Around this time of year, colleges begin to gear up for their big graduation ceremonies. Along with handing out the diplomas and giving the grads a chance to toss their mortarboards up into the air there is another annual tradition: The commencement speaker. You can pretty much guarantee that the President and First Lady will be invited to a bunch of campuses. There will also be a wide range of politicians, business leaders, anchormen and celebrities who will also show up for some speechifying. It’s that last category that sometimes generates the most “interest” as in, “They invited ‘who’ to our graduation?”

Recently, Rutgers University caused a bit of a stir when they invited Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi to their campus to share with the students all her sage advice about poofing up your hair, fist pumps and the GTL lifestyle associated with the Jersey Shore. For those who don’t know, GTL is gym, tanning and laundry. Apparently GTL is what the denizens of this MTV “reality show” occupy their time with. Snooki’s advice to the gathered: “Study hard, but party harder.”