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The first practical guide of its kind that helps students transition smoothly from high school to collegeThe transition from high school-and home-to college can be stressful. Students and parents often arrive on campus unprepared for what college is really like. Academic standards and expectations are different from high school; families aren't present to serve as "scaffolding" for students; and first-years have to do what they call "adulting." Nothing in the college admissions process prepares students for these new realities.
As a result, first-year college students report higher stress, more mental health issues, and lower completion rates than in the past. In fact, up to one third of first-year college students will not return for their second year-and colleges are reporting an increase in underprepared first-year students.
How to College is here to help. Professors Andrea Malkin Brenner and Lara Schwartz guide first-year students and their families through the transition process, during the summer after high school graduation and throughout the school year, preparing students to succeed and thrive as they transition and adapt to college. The book draws on the authors' experience teaching, writing curricula, and designing programs for thousands of first-year college students over decades.
List of contents
An Introduction for Students
We Need to See Other People: A Letter to Parents and Families
A Guide to This Guide
PART I: THE NEW COLLEGE YOU
1. Your Identity: Is Reinventing Yourself a Real Thing?
2. Doubling (or Tripling) Down: Sharing Your Living Space
3. Beyond Icebreakers: Getting to KNow Your College Peers
PART II: COLLEGE IS SCHOOL
4. What Do You Want from Me? Academic Standards
5. Going Pro: Professionalism in College Academics
6. Get to the Point: Read and Study with Purpose
7. There Are No Bad Writers, Only Unpersuasive Papers: College Writing
8. Know Your Network: Academic Support
PART III: TAKE CARE OF YOU
9. Eat, Sleep, Pray, Play: Wellness
10. Health 101: Access to Care in School
11. You Are You Own Safety Net: Staying Protected in College
PART IV: THE RESIDENT EXPERTS
12. Key Players on Campus: Staff and Administrators
13. Not So Scary After All: Professors
PART V: MONEY TALK
14. You're Not a Loan: Paying for College
15. Your Life's Transcript: Financial Literacy
16. Turns Out, There's a Math Requirement: Understanding Budgets
PART VI: LIFE BEYOND THE CLASSROOM
17. The Lay of the Land: Your Campus
18. After the Activities Fair: Involvement and Community Responsibility
19. Work It: Career and Internship Resources
20. Act Locally: Your New College Town
PART VII: YOUR TO-DO LIST
Do This. Now. Seriously
Know and Do Before You Go
Make Your Smartphone Smarter
Boost Your Browser: Bookmark These Sites
Acknowledgements
Notes
Index
About the author
Andrea Malkin Brenner and Lara Hope Schwartz
