Tip # 20: You will not get snail mail unless you send it yourself

Everyone loves getting mail. When I was at Cornell, I really looked forward to getting things in my mailbox. But even though everyone likes to get mail, not a lot of people send it anymore. So my tip for you is that you will not get snail mail unless you send it yourself. Don't expect to get snail mail if you aren't returning the favour!

Tip #16: Forward your Nipissing email

I forewarn you that the administration probably doesn't like this tip - but someone is bound to tell you about this, so it might as well be me!

It's advised that you check your Nipissing email account every second day. But, really, who wants to log into my.nipissing every second day to check the account, when you'll probably only get an email in it a few times a month.

Here's the solution: just get it to forward to your personal account. This way, you don't have to check it, and will instantly get any important emails. As an added bonus, hotmail will allow you to send emails from the Nip account, along with receiving them.

Here's how you do it:

Sign into your Nipissing Email

1) Go to my.nipissingu.ca
2) Log into your account

3) Click the Email tab at the top

4) Click "launch google mail"

5) Click "Email" (on the left side)

Get your email to forward by:

1) Click "Settings" at the top right corner

2) Click the Forwarding and POP/IMAP tab
3) Beside "Forwarding:" click "Forward copy of incoming mail to (type in your personal email address here) and (keep Nipissing University Mail's copy in inbox)

4) Click "Save Changes" button at the bottom

Allow your hotmail to send from your nipissing adress:

1) When you are in the new message section of your hotmail (where you send a message), click the down arrow beside "from"

2) Choose "Add another email address"

3) At the very bottom, click on the text "Add another account to send mail from"

4) Type in your Nipissing email address

5) Click the "Send verification email" button

6) Now log into your Nipissing Email to find an email from hotmail

7) Click the link to verify

8) Sign into your hotmail account

Tip #13: Get a 'holder' for your bus pass

A random tip for today: Get a 'holder' for your bus pass. Since most people at Nipissing take the bus (another large topic I could get into later), you will probably find that you need to carry your bus pass around everywhere. Nothing sucks more than having to try to dig it out of your wallet when the bus comes, or have everything in that wallet fall out as you dig for it.

Some people solve this problem by punching a hole in their bus pass so they can put it on a key-chain and lanyard. I would not recommend this, your bus pass will most likely break before the end of the year. Instead, I invested in a little holder -thingy you can buy in a package from Staples in first year. Now I can safely and easily access my bus pass with my keys. It's secure, but also pops out easily if I need to show someone (like the finance office, for example) my student I.D.

Tip #10: Take lots of photos

For most people, undergrad is only going to happen once, so my advice is to take lots of photos. Now that my last year at Nipissing is coming to a close, it's nice to look back at my folder of digital photos I have from my undergrad.

Here's a selection of my favourite random Nipissing photos:

The Nipissing Laker and I

The Finance Office on Halloween

First Snowfall of 2008

Matt and Tristan in First Year... lol

Tip # 8: Brown Bag Your Lunch

This tip is one that really took me a good two years to realise: pack your own lunch!

The cafeteria at Nipissing isn't the worst cafeteria that I've ever seen, but it's not the best either. The best thing at Nip's cafeteria is the salads, but besides that most of the food is over-priced and not very tasty.

So, I'd suggest packing your own lunch. Firstly, it's much cheaper. It's also healthier because you control what's going into your food, and don't get tempted with all the greasy food like pizza and grilled stuff. Finally, I find it better to carry around all sorts of smaller snacks in my lunch bag so that I can just eat when I get hungry at school.

Not sure what to pack? Some of my favourite are: baby carrots/veggies with dip, applesauce, grapes or apples, crackers, muffins, granola bars or dry cereal.

My Lunch Bag