SoFi Blog

Dorm life is exciting—as a college student it’s likely the first time you’ve lived on your own. But, there can certainly be pitfalls such as cramped space, noisy neighbors and those oh, so fun fluorescent lights.

Your dorm room is your home, but also your workspace, so you want to make sure it is equal parts comfort and productive. Thankfully there are all sorts of interior design inspiration, inexpensive decorations, and small dorm room ideas to help you create a homey space that you’ll love living in. Here are our best dorm room decorating ideas that can help you reinvent your dorm room this spring, all while sticking to a budget.

If there’s an American Dream for retirement, it probably includes telling your boss to lose your number, unplugging the alarm clock, and moving somewhere that’s 72 and sunny year-round. It’s a worthy goal, but it doesn’t just magically happen when you turn 65. When you look more closely, you’ll find that retirement could also mean learning to live with more time—and less money.

It doesn’t mean you’ll never live on the beach in retired bliss. But retirement does require planning, foresight, and a solid grasp on your finances that needs to start long before you decide to leave your career.

To help you try to retire without regret, we put together a list of the top financial planning tactics that retirees wish they had done better, sooner, or longer. This is straight from retirees who’ve been there, done that, and wished they had done something differently.

Deciding you’d like to pursue a graduate degree is a monumental decision, and not one to be taken lightly. If you’re determined to advance your current skills or learn something completely new, it can be a great option.

But, there are a few key questions you should ask yourself and an academic advisor before applying to graduate school. Here are a few things to ponder before obtaining an advanced degree.

When Malia Obama took a gap year before starting at Harvard in 2017, her plan created a lot of controversy on the internet, especially here in the U.S. But students taking a gap year—before, during, or after college—isn’t new, and the trend is widespread in other countries.

The oldest gap year organization in the U.S., the Center for Interim Programs , has been around for nearly 40 years. While there are limited stats on how many students take gap years here, almost 25% of students in Australia take a gap year and American numbers, which used to be estimated at closer to 1% or 2%, appear to be rising.

Also known as a bridge year, a gap year or gap semester can come between high school and college, after college before starting grad school or a career, or even in between semesters while at college. The idea is to refresh yourself after all those years of head-to-the-books learning, explore potential career interests, and get some new experiences while the risks are low—and when you have no kids and no mortgage.

The idea is you then return to school—or start your job search—with newfound focus and intention. What you do while taking off a gap year depends on you. You can volunteer, travel, work, or some combination. Malia Obama almost 25% of students joined a cross-cultural exchange program to Bolivia and Peru, did an internship with a film and TV production company in New York, and traveled with her parents to Indonesia.

Now, you may not be able to pull off the same itinerary as Malia, but that doesn’t mean you can’t have a great experience of your own. If you’re asking yourself, “Should I take a gap year?” then here are some of the options and logistics to consider.

When you moved into the neighborhood, everything was wonderful. You were so thrilled to be in a new home in a neighborhood that you loved. You had decorated it to perfection, and revelled in its well-ranked school district. It was your idyllic haven. That is, until you realized you had inherited some bad neighbors.