My name is Tyler Oakley,

and today, I am doing another Q & A,

but this day has a twist because I'm going to start doing

a lot more Q & As that are subject or theme-oriented.

Today's theme is college and universities.

So, I went to university a couple of years ago

at Michigan State University.

And it was an amazing experience,

so I felt like I should tell y'all about it.

So, let's dig into your questions!

Shall we?

Connor would like to know,

"Was it weird being a YouTuber in college?"

Kind of yes, sometimes,

when my residents when I was an RA knew about it,

that was weird.

But, a lot of the times it was really great.

I got to meet a lot of people.

I got a lot of internships from it.

I got some jobs from it.

Sometimes, like I said, it was a little awkward

when people knew where I lived in the dorms,

that was strange.

But a lot of it honestly was an uphill battle

because at the time nobody knew what YouTube was.

There were not that many people

that were doing what I was doing.

It was brand new.

YouTube wasn't really a thing yet.

And so, I had to explain it a lot of times.

But, I remember one time in specific, that was really cool,

and I actually have it with me.

I'm such a dork that I still have this.

But, my school newspaper at Michigan State

did an entire article about me,

and they put me right on the front.

"Communication sophomore Tyler Oakley video-blogs,

also known as vlogging on youtube.com.

It was just cool because it was the first time

that there was a publication

that recognized what I was doing

and was curious about it and wanted to know more,

but was not judgmental.

So, that was awesome!

Thank you to The State News for believing in me

back in the day when I had nobody believing in me.

Another really interesting moment was

when I was at a football game,

and I heard that there were 75,000 people there.

It was completely sold out,

and I had just passed 75,000 people

that were subscribed to me, so that was insane to me

that I could reach all these people

and that could fill this entire football stadium.

Trinity would like to know was I a nerd or a jock.

What do you think (laughs), Trinity?

Honestly!

The jockiest thing that I did that me and my girlfriend,

not my girlfriend, but my girlfriend.

We would go over to the gym,

and we would stay and do the elliptical right above

where all the weights were,

and we would just check out guys while we were ellipticaling

and doing nothing with our lives (laughs)

and just checking out boys.

So, that's about as sporty as I got.

Christina says, "You've said you have paid

"for college all by yourself.

"How did you manage that?

"And did you take out loans."

Yes, I took out loans.

I took out a lot of loans,

but I also saved up in high school.

I had multiple jobs on campus while I was at university.

I was a telemarketer.

Was an RA, which deducts a lot of costs

when it comes to living and food.

But yes, I did have to take out loans.

And there's nothing wrong about taking out loans,

but it just kind of sucks.

You can also live from home,

or you can also go to community college.

A lot of the courses that you need to take for university

are going to be so much more cheap at a community college,

so you can do that.

Or even taking time off

between high school and college to save up.

There's so much you can do to save money

if you don't want to take out loans,

but I chose to go straight from high school to college

and just work my butt off to make it happen.

Maheen would like to know,

"Do you recommend buying books brand new

"or buying them used?"

So, a lot of professors are going to tell you

you have to buy books brand new.

Usually, you do not.

If there's a new edition,

it's probably because they changed

literally probably a chapter or a page.

So, that's usually $150 per book.

There's usually three per class.

You're usually taking five classes a semester-ish,

and you have eight semesters,

so you do the math on how much that is going to cost you.

It's a lot of money.

So, back when I was in college,

I would use SlugBooks,

and it's basically you get your syllabus,

you see the list of books,

and it'll show you

where you can get those books for the cheapest.

So, sometimes it's Amazon, sometimes it's Chegg,

sometimes it's..

Wherever it will be,

it'll show you where you can get those for the cheapest,

and that's how I saved so much money.

Tuition is bad, but it's the day-to-day books

that you have to buy that just eat you alive.

There were times when I had $100 in my bank account,

and I didn't have the money to go and get the books,

so slugbooks.com really helped.

Marissa would like to know,

"What should a high school student expect

"when they're going off to college?"

Expect costs.

Expect amazing experiences if you let yourself have them.

