Customer Reviews
Where was this when I was in college? - By: Dennis Littrell, 07 Jul 2008 
If I were 18 years old & about to go off to college I would consider this an interesting book to read. I would devour itin one gulp racing from one quote to another, from one bit of dubious advice to the next at breakneck speed. In fact to save a few bucks I might read it while hanging out at Borders. Would I be any the wiser or better informed? Would this book actually help me to survive my freshmen year?
Actually it might. Although the advice is almost random, & sometimes contradictory, & coming from people who went to very different schools with very different environments, from a heartland state university to Harvard, from people who have no money to the very rich, there is some advice somewherein these pages I suspect that will help just about every freshman.
As an old foge who hasn't seen hallowed hallsin decades, this book provided not usable advice, but a kind of window into the mind of today's college student. I learned--no surprise really when you think about it--that one of the things that people going into college worry about today is gaining that "freshman 15"--that is to say pounds of fat. The main debate seems to be around whether cafeteria food is edible or not or how many daysin a row you can subsist on pizza & beer. "Amy," from Princeton University says, "The freshman 15 happens to everyone, & don't believe anyone who tells you otherwise." (p. 156) Best advicein the food category came from Chavon Mitchell, a Xavier grad, who wrote, "...my friend & I would scour the campus paper & fliers for events with free food...We would end up at academic speeches, random barbeques, or various group meetings, none of which we belonged to or knew anything about...We ended up eating for free at least three to four times every week...."
Okay, forget food. How about academics? Oops--21 chapters & none on academics. But no problem, "Hundreds of Heads" publishers have another book that covers this. It's called "How to get A'sin College--Hundreds of Student-Tested Tips."
Wait, there is a chapter on studying. Some good advice: "Sleep a lot. And always go to class." -Sarah, Georgia Tech grad. "Flirt with the professors. It comesin handy when you need to be late on your term paper because you partied all weekend." --from an anonymous University of Georgia grad. Another U of Georgia grad named Jen says, "Buy beaten-up, used books that have been highlighted & have notesin the margins: Instant Cliff's Notes!" (p. 126) But J.T., a University of Florida grad cautions, "Be careful when buying used books. The person who had the highlighter before you may have been an idiot." (p. 137)
All right let's get to the advice on partying, which is why you're herein the first place. The chapter is entitled, "Parties 101: How to Have Fun & Be Safe." It comes right after the chapter on "Going Out, Getting Serious: Dating & Sex." Be safe? I guess they mean, don't chug-a-lug Jack Daniels or do not go into the ghetto for weed. Or speed kills (it does). Or maybe it's this from "Anonymous": "Girls, be especially careful of what you drink while at clubs or house parties, because an uncovered drink could mean a lost night & a trip to the gynecologist the next day."
The chapter on choosing classes is good, but I wonder about this advice from "S.P.": "Fallin love with someonein your class right away, T.A., professor, whomever. You'll be hard-pressed to skip class. If there is no onein your class to love, then pick someone to hate & show up every day to make his or her life a living hell." (p. 107)
There's a chapter on dorm life & one on choosing or living with a roommate. One girl (Heather Pollock from a Cal State U--it doesn't say which one) had a roommate that was "A Goth lesbian. She would sit on the patio, smoke a pack of cigarettes an hour & cry about how some girl had screwed her over." Melanie from Penn State says, "The worst thing that happened with my roommate [was] She decided to tap dance at 7 a.m. to get back at me because I kept her up at night." Hmm...seems fair.
Yes, there is a chapter, more or less, on how to deal with helicopter moms. It's called "Family Ties: Keepingin Touch & Setting Boundaries." I knew I had hit the mother lode of insight into parent/student relationships from the student point of view when I read the first three bits of advice: "My relationship with my parents has improved a lot over the phone versusin person." -Chana Weiner Bernard College; "The thing with parents is that, nine times out of ten, they love you & they want to help you. If they get a little protective when you go away, it's because they don't know how to deal with it. Help them through it. Be patient with them." -B., George Washington University; "I have caller ID on my cell phone. If my parents call, I can see it's them & let it ring. But they e-mail every day, too. They don't do IM because I haven't taught them that yet & they haven't figured it out. They say, `When you talk to people online, what does that mean?' And I say, `Oh, I just e-mail them.'"
Come to think of it, maybe this book would be a good read for parents.
