Ask the Experts

I like to think of myself as a pretty practical person, and I’m certainly not someone who is obsessed with skin-deep beauty stuff or girly-girl things. But I have a secret: I love going to the spa. Most of my friends would never guess, but I go at least once a semester (by myself, or with my mother when she is visiting). Maybe it’s all in my head, but I think it helps me focus more and perform better in school when I’ve had a nice break in the spa. Is that possible? It would be nice to tell my friends that I’m hitting the spa for health reasons. I know it shouldn’t matter, but my friends and I are just not really the sort of people you’d expect to see in a spa, and I think they’d think I was spoiled or something if they found out and I didn’t have a good way to explain it.

For someone who denies being concerned with “skin-deep” appearances, you sure seem worried about what your friends might think! Relax, lots of people go to the spa; and true friends won’t begrudge you a little pampering from time to time, no matter what your campus persona is like. Surround yourself with people who will like you for you– and remember that the friends you have now may well be those people, but that you won’t know until you are honest with them!

Okay, gross question incoming. I have a roommate whom I like a lot, and who is otherwise a very normal guy (I promise). We’ve both been enjoying the freedom of our freshman year, and we’ve both been doing things that I’m sure wouldn’t be allowed under our parents’ roofs. But he’s chosen to rebel in one way that’s, uh, kind of disgusting.

We were both getting ready for bed at the same time the other day and I noticed he didn’t brush his teeth. Okay, kind of weird, but I let it go (it was a late night). But the next morning I saw him take a quick swig-and-spit of mouthwash and start to head out, so I asked him if he’d brushed his teeth. Turns out, he almost never does–once a week, he says, if that. I was appalled, but he claims his mouthwash routine works just as well. I know that’s not true, but I was wondering just how much worse my roommate’s routine is than, you know, the normal one.

Yikes! Your roommate is making a serious mistake, dental professionals told us. His mouth may feel fresh and clean after a quick rinse with mouthwash, but he’s going to have very serious dental issues down the line if he doesn’t shape up.

I’ve always liked design and decorating–just one look at my dorm room or my room back home would tell you that–but I have to confess that I don’t understand the appeal of the “industrial” look. You know: minimalist decor, exposed brick, exposed rafters and pipes…what’s with that? Where did it come from? I’m genuinely curious about why my generation seems to like apartments, bars, and gathering spaces that look like warehouses or factories. What’s beautiful about those spaces? What’s comfortable about them?

How you feel about industrial and minimalist spaces is, of course, entirely up to you. But you are quite right that they’re popular. The “warehouse aesthetic” that you’re confused by is often called “industrial style,” and it rose to prominence in the 2000s and 2010s. These days, the look is so popular among home buyers that one study showed it pushed the prices of homes in Australia up by 20 percent! That’s a lot to pay to live in a home that makes some people feel like they’re in a space under construction.

My father was a doctor, and growing up he told me two things: first, that I should choose a career that helps people; and second, that I should not be a doctor, because his hours were terrible.

And they really were terrible–he was on call for the emergency room a lot when I was growing up, and I didn’t get to see him as much as I would have liked. So I’m pretty sure I don’t want to be a doctor like him, but I do want to help people, and I am drawn to healthcare. What can the experts tell me about careers in healthcare that can help me make an impact like doctors can–without having to work their hours?

There are plenty of ways to help people, and just as many ways to turn a calling into a career. If you feel strongly about helping others heal and stay healthy through your work, you should have no trouble finding a job that fits the bill–even if you may have some trouble, as you point out, finding one that fits your schedule!

My dad is a contractor back in our hometown, and he’s been having trouble lately with his expenses. One issue that my dad has is that he keeps using materials that, in my opinion, are just too pricey. The guys using the cheaper materials can undercut his prices, and customers don’t know the difference (until it’s too late). My dad is losing business to cheapskate contractors just because they have lower prices, a few billboards, and pop-up on Google.

Of course, my dad won’t budge on his materials, and he considers this a moral issue. How much difference do materials really make? What can my dad do if he refuses to cut costs?

Do materials really matter? Well, experts say, that depends on the material in question, what it’s being used for, and how well it’s being used.

