the courses you want to take. So although the college rankings may put one school or another at the top of the heap, you’ll need to dig a little deeper to make sure you’re getting your money’s worth out of the deal.

2. Cost. You should never base your decision about which college to attend on the price tag. You might think that a degree is worthless if it comes from a school that doesn’t cost a lot, or you may assume that there are some colleges you simply can’t afford. But you shouldn’t let that stop you from applying to every school you’re interested in. You may find that scholarships, grants, financial aid, student loans, work study, or all of the above can help you to get into the school of your dreams (as can a couple of years of stellar grades from a low cost, local community college).

3. It’s your parents’ alma mater. Although your parents likely want you to enjoy the same wonderful college experience that they had, you need to do it in your own way. If they insist, go ahead and apply for the school they prefer, but don’t make a decision on the school you will attend until you have checked them all out. It may turn out that your parents’ choice turns out to be the best one for you, but then again it may not.

4. Your friends are going there. This could be the absolute worst reason to pick a school, especially if it is your boyfriend/girlfriend you want to attend with. Nobody wants to think that a rift will occur, but if it does, you’d better have a few other good reasons to be there.

5. It’s real. You might not think that even the best online schools compare to brick-and-mortar institutions, but you shouldn’t limit your options based on assumptions (and wrongful assumptions, at that). You should certainly make sure that any college you attend, whether physical or virtual, is accredited, but that being a given, keep your options open!

This post was written by Leon Harris who writes on the subject of college rankings and the best online schools.

College girls are just as horney as guys. How you go about picking them up will seperate you from the herd. Here are some tips on picking up college chicks:

The Gym – Not the Good Kind of Sweat

Girls are used to be looked at, checked out, and hit on at the gym. And guys don’t usually know this is a bad idea.

By hitting on girls where every other guys hits on them, you are not standing out. You are just being “one of those jerks”. When girls go to the gym, they want to work out. They do not go to the gym to be hit on. In addition, girls are extremely self-conscious and the their overall appearence will not be the best. They will be extra self-conscious and not be looking for guys to check them out.

The Bar – Great for Slutty Chicks

Depending on what you are looking for, the bar may be a good place to go. Chicks are used to being hit on at the bar. They may even be expecting it. As opposed to the gym, where girls do not want to be hit on, some girls may feel down if they do not get hit on.

The bar is a great place to talk to girls and work on your flirting skills, but unless you are looking for a one-night-fling with a woman whose been there many times before, you should probably just leave it there.

If you are going for it, talk to the girl and her friends. If she is with friends, talking to them is a necessity. If her friends approve of you, you are one step ahead. Just be careful to not talk to her friends too much or too enthusiastically, or else everyone may think you are after the friend.

The Classroom

The classroom is probably one of the best places to pick up chicks, but only if you can wait in for the long haul. Chicks are not really looking to be hit on in class, but they are not opposed to it either.

Sit next to a girl you find attractive and talk to her a bit. Next class, talk to her some more, be a little flirty. By the third class or so, you can probably ask her out with good results. Don’t wait much longer than that or you will definietly be in the dreded ‘friend zone’.

Good luck and share any tips or tricks you picked up in the comments below.

Further Reading: Dating Sites

Costel just won $2,600 worth of Adobe software in the Adobe Contest that just ended.

For those that did not win, you can still buy all Adobe products at up to 80% discount if you are a student. Be sure to do it before you graduate to be eligible. Visit this link for more information: http://adobe.ly/kraybU

Here is Costel’s logo which will be the new logo for our Leafaholic network:

Did Costel’s logo deserve his win? Do you think another one of the logos was better? Tell us what you think in the comments below.

Here are some of the participants:

Which logo is your favourite?

StingyCampus, our Wii For Free partner, is a great resource for college students. On Stingy students can buy and sell items/textbooks, search for housing/roommates, get entry-level jobs/internships, share class notes, and receive discounts at their favourite stores.

Each school has its own page keeping it secure and personal. Search for your school right on their homepage.

Simplify your life and go check out this cool site: stingycampus.com

Note: A winner has already been selected and this contest is now closed. Thanks to everyone who entered!

Student of Fortune, College Being, and Stingy Campus are teaming up to bring one of our readers a brand new Wii gaming system.

Student of Fortune provides online tutoring services by connecting students and tutors. Get help with your science homework or get a math tutor for as little as $1. Visit their website to find out more: studentoffortune.com

Contest Rules:

You must be a college or graduate student over the age of 18 and currently living in the United States to qualify.