Expect amazing new friends

if you let yourself go and meet them.

Expect to gain weight.

Expect to be poor.

Expect to date and hook up

and get in trouble for a lot of things

that you can possibly do on campus.

Expect to put yourself outside of your comfort zone.

Breno would like to know,

"Tell us about a college sweetheart, if you had one."

(laughs) So, oh god...

My first boyfriend, I will tell you about,

because I just spent New Year's with him.

We dated when we were 18, so we were just babies then.

It took some time in between us dating

for us to finally become friends again.

But of course, he's a special person in my heart.

So, I went to Chicago for New Year's.

I spent some time with him and his new boyfriend,

and I don't know what you want me to say.

I put up a video on my second channel,

youtube.com/extratyler, all about my New Year's,

and he's in it.

So, you can go check that out,

but I'm not going to talk about it here.

Taylor would like to know,

"What did your dorm room look like?"

Most of my videos from when I was in college

are still live and public,

so if you want to go see what my life was like then,

you can go check that out

if that's what you wanna do with your night. (laughs)

Marissa wants to know,

"Was it hard to stay away from food in the Freshman 15?"

Yes, but the big culprit is gonna be alcohol.

You will gain weight because of alcohol

because you're drinking,

and that is a lot of calories

and you don't think about that

when you're consuming a lot of alcohol.

I gained some weight.

Still working it off.

It's fine.

Courtney wants to know,

what was my "favorite memory as an RA?"

So, I was an RA,

which is basically you babysit your entire floor.

You're in charge of your floor.

I was an RA for three years, and all in the same building.

I had a co-ed floor every year.

And I was the cool RA.

I was fun.

I was stern.

I would write people up,

but I was pretty easy-going, go with the flow.

I didn't care much about the little things.

One of my favorite memories of being an RA,

I was on duty, which means you go through the halls

and make sure everybody is alive

and nobody is crazy or dying or drunk or whatever.

Once, we saw a couple of residents

with a hamster in the room.

And you're not allowed to animals in the dorms.

And usually you just say,

"Okay, have somebody come pick up your animal

"and you're good to go.

"You won't get written up."

But I was going to mess with these kids (laughs) that night,

and I told them, "I'm so sorry about your hamster,

"but we have to take it

"and throw it down the garbage chute."

Just to fuck with them

because that's the type of person I am. (laughs)

And then, they started crying,

so I had to calm the situation before I got in trouble

for lying to a resident,

but clearly I didn't throw it down the garbage chute.

But how funny would that have been?

Honestly, I thought it was so funny.

Vinny would like to know,

"Were you a good boy in college?"

(laughs loudly)

What do you think?

Larsen would like to know,

"What was your major in college?"

I majored in communication

with a specialization in interpersonal communication,

focuses in marketing and PR.

I also taught, as a TA, public speaking,

which was a great opportunity.

I got credits for that,

and I got to work on my own public speaking skills,

which I use all the time now.

I go to universities and I talk.

I ended up using my degree a lot.

I took jobs in social media as soon as I left college.

And now, that is my life.

Casey wants to know,

"What was your first college party like?"

Uhh (chuckles), I don't remember.

If anything tells you what it was like, I think that's it.

Isabelle wants to know,

"Did a lot of people judge you in college?"

No, yes and no.

There's always going to be people that are assholes,

but I remember once somebody wrote faggot

on my door to my dorm room in Sharpie.

That was not a good moment.

Hailey wants to know,

"What is the best prank you pulled in college?"

I did some stuff. (cackles)

I was dating this guy once,

and we once wrapped every single thing

in his room in wrapping paper.

And that was funny, literally everything.

Every single article of clothing,

every single thing on his desk, wrapping paper.

So he gets back,

and it's a whole shrine of wrapping paper laden things.

Alex wants to know,

"What was my drunkest memory in college?"

One night, my freshman year,

I remember my last memory of that night

was taking a shot of Popov, which is vodka,

disgusting, $4 a liter

and then chasing it with Cherry Smirnoff.

And that was not a good experience

because I woke up the next day with Sharpie all over my face