Reviewed by Randall S. Hansen, Ph.D. Much of the advice high school seniors receive about transitioning to college focuses on academic issues such as time management, study skills, research techniques, note-taking tips, and the like. Few articles or books on the subject of high school to college transition focus on the personal and social implications of leaving home to attend college… until now. Andy Gibbon has written an easy-to-read book that makes excellent reading for high school seniors preparing to start college. Besides some great tips and advice, Make College Yours also has some very illustrative (some might say graphic) anecdotes to reinforce key points. It’s a very breezy book and can easily be read in one short sitting. My main problem with the book is its price, but perhaps the high price is to prepare readers for what they will soon discover: how very expensive college textbooks are these days. As a writer who has written both fictional and nonfictional accounts of college life, and as a college professor who has interacted with students for more than a decade, I can honestly say that Make College Yours rings true in many ways -- and offers excellent advice for making that transition from home to college that much more positive and smooth. Just about every study I have ever read about why students drop out of college or transfer colleges identifies homesickness -- or a failure to connect with people -- as a top reason for leaving. Gibbon does a great job in first showing readers how they have built a strong support group at home, how moving away to college and away from that support group causes homesickness, and then how to begin immediately -- on the first day on campus -- building a new support network at college. Make College Yours is divided into three parts. The first part deals with understanding the transition from home to college and how to best deal with it. The second part gives excellent advice on building relationships in college -- with roommates, faculty and advisers, and friends and significant others. The third part offers advice on personal and independence issues (such as protecting your reputation, attending classes and studying, and underage drinking) that first-year students face. The aspect I like most about the book -- which is never discussed overtly, but comes through in all the tips and advice -- is the focus on personal responsibility. Most college freshmen are at least 18 years old -- young adults -- and if they never have had to take personal responsibility for their actions, college should be the time to do so. Make College Yours is about empowering that personal responsibility. As a college professor, I too often hear students blame everyone or everything but themselves for a problem they could have easily avoided. For example, Gibbon spends an entire chapter on the importance of understanding the course requirements for graduating -- of becoming your own academic adviser -- and not relying on your college adviser for the correct information. And as a college professor, I also wholeheartedly endorse the chapter titled, “Befriend Faculty.” One of the reasons I became a college professor, and especially one of the reasons I teach at Stetson University, is because of the enjoyment I get from meeting new students, making a difference in their lives, and seeing them mature in the years after graduation. But even at Stetson -- known as a teaching school -- I am amazed at the number of students who don’t bother to take advantage of building relationships with faculty members. So, raise questions in class, talk to professors before or after class, and visit them during office hours. And remember this quote from the book: “Just as you sit in a class formulating ideas about the professor, the professor will stand at the head of the room formulating opinions about you.”
So, even though the book is full of common sense advise and a bit short for its price, if you’re looking for a book that will help prepare you for the social/relationships aspects of college life, that provides advice for having the proper attitude about transitioning from high school to college, that gives you great tips for where and how to build new friendships and relationships, and that empowers you to move forward into adulthood and personal responsibility, then this little book will be a good investment in your future success -- in college and beyond. If nothing else, this book will help reinforce all your good habits while providing the guidelines for getting rid of some bad ones.
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