HP Freshman 15 Laptop Giveaway – We have a WINNER

Today I can announce the winner of a shiny new laptop.  Thank you to everyone who took the time to enter the giveaway.  It’s been wonderful to read your entries and I wish everyone the best of luck with their continuing studies.

Now for the moment you’ve been waiting for.  The winner of a feature-packed HP dv5t laptop, 500Gb external hard drive, HP all-in-one printer, and media dock is…

Aron Willis at the University of Sussex

Congratulations to Aron, who is studying Electronic and Electrical Engineering.  Aron says his workload varies (sometimes no work due in, but other times several assignments are due at the same time).  Understandably, Aron would like the work to be spread more evenly.  Well, I can’t change the dates your work is due in, but I can congratulate you for being the lucky entry to be picked at random for winning a fantastic prize package, thanks to HP.

I’m also able to give away an HP Protect Messenger Bag to four runners up, so there’s a bit more prize giving to go.  Hackcollege recently described the bags as having “enough room for your old craptops and more padding than a helmet”.  And if you don’t have a ‘craptop’, I’m sure you could carry other stuff in them too!

The runners up, who all win one of these bags, are:

It’s been a pleasure to be a part of the HP Freshman 15 Laptop Giveaway.  Today marks the end of the promotion, as TheUniversityBlog was the final site to participate.  It’s been great.  Thanks to the other brilliant sites that played their part and helped make some students very happy.

Don’t forget about the sites you may have come across for the first time as you enjoyed this laptop giveaway.  For one last time, here’s a recap of the sites who took part:

It’s been a great month and I hope we can do something like this again.  But for now, that’s it from the HP Freshman 15 Giveaway.  Congrats to all the winners.

EduLinks – Credit cunches, itchy chairs, master tips

While the Freshman 15 Laptop Giveaway is running, I thought I’d deliver a load of EduLinks for everyone.  It’s a real mixed bag.  Hopefully something for everyone.

And if you haven’t entered the competition for the laptop yet, what are you waiting for?  It’s worth a go.  For those of you have have entered, it’s been great to read your answers to the questions.  Given that I’m picking the winner at random, I’ve loved the fact that so many of you have enthusiastically jumped in and given really detailed answers.  You rule!

On to the EduLinks!

The Guardian – Total Recall

Boost your mindpower…but keep on writing to-do lists!

Kill Jill Goes To College – A College Student’s Guide To Time Management

Kill Jill finds goodness through the bad, as she learns time management through a week of difficult experiences.

Robust Writing – Have You Tried This Grammar Magical Trick Yet?

Me and you are going to love this post.  Erm, I mean you and I are going to love this post…

Charade – University and Long-Term Relationships

Is your student experience one of embracing the single life, or time for a long-term relationship?  Some tough choices lie ahead.  That’s not even considering the long-distance relationships we deal with…

Alpha Student – Write Faster

Get a first draft knocked out in no time.  Less worry, less editing, more writing.  Seriously, it’s a great way of working.

Technology Review – Wikipedia and the Meaning of Truth

“…truth is received truth: the consensus view of a subject”

Do you use Wikipedia?  Read this piece for ‘the truth’.

Dumb Little Man – How to Become a Master Communicator

Your degree involves communication on many levels, but we’re not all natural communicators.  It’s rare to have communication skills taught when approaching your academic subject, but these tips help show how important those skills can be.

Apophenia – Putting Privacy Settings in the Context of Use (in Facebook and Elsewhere)

Of course, it could be worse.  People could be leaving their phone numbers online for everyone to see…

Telegraph – ‘iPod Generation’ most at risk from credit crunch as one in five has £10k debts

All doom and gloom for us, then.  😦

Scott H Young – Itchy Chair Motivation

Scott recently wrote that people should find authors they respect, but disagree with.  While I generally agree with Scott’s writing, I couldn’t gel with his post on ‘itchy chair motivation’.  But strangely, I felt my disagreement was the perfect opportunity to link back to this article in particular, because I’m sure there are many people who’ll appreciate this method of motivation.

Economist – Britain’s University Leavers: The work that awaits the class of 2009

Forget employment…how about enjoying postgrad study? And if that’s not your thing, it’s all the more reason to stand out and take advantage of the big opportunities presented to you.  Ignore what’s on TV and stop procrastinating on Facebook. Time to face the world one way or another!

If that’s not your thing, the web comic, Piled Higher and Deeper put some of the ‘economic downturn’ postgrad data into amusing context a few weeks back.  It also helped us work out how bad our personal situation is during these times of crisis.

