Transition from high school to college: useful & entertaining books that put things in perspective

By admin On July 30, 2010 Under College Life

Photographic Memory Development Subliminal MP3 - Subliminal CD

Getting ready for college? Here’s a list of select books to help you start off on the right foot!

Navigating Your Freshman Year: How to Make the Leap to College Life-and Land on Your Feet by Students Helping Students

There’s lots of good advice in the pages of this guide, written and edited by college students and recent graduates and broken up into short chapters. Pulled quotes, sidebars, and bulleted lists will also help the new frosh. It’s all very positive and upbeat, verging at times on the preachy. And even though this is written by young people, the book seems to be a little behind the times: concern about loud music in the era of the iPod and dorm phone use in the age of the cell? Leaving home, doing laundry, forming good study habits, finding friends, and seeking help are all dealt with efficiently, if not comprehensively. (from Booklist)

The Naked Roommate: And 107 Other Issues You Might Run Into in College by Harlan Cohen

A syndicated columnist for teens and young adults and the author of Campus Life Exposed, Cohen dishes commonsensical wisdom in “the first of what will be many editions of this book.” Presumably, forthcoming editions will address the ever-evolving challenges of campus life (cyber-classrooms, perhaps?), but what’s in this one will feel pretty familiar to anyone who attended college within the last 25 years. Tips include: be yourself, lock your door, set boundaries with your roommate, don’t drink too much and be sensitive to others’ differences. Cohen tackles the ins and outs of residence halls, student organizations, friendships, dating, drugs and money-oh, and he considers classes, too, though with perhaps with less enthusiasm (and certainly fewer pages) than he devotes to sex. Though he lists interesting statistics, additional resources and plenty of first-person letters from students seeking his advice, Cohen doesn’t offer much that a reasonably intelligent college kid couldn’t figure out on his or her own-but that may not be a weakness: “everything’s going to be okay” could be just what a nervous first-year student needs to hear most. (Publisher’s Weekly)

Making the Most of College: Students Speak Their Minds by Richard J. Light

Despite the author’s having interviewed 400 Harvard students and visited more than 90 campuses over 10 years, his report on the findings of the Harvard Assessment Seminars would be more accurately titled “Getting the Most Out of Harvard.” Rather than reflecting the experiences of average college students, his findings are more consistent with the experiences of students who arrive at prestigious universities already primed for intellectual inquiry. Yet some useful, if obvious, themes emerge from his decade spent interviewing more than 1,600 undergraduates: in-class and out-of-class experiences are significantly connected; strategies successful in high school don’t always work well at college; good advising is crucial; students must ask for help when they need it; “students are enthusiastic when classes are structured to maximize personal engagement” and they enjoy interdisciplinary courses. There are some surprises, too: students Light spoke with demand high writing standards and favor unpredictability in their professors’ political opinions. A major portion of the book argues that the benefits of diversity on college campuses have been underestimated and that awkward culture clashes can ultimately provide a positive, if at the time uncomfortable, learning experience. Still, the author’s efforts to extrapolate from the experiences of these privileged students to the majority of college students are often unconvincing. (Publisher’s Weekly)

Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook: College by Jennifer Worick and Joshua Piven

Filled with cheeky but practical solutions to just about any problem a college student could face, this slender volume opens with an ominous warning: “when a life is imperiled or a dire situation is at hand, safe alternatives may not exist.” Nonetheless, many of the situations it tackles are far from life threatening; how to avoid doing laundry, how to pull an all-nighter and how to identify bad cafeteria food are among them. Its advice on choosing a school and surviving dorm bathrooms (“never touch the floor with your bare feet”) clearly suggests that it was produced by a team who knows that of which they write. And the detailed primer on making it through the travails of college partying—with tips on how to avoid a nightmare hookup—isn’t there just for effect: it includes serious counsel like “Do not let a stranger get a drink for you” and “Clear the potential hook-up with a trusted friend.” All in all, this is a handy reference to have while at college, and would make useful required reading for first-year students. (Publishers Weekly)