Campus, News

BU student uses site to share common freshman experiences

Got problems? Maddy Huerta has 604 and counting.

Huerta, a College of Arts and Sciences freshman, is the creator of College Problems, a popular Tumblr blog which lists the problems involving classes, dorms, roommates, friends and parties in the daily life of a college student.

“I had the idea to create problems based off funny experiences that I and my friends had,” Huerta, a Marine Science major, said in a phone interview. “The first bunch I made of up myself from personal experiences with me and my friends, but then I decided to let others create their own and it really took off from there.”

The Tumblr was set up at the end of March and in two weeks Huerta had thousands of followers. She now holds a place as the number one humor blog on Tumblr.

“I never posted it on people’s Tumblrs or paraded it or put it on Facebook but two or three weeks after I put it up I had tons of followers and it just exploded from there,” Huerta said.

Huerta now has about 55,000 followers on Tumblr with about 1,000 to 2,000 visitors to the site every day from hundreds of different universities across the country, While, the College Problems Twitter page also has about 3,000 followers with 3,000 likes on Facebook.

The problems range from “#484 the only thing lower than your GPA is your bank account balance,” to “#11 you forgot what it’s like to shower without flip-flops,” to “#303 Ke$ha isn’t just a Halloween costume. It’s a way of life.”

“I’m kind of winging it right now I never thought it would be as popular as it is,” Huerta said. “It’s amusing that so many people know about it when it was just this small project I started for fun.”

Followers can suggest “problems” that college students face in their daily life to be added to the site. Huerta has new suggestions for College Problems from her followers every day.

“It’s not about me,” Huerta said. “I don’t want to change the way people see the site so I wanted to let others post as well. It’s really about everyone that’s in college in general through shared experiences.”

Huerta plans on expanding the blog in the summer to include a spin-off that gives tips on college life to incoming freshman.

“I have a lot of followers who are in high school or will be college freshman in the fall who ask me for tips or advice on college classes, dorms, parties, etc.,” Huerta said. “A few days ago I posted a question asking for something college students wish someone had told them before college and it got a lot of responses.”

Huerta, who plans on starting the project after finals, has gotten a lot of feedback from current and future students who said they would be interested in the new blog too.

“People seem really excited about it– current students want to share what they’ve learned and incoming freshman want to know what to expect,” she said.

BU students said that while the posts are funny, they are also relevant to the daily lives of college students.

“The sole reason why I like college problems is because it’s real,” said Jessica Thermitus, a College of General Studies freshman. “Being in college, college kids share their own culture. Living, eating, and studying like a college kid is completely different that living, eating, and studying as any other kid.”

“College Problems highlights the real college problems that every college kid experiences and shared experiences create a closer community,” Thermitus said.

 

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