#2: Recreation Centers

24 Hour Fitness: $70 to start & $30/month ongoing for access to one facility
Your college rec. center: Free (included in tuition!)

In high school, I had never dreamed of getting a gym membership.  After all, only health nuts go to the gym...right?  College helped me reverse that stereotype as the on-campus rec. center made fitness equipment and classes so accessible to me, the novice, at such low cost. 

Recreation centers are booming on college campuses and often undergo drastic renovations to stay on the cutting edge of fitness comfort and technology.  Typically in these facilities you can find cardio and strength training exercise equipment, a running track, a dance studio, tennis courts, raquetball courts, basketball courts, volleyball courts, and a swimming pool. However, some of the amenities students have come to expect from their rec. centers would turn Gold's Gym green with envy:

While many rec. centers have a rock climbing wall, the Evergreen State College Rec Center has a full climbing gym.

Source: http://www.evergreen.edu/reccenter/images/climbing_gym/climbingwall3.jpg

Carleton College's Recreation Center has it's own indoor putting green!

Source: http://apps.carleton.edu/reason_package/reason_4.0/www/images/42165.jpg

UC Irvine's Anteater Recreation Center recently added a Test Kitchen and Classroom to the facility.

Source: http://www.campusrec.uci.edu/arc/images/kitchen.jpg

In addition to some amazing facilities, many colleges provide fitness classes in their recreation centers, ranging from dance to martial arts to spinning to yoga, and more.  Some of these classes cost money and others are free, so check the schedule at the start of each term so you know what is coming!

I am by no means a fitness guru and I don't know that a gym membership is anywhere in my future, but there was something about the recreation center on my college campus that made me want to go and get fit.  Maybe it's the social aspect of working out, maybe it's the convenient location, or maybe it's the fact that I didn't have to fork out any additional dough to use the facility.  There's something at the rec center for everyone.  What kind of rec center amenities would you like to see at your college?

#1: Free Career Counseling

As any college graduate can tell you, it can be quite difficult to find dependable career advice or legitimate job listings out in the "real world."  Considering that monster.com doesn't really vet it's job listings and craigslist is a hotbed for scamming, you almost have to be a detective to uncover the real listings among the many dead ends.  Career assessments can cost upwards of $100 and just an hour of professional career counseling can set you back $200 or more!
For you college students out there, the good news is that most colleges have a "career center" which provides a number of these resources to students for free, or at deep discounts.  UC Irvine's Career Center is one example, providing a comprehensive center of online and in-person resources.  Some of the center's services include an online job-listing database (Zotlink), an online library of career information (VAULT), video "web shops" on topics ranging from resumes to interview techniques, walk-in career counseling appointments, free resume reviewing, quarterly career fairs, help with grad school applications, and listings of alumni for networking opportunites. 

The UC Irvine's Career Center "Zotlink" service is an online job-listing database that is reviewed and carefully monitored to provide students with listings for on-campus jobs, local internships, and even full time positions in the "real world".  Use of this service is free as a student and allows students to upload a resume for employers to browse, just like any of your better known private job listing services, but with a bit more security.

Most college career centers list designated walk-in times when students are welcome to drop by without an appointment and see a college counselor.  These walk-in counseling sessions can be used to have your cover letter or resume reviewed, ask any career-related questions, or get a referral to take a career assessment.  Many times, career centers will offer career assessments at discounted rates to students.

Obtaining a bachelor's degree is often seen as a means to an end - a way to better your career opportunities for the future.  While a bachelor's degree can help with meeting qualifications for job positions, it is absolutely necessary for students to go beyond their classroom experiences and gain actual applicable experience in the field.  The career center on your college campus gives you the tools to progress in your career planning while working towards a degree, and is usually payed for by your tuition or fees.  Make the most of it!