Psychology Today – (Almost) Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Creativity

Please read this.  It’s a short and brilliant piece.  One of the best articles about creativity I’ve read.

Daily Mail – University students provided with allotment to grow their own food

Finally, all the best to the students of Gloucestershire who are growing their own veg.  No need to worry about the bank balance when there’s enough food in the ground.

WIN A LAPTOP with the HP Freshman 15 Competition!

[Update: Entries are closed for the giveaway.  Any entries from 00.00 GMT on 30 October 2008 are not valid.  Thank you to all who entered the giveaway draw.]

Today begins your last chance to win a great laptop prize package on the HP Freshman 15 competition.  Here at TheUniversityBlog, one lucky student is in store to win big.  How good is that?

15 different sites have each been giving away a laptop, external hard drive, all-in-one printer, docking station, and carry case for when you’re on the go.  Sure, there are computers on campus, but this prize package ensures that you can work at ease where you want, print to your heart’s content and get some extra entertainment for your room.  You could even update your Facebook profile when you get in to announce the end of a quality night out…until the next morning when realisation dawns on what actually happened… 😉

TheUniversityBlog is the final site to run this competition and I’m ready to give you the chance to make your life a lot easier as you go through your study.  The laptop on offer is the Hewlett-Packard dv5t, with enough features and high-end specs to keep you going…and then some.  With a 500Gb external hard drive and printer/scanner/copier thrown in, this package should keep you happy on the technology front.

It’s pretty simple.  I want to know how you’re finding uni.  Maybe you only recently finished Freshers’ celebrations, or perhaps you’re deeply involved in your final year of study.  Whatever the case, I’d like to know how you feel about it.

To be in with a chance of winning the great laptop package, answer the following 7 questions:

  1. What uni/college are you studying at?
  2. What year/level are you currently in?
  3. What subject(s) have you chosen?
  4. Why did you choose that course?
  5. What have you most enjoyed so far about uni life and what’s bothered you most about it?
  6. Do you feel overworked, or free-time supreme and how (if at all) would you like to change?
  7. If you could go back in time to before you started uni and tell yourself one thing that would help your student experience, what would it be?

You must answer all the questions.  Okay, there are 7 questions, but it’s nothing too difficult and there are no right or wrong answers.  Then again, I’d be worried if you weren’t sure of the correct answer when saying where you study and what your course is!

E-mail your entries, along with your name, to compo@theuniversityblog.co.uk by 11.59pm GMT on 29 October 2008.

The winner will be announced here at TheUniversityBlog on 31 October 2008.  Best of luck to all!

General rules:

  • The competition is open to all university/college students around the world.
  • Only one entry per person.
  • You must answer all 7 questions to be entered in the competition.
  • The winning entry will be picked at random.
  • Entries need to be in by 11.59pm (23.59) GMT on 29 October 2008.  Entries received from 00.00 GMT on 30 October onward will not be entered in the competition.
Good Luck (photo by Subspace)

Good Luck (photo by Subspace)

Your Degree: Now more than just a grade

Are you working toward a degree in English, Biology, Accounting or Creative Arts?  If so, you may be in store for more than a traditional final grade at the end of your course.

Eighteen universities are trialling a new system of grading, called the Higher Education Achievement Report (HEAR).  In it, you will find a detailed breakdown of your performance from all your modules and coursework.

You’ll still get the traditional First, 2:1, 2:2 or Third classification, but the report will more clearly highlight your strengths and weaknesses throughout.  When you shine on a particular module, the new system will show that.  On the flipside, any glaring weaknesses can also become apparent.  For instance, if I had received the report for my degree, you’d notice that I took one module that only scraped a Third.  I didn’t enjoy the module and didn’t put enough effort in the work…with the new reporting system, that would stick out like a sore thumb.  But it would also point out my ‘big mark’ Firsts.  You win some, you lose some…

If the HEAR trial is a success, it will probably become standard everywhere from 2010-2011.

The universities taking part in the trial are:

University of Leicester; Goldsmiths; University of St Andrews; University of Manchester; Newcastle University; UCL; University of Aberystwyth; University of Northumbria; University of Wales Institute, Cardiff; University of Derby; University of Northampton; University of Gloucestershire; University of Greenwich; Keele University; University of Ulster; University for the Creative Arts, Canterbury; York St John University; Newman University College

Below are links to coverage of what’s being said in today’s papers, as well as the original report suggesting the new system, plus the National Union of Students (NUS) take on the matter.