Does the United States make much metal? I mean the actual metal, and I guess also the products.

I know, I know, it’s a weird question for a college kid to be asking. But, I got dinner with my roommate and his dad the other day and his dad is very upset about the state of American industry. Specifically, he talks about old steel towns and manufacturing and how we don’t make anything anymore. I know we import a lot of stuff to this country, but, can we really be importing all of our steel? I mean, it’s really heavy, right? We must be making some of it here, right?

Steel is indeed heavy, but we could certainly ship in plenty of it if we wanted to. The cost of shipping things can seem surprisingly low to outsiders: thanks to revolutions like the shipping container, which standardized cargo shipping in a very cost-effective way, shipping is very cheap: you could ship a standard 40-foot container for $701 in 2016, and that was the ‘spot rate’ (that is, the price on the spot–without the sort of long-term contract that might make the deal even cheaper). Shipping companies are actually having a tough time at the moment, because there are so many of them and rates are so low.

I’ve always dreamed of owning my own home. Where I’m from, just about everyone does! It’s hard for me to imagine having an apartment and paying rent rather than enjoying a whole house and paying a mortgage. I always understood owning a house to be the smarter financial decision of those two options, too.

I was pretty young back when the 2008 crash happened, but I know that a couple of my family members ended up in some rough spots with their mortgages. I think some of them just stopped paying and walked away, even though they could afford it, and I never understood that. Why not just pay off the house and sell it? Now that I’m in college, I’m trying to understand a bit more about how all of this works. I don’t want to ask the family members themselves, so I’m asking the experts instead!

On the surface, mortgages are pretty simple things. They’re loans that allow the borrower(s) to buy a house. The house is collateral for the loan, so if the borrowers don’t pay back the bank, the bank can foreclose on the house. That’s it–but an in-depth look reveals some more complications.

Ever since I’ve been a college student, I’ve been gaining weight. It happens slowly sometimes and more quickly other times, but it seems like it’s always happening. I don’t know if it’s the beer or the food in the dining hall, but something about my college lifestyle is really messing with my health! I’m too busy during the week to work out or run, and on the weekends, to be honest, I’m usually at parties or watching Netflix. I know I need to change, but I don’t know where to start. Any tips?

You’re not the only college student to fall victim to the dreaded ‘freshman fifteen.’ A full 70% of college students gain weight during their university years. It starts during freshman year, when students gain an average of 5% of their body weight, which works out to an average gain of about 10 pounds. For some, the trend never reverses: 36.5% of American adults are obese.

I have some great friends here, at school. Some of them are very, very different from each other. For instance, I have some very liberal environmentalist friends, and some very conservative, business-minded friends. Everyone gets along pretty well–until we have a few drinks, anyway. Then I’m suddenly in the middle of the great moral debate of our time. My liberal friends think that unchecked business interests are destroying our Earth. My business-minded friends think that hippies are ruining business with unnecessary regulation.

I know you guys don’t get political, but I’d love some context on this. If I’m going to listen to this debate, I at least want to understand it. What’s the case for destroying the environment to create jobs? And what’s the case for destroying jobs to save the planet?

It sounds like you’re in a tricky debate. Part of the issue may be rooted in the way you’re phrasing the two sides of the debate (part of it may also be rooted in those drinks you’re having–maybe you should take it easy next weekend!). To you and your friends, it seems, the conflict between the environment and business is a zero-sum game. Is that so?

Like a lot of college students, I’m going abroad. The difference is, though, that I’m not going during the school year or through a school program. It was important to me to maximize my time on campus, so I worked with my parents to come up with a plan for going abroad on my own. During the summer, I’m going to visit a few countries over the course of a few weeks, visiting historic sites and doing a little bit of an ‘independent study abroad’ program, so to speak.

But one tricky thing about doing this all on my own is that I don’t have the school to guide me about all of the paperwork I need. I’m getting ready to research all the stuff I need to do, but I don’t even really know where to start. For instance, I need a visa, right? How is that different from a passport? Help!

Never fear! It’s important to have your paperwork in order before you head abroad, but the good news is that the information you’ll need for foreign travel is relatively straightforward.