How to College: What to Know Before You Go (and When You’re There) by Andrea Malkin Brenner and Lara Hop Schwartz – J Book Review

From the synopsis:

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.

This book is exactly what it says on the tin. Brenner and Schwartz provide an easy to read, well-organized resource that would be valuable to incoming college freshmen (and probably upperclassmen as well). They offer advice on what to expect from your professors and roommates, how to get plugged into the student organization scene, how to use the library, and what resources are available to you if you run into problems. The language of the book is clear and accessible.

Still, while reading the book, I kept coming back to the question of “who is this for”? The book is full of advice that I would expect most kids with college-educated parents to know already–“office hours are there for a reason”. At the same time, I don’t know how this book would end up in the hands of under-resourced students who might need it most.

Perhaps the goal was to create a more comprehensive resource by stating the “stuff everyone knows”. Sometimes the obvious isn’t said out loud and things fall through the cracks, such as the advice to having a conversation with your parents about how often you’ll be in touch before you land on campus. (Other advice seems… naive? Emailing your professors before you get on campus might be a little too eager beaver, but surely there are students who might benefit from taking the advice.)

The authors take a light tone that might be easier for an incoming freshman to hear (rather than the voice of the parents they are leaving behind). In the chapter on communicating with faculty and staff, they state: