UMD Students Plan Fun Spring Break Trips Without Breaking the Bank

Spring break is about having a fun time, being with friends and most importantly getting your money's worth. Without the right research and planning spring break can be expensive whether you travel to Miami or Mexico and everywhere in between.

Student travel companies  organize all-inclusive spring break trips to top destinations.

Morgan Singer, a senior at the University of Maryland, booked her spring break trip to Cancun, Mexico six months in advance through STS travel.

 StudentCity is another popular company students can use to plan spring break trips. Students can book trips with large groups of friends to all-inclusive hotels at top destinations and purchase VIP packages to guarantee entrance to clubs and events.

"It's the company my friends went on last year and they had a really good experience so we decided to do it again," Singer said. STS Travel has campus representatives on over 1000 campuses in the United States.

While not quite the same thing as booking through a company, USA Today College reports that Groupon has a spring break section and may offer good alternative deals.

Students consider locations and prices while researching spring break trips. 

"We looked around at other destinations and prices, but Cancun was the best bang for our buck," Singer said.

According to ABC News, the top spring break destinations for college students in 2014 included: Cancun, Mexico, Panama City Beach FL, Las Vegas, NV, Jamaica; Miami, FL, Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, South Padre Island, TX, Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Nassau, Bahamas.

While there are certainly benefits to using a student travel company to plan a spring break trip, University of Maryland senior Amanda Nessel decided to book a spring break trip to Miami on her own.

Nessel and Singer both wanted a spring break trip where they could relax and have fun in warm weather, but wasn't too expensive. Other important factors Nessel and Singer considered while choosing a location include how safe the destination is and easy it is to get there.

Expedia is having a new Spring Break promotion offering discounted prices for hotels at top spring break destinations.

CNBC reports that not only are flights to top spring break destinations slightly less expensive in 2015 than 2014, but Expedia is having a Spring Break promotion.

Students choose to go on cruises and or alternative breaks the University of Maryland offers.

Rachel Diamond, a senior at the University of Maryland, booked a Carnival cruise to the Bahamas with friends.

"We booked a cruise because not only did we get a good deal, but you can also go to so many different spots and everything is all-inclusive," Diamond said.

Another option for students is to take advantage of the alternative spring break programs including the alternative breaks sponsored by STAMP, which are local, national and international projects and locations as well as Maryland Hillel, which offers spring breaks to national and international locations.

Whether the spring break is to a popular destination, on a cruise or an alternative break UMD students, with enough research and planning, can find good deals on spring break trips. Singer and her friends think the student travel companies provide not only the top experience but also competitive prices to popular destinations like Cancun while Nessel through research and planning was able to also book an affordable trip to another top destination, Miami, on her own.

Social Networking Apps Change The Way We Communicate

Mobile devices are changing how we communicate from the way we receive news, interact with others to even going about our daily tasks. Even in social settings, such as dinner with friends, people are actively engaged and using their phones whether they’re checking their emails or scrolling through their Instagram feed.

There are a variety of social apps ranging from dating to sharing videos. Sure, you can call, text message or video chat someone, but now there are so many other channels to communicate through. Want to show your friends what you’re up to? Send a Snapchat. Trying to figure out where to go out tonight? Check Wigo to see ‘who is going out.’ No time to date? Download an app. Think a friend would appreciate a picture? Tag them on Instagram.

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While all these apps provide new forms of mobile communication it seems that users are more engaged in using their mobile devices and checking these apps than in actual social settings with face-to-face interaction.  However, in a sense it does open up an interesting opportunity for news outlets.

The traditional news industry is struggling. The average consumer of news spends very little time on a news site or reading a print publication. However, for example, E! News or USA Today will post a photo with a caption and a link to the full article on Instagram. Other publications will tweet a quote, picture or a brief statement about a current event or article with a link to the full story. Snapchat aggregates live feed for events such as the X Games, the Golden Globes and even the recent blizzard, Juno. Snapchat also added a new feature called Discover in its most recent update that tells stories from different editorial teams.