To Enter:

1. ‘like’ College Being on Facebook: [link]

2. post a comment on Stingy Campus’s contest announcement saying you’re entering the contest: [link]

Optional:

Increase your chances of winning and get up to four extra entries by doing any of the following:

1. post interesting or funny links on College Being’s Facebook page (one entry per link/comment)

2. sell your textbooks, post class notes, or look for a roommate on Stingy Campus (one entry per post)

3. ‘like’ Stingy Campus on Facebook: [link]

Please don’t spam us. Spam or invalid posts will be deleted. The winner will be announced one week from today on May 1, 2011. If you have any questions, let us know in the comments below.

[Editor's Note: Although all opinions expressed on College Being are those of our individual authors, we were paid a fee to write the following article. This fee will not influence our opinions.]

Glory Daze is TBS’s exciting new comedy about a group of freshman college students joining an average but fun fraternity. Hilarity ensues. The show takes place during 1986 and there are plenty of inside jokes and 80s music for those that know about the era.

The show centers around four main characters:

Joel (Kelly Blatz): Joe is your average Joe—a character anyone can relate to. He is a pre-med student and often referred to simply as “Pre-med”. He has an over-bearing and over-large father (Robert Barone, “Everybody Loves Raymond”) who is strongly against fraternities and a very strange roommate (Zack Miller). He falls in love with Christie (Julianna Guill), who turns out to be the girlfriend of his fraternity’s president (Eric Nenninger). Though Joel is initially focusing on his pre-med program, his friends, love interest, and creepy roommate independently push him towards joining a fraternity.

Eli (Matt Bush): Eli is a small Jewish guy is is very proud of his heritage. He always pretends to be a ladies man though, not surprising to his friends, is actually a very shy virgin. Joel often does things without thinking including branding himself with the fraternity’s Greek letters in episode 1. Joel’s dentist father seems to be going through a mid-life crisis and has changed his name and grown a pony tail. During his first night with the fraternity, Joel gets very stoned, steals a painting, and gets his friends thrown naked into jail. Joel’s roommate is Chang, an Asian guy who sometimes parties with the very secretive Asiain frat but otherwise is seem studying in his room.

Jason (Drew Seeley): Jason is a WASP, White Anglo-Saxon Protestant. He loves President Reagan and along with his girlfriend Julie (Natalie Dreyfuss) appears to be some of the only Republicans in college. Jason decided to join the Omega Sig fraternity due to his friends’ influence and after an unpleasant experience with the fraternity his wealthy and influential father wanted him to join. Jason is constantly at conflict with both his girlfriend and his father for having joined such an average fraternity.

Brian (Hartley Sawyer): Brain is an all-American baseball star. His coach does not approve of his choice of friends but does support him and even bails the four guys out of jail in the first episode. He develops a fatherly relationship with his assistant coach after an awkward instant where Brain assumes the coach wants him to impregnate the coach’s wife. Brain is mostly just a background character accompanying the main three on their adventures, but he shines in the fourth episodes where he converts a girl who hates jocks.

These four friends go on all sorts of adventures together including getting thrown in jail with nothing but their underwear, getting their car stolen while they were getting a fake ID from a creepy guy who still lives at home named Marcus (Kevin Nealon, “Weeds”), buying the mysterious Enbrau beer for their equally mysterious 30-something frat brother Stankowski (Chris D’Elia), meeting a sarcastic priest (Andy Richter, “Conan”) who mentions he has taken a vow of celibacy every 30 seconds or so, and the various interactions with the always-in-a-bad-mood Professor Haines (Tim Meadows, “Saturday Night Live”).

Here is an interview with the hilarious Tim Meadows on Conan:

View all episodes to-date online for free at www.TBS.com then catch Glory Daze Tuesdays at 10/9c on TBS.

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Merry Christmas to all you wonderful College Beings! We wish you all the best in receiving your grades (crossing fingers) and putting up with the family for a few more weeks.

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College Being is thankful most of all to you. Our readers motivate us to continue to write. Keep us informed on how we are doing and we will continue to change and make the site better.

Love,
Ace and the College Being Team

Hello lawful readers. As many of you noticed, a couple of our stories have gone missing in the last couple of days. We are working on getting this issue fixed. Please bare with us and the stories will be back in no time along with this week’s newest stories.

Edit: The issues have been fixed. Enjoy.