Chris and Kelly are still on opposite sides of the world podcasting from the past.

Topics this week:

• popSiren
• Social Brew
• Scam School
• Internet Superstar

Music this week:

• “Date Game” by Christopher Wade

 Episode 27: Summer is Here!:

 

 Episode 27: Summer is Here!: Play Now | Popup

The guys are podcasting this week from the past because Chris is in Prague and Kelly is in San Francisco!

Topics this week:

• Rethinking the 2-minute rule
• Getting in to a bar if you’re under 21

Music this week:

• “Date Game” by Christopher Wade

For some reason or another, this semester’s end is lending itself to more reflection than usual. This post is going to talk about where HackCollege has been, where it’s going and what the 3 of us are doing for the summer.

HackCollege at the Start of the Spring Semester

At the start of 2008, we had about 500 feed readers. One of our main metrics we use to measure our success is the number of readers. We believe that feed readers represent the visitors who like the site the most and hence keep coming back for it.

Traffic to the site has been increasing steadily. We get anywhere from 500 to 1000 unique visitors per day.

HackCollege at the End of the Semester

Just last week, we broke 1000 feed readers. This has been one of our big milestones that we’ve wanted to reach for a while. Pour one down for us.

Traffic is staying about the same, with huge spikes after FOWA and SXSW. We owe most of the traffic to Internet famous people agreeing to give us the time of day. Huge thanks to Gary Vaynerchuk, Leah Culver, Chris Brogan, and Justine Ezarik. Thanks to these folks, our servers crashed a few times.

HackCollege is also getting more and more press these days. In this week’s issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education, a writer interviewed Kelly about HackCollege and technology.

The number of unsolicited PR emails is also increasing. More and more people around the world are getting word of our tiny little site.

And of course, we’re taking to the streets with our T-Shirts and hoodies.

Summer Plans

Just because class is out doesn’t mean HackCollege is going away. Expect things to get slower around here for about a month.

Chris took off to Prague and is working on the upcoming G.I. Joe movie. Rosario is working and getting ready for law school. Kelly just moved in to his new place in San Francisco and will be working at Revision3.

Once Chris gets back from Prague, expect things to pick up once again.

What does the Future Hold?

The more and more we write, the more we realized lifehacking on the strict productivity level is a dead end. There are only so many ways to study. There are only so many ways to take notes. As we go on in the future, we will still post stories true to our roots. We are going to start getting funkier with our content. Well, funkier might not be the right word.

We want to be more of a voice for college students everywhere, not just the tech ones. Student loans aren’t only a problem for computer science majors. It might be pretentious of us to assume that we could change higher education, but–hey–we’ve always been pretentious.

Welcome to summer for those on the semester system. Let us know what you think in some comments!

I was interviewed a few weeks ago for a short piece that appears both in print and online editions. It’s coming online and going to print this week! Check it out and represent!

“Using Technology to ‘Hack’ College Life: An Interview with a Student Blogger” [The Chronicle]

Edit: Changed the link to the free version of the article.

 Episode 26: Radar Party!:
 Episode 26: Radar Party!:

This week the guys are podcasting right before the epic Radar house party in Los Angeles. It was one last hurrah before finals week.

Topics this week:

• Apple Campus Rep Job
• “Publishers Sue Georgia State on Digital Reading Matter” [New York Times]
• America’s Most Overrated Product: the Bachelor’s Degree [The Chronicle]
• Twitter T-Shirt Giveaway

Music this week:

• “Date Game” by Christopher Wade

This episode’s sponsors:

• Radar.net
• Empressr

And yes, there is a catch. You have to start following us on Twitter and religiously watch the podcast. For now, the contests will be lightning-fast and last only a day or two. We already gave away our first shirt to @KushalP for his post suggestion in the last episode! Awesome! We’ll give one away each week on average.

So sign up for Twitter and start following us!

• @KellySutton
• @lesinski
• @r0see

We hinted at in today’s episode 25, but the student blogging series will be going online tomorrow!

It will feature posts about the case for blogging, why students in particular need to blog, and interviews with some successful student bloggers. Stay tuned!

 Episode 25: Crazy Thursday:
 Episode 25: Crazy Thursday:

The guys shoot earlier this week on a crazy Thursday with a lot of friends around and give away their first T-Shirt!

Topics this week:

• Student Blogging Series
• Facebook Chat
• Scott2K shows us Solitaire
• T-Shirt Model Shots
• T-Shirt Giveaway Contest
• Huge Radar Party

Music this week:

• “Date Game” by Christopher Wade

This episode’s sponsors:

• Radar.net
• Empressr

We took some shots the other day with one of our friends in the HackCollege T-Shirt! We think that they turned out pretty well. We like objectifying women.

Blatant sexographies aside, we would also like to remind everyone that our shirts are made by Homeboy Industries. Homeboy helps recently incarcerated (and unincarcerated?) people get back on their feet. As their motto says, “Jobs not Jails.” Every shirt purchase is that much more. Buy your T-Shirts with pride!

CLICK FOR MALE CHAUVINISM

Head over to hackcollege.com/tshirts to get one for yourself!

With Coachella happening this weekend in the desert of southern California, the music festival season (known to some simply as “summer”) is here. Music and college are often closely associated; the same goes for music and weed and also weed and college. There must be a connection there somewhere…

HackCollege covered and did some live blogging last year from Coachella 2007. Check out the past posts:

• Get Your Summer Music Festival On
• Coachella Prep
• Blogging Live from Coachella: 1:25pm
• Blogging Live from Coachella: 5:30pm
• Blogging Live from Coachella: 9:57pm
• Blogging Live from Home About Coachella: 7:21pm

Summer music festivals are a great way to blow off some steam, spend some hard-earned work-study money and forget about the world. Here are a few tips for the festival-goers.

Read on to your heart’s content »