Introduction to My Freshman Year

My Freshman Year is a book where the author is a professor from a large university enrolls as a freshman and examines college culture first hand. Rebekah Nathan covers seven main topics in her book. These topics include welcome week, living in the dorms, community and diversity, how other people see college students, academics, managing college work, and lessons she has learned.

I am a freshman student from the University of Wisconsin Eau Claire. I thought the author's description of college students is not 100% accurate and is somewhat biased towards the drinking and cheating students. Other than over emphasizing cheating and the amount of drinking in college, I believe Nathan's book is accurate. My experience of being a freshman college student did affect how I read the book. I was comparing what she wrote to my personal experiences as I read.

I was excited to read this book because I wanted to see what a college professor thought about being a student before, during, and after becoming a college freshman. That is exactly what this book does, however I did not enjoy reading this book because her thoughts, opinions, and things she experiences are very biased. It seems that she looks for all the negatives in things, whether it be decorations people have on their doors, or the way they manage and spend their time. She seems to rip on the "average" freshman, put the exchange students on a pedestal, and praise the seniors for all they have accomplished. The good honorable freshman that many of us are, are never mentioned. If i wrote about my freshman year it would be a very different book.

Before reading this book I didn't really know what a professor would do immersed in the life of a college student, but now, after reading this book I have gained a different perspective on life as a college student and also saw the problems that a college campus possesses. One of the problems on campus that I was vaugley aware of before I read this book was the lack of diversity present on a typical American campus, but now after reading this book I became aware of what problems do exist and what needs to be done to change them. Altogether Nathan both surprised me by her research results as well as her conclusions on this topic.

I wanted to read this book because I was interested in what an outsider would say about my culture. I never seemed to notice the negative sides of the college experience, but I also believe that Nathan had a somewhat different experience than me due to her age. This book describes the freshman life pretty accurately apart from the social aspect. Kids tend to hang around people similar to themselves, so when someone is older they tend to be left out. I very often compared my own freshman year to her experience and besides a few little things it tended to be right on.