Getting the Best Out of College, Revised and Updated: Insider Advice for Success from a Professor, a Dean, and a Recent Grad

291 Pages·2012·1.4 MB·English

by  Peter Feaver

Copyright © 2008, 2012 by Peter Feaver, Sue Wasiolek, and Anne Crossman
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a
division of Random House, Inc., New York.
www.crownpublishing.com
www.tenspeed.com
A previous edition was published in the United States by Ten Speed Press, Berkeley, in 2008.
Ten Speed Press and the Ten Speed Press colophon are registered trademarks of Random House,
Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Feaver, Peter.
Getting the best out of college, revised and updated : insider advice for success from a
professor, a dean, and a recent grad / Peter Feaver, Sue Wasiolek, Anne Crossman. — 2nd ed.
p. cm.
Summary: “A guide to optimizing all aspects of the undergraduate college experience, written
for students by a professor, a dean, and a recent college graduate”— Provided by publisher.
1. College student orientation—United States. I. Wasiolek, Sue. II. Crossman, Anne. III. Title.
LB2343.32.F434 2012
378.1’98—dc23
2011051246
eISBN: 978-0-30778880-1
v3.1
To the faculty mentors who helped me get the best out of my college and
graduate experience, and to the mentees who help me get the best out of
being a professor.
PETER
To my mom, who continues to inspire me to become a well-educated
person. Thanks for studying with me, taking me to the library every
Sunday, and buying me every book I ever wanted. (Just think, you won’t
have to buy this one!)
SUE
With gratitude to my parents and grandparents for their tireless love and
sacrifice in propelling me toward my dreams; to my husband, Josh, for
helping make those dreams a reality.
ANNE
CONTENTS
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Foreword
Introduction
1 “YOU EXPECT ME TO LIVE WITH A STRANGER?”
Managing Life in the Dorm
2 LEAVING HOME, PHONING HOME, AND THE FIRST TRIP BACK
TO THE MOTHER SHIP
Maintaining Relationships Back Home
3 “I HAVE THE PERFECT SCHEDULE—ALL MY CLASSES ARE ON
WEDNESDAY!”
Writing the Personal Narrative Called Your Transcript
4 ALLIANCES, FELLOWS, AND CLUBS, OH MY!
Engaging in Extracurriculars
5 MEMORIES YOU’LL WANT TO REMEMBER
Maneuvering the Social Scene with Aplomb
6 WHAT PROFESSORS WISH YOU KNEW
Paying Attention to the Person Behind the Curtain
7 GETTING WHAT YOU CAME FOR
Studying Smarter (and Why It Shouldn’t Be All That Hard)
8 YOU’RE NOT FROM AROUND HERE, ARE YOU?
Advice for International Students and Their Domestic Friends
9 “I’VE NEVER NEEDED HELP BEFORE …”
Navigating Campus Resources
10 THIS JUST ISN’T WORKING
Delaying, Transferring, Studying Abroad, or Dropping Out
11 SO WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP?
Choosing Your Major vs. Choosing Your Career
12 IT’LL BE OVER BEFORE YOU KNOW IT
Preparing for Life After College
About the Authors
About the Student Contributors
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Writing this book has been an adventure all its own. Peter and Sue toyed
with the idea of writing a book for nearly a decade, advancing it by baby
steps because most conversations took place at the gym or loud college
functions. It was not until indefatigable Anne joined the merry band as a
recent grad that we got this book steadily under way.
That being said, we could not have written the book without the
countless students, faculty, and administrators who, over the years, have
shared with us their lessons learned the hard way. Some will easily find
themselves in the anecdotes we have included; others will have to look a
bit harder, but we assure you that you’re here—in the stories, in the
counsel, and in our most sincere gratitude.
We eagerly thank all those who read the draft manuscript, in whole or
in part, and gave us the kind of trenchant feedback we needed. We
especially thank Dorothy Lou Bailey, Andrea Beschel, Lauren Betz,
Autumn Bonner, Nick Bonner, Tanvi Buch, Hans Buder, Barbara Carlson,
Josh Crossman, Lisa Disbrow, Rebecca Duckworth, Brian Fawcett, John
Feaver, Ruth Feaver, Carol Fidler, Joshua Foromera, Helen Giles,
Arunabha Guha, Onome Ofoman, David Selinger, Philip Whisenhunt,
Beth Whitehead, Billy Zarzour, and John Zink.
Thank you to Sheila Curran, who led us to the good people of Ten
Speed Press, and to the Crown Publishing Group for encouraging us to
pursue a second edition. We are also immensely grateful to Emily
Timberlake, our editor, for taking our book to a new level of excellence,
and for Jean Blomquist and Molly Woodward, who scrubbed the
manuscript shiny bright.
Above all, we would like to thank our families, who were supportive,
patient, and long-suffering through this process. A special thanks to
Karen, who too many nights caught Peter sending furtive emails of
chapter drafts after he’d already spent a long, hard day at the White
House, and to Josh for giving up countless weekends of kayaking to stay
home with the kids so Anne could warm a seat at the public library.
FOREWORD
Coaches don’t win games, players do. But good coaching can help
players win. The right coaching can help a player go to the next level.
And bad coaching can lead a good player far away from success.
That, at least, is how I approach my job, and that is how this book
approaches college. This book aims to coach students toward academic
and personal success at the collegiate level. The authors are my Duke
colleagues, and among them they have many decades of experience
helping students make the most of the natural talents and the
opportunities which life has presented them.
This book does not guarantee success any more than I could draw up
an X’s-and-O’s play that guarantees a game-winning basket. Players still
have to execute that play when the whistle blows, and students still have
to apply the advice to their own personal situations. But if you read this
book and take the counsel it offers seriously, you will be better prepared
for success.
In my world, there are lots of ways a team can get off track, especially
in a long season of competition. An important part of my job is to help
my athletes avoid those pitfalls and to identify the best ways to navigate
to a successful conclusion.
That is what this book does for any student who reads and applies it.
The premise of this book is that anyone reading it has already mastered
one part of the collegiate experience: picking a college and getting in.
That, however, is the easy part.
Based on their extensive experience working with students, the
authors argue that the choice of college is less important than all the
choices you make once you are in college. You can go to an elite school
and get a lousy education if you make a lot of bad choices. You can go to
a less well-known school and come out with a superior education, if you
take full advantage of what that school has to offer. (Come to think of it,
there may be a basketball analogy here, too: everyone knows that a
Cinderella team can make a run if they face a major program that
doesn’t take each game seriously.)
Things were a bit simpler for me when I went to college. I was
fortunate to go to a great school, the US Military Academy at West Point,
and one of its many strengths was that it provided students with an
exceptionally regimented system of do’s and don’ts, especially back then.
College today could hardly be more different. Students face a
bewildering array of choices—choices of where to live, what classes to
take (and whether to go to class—this, by the way, is not a choice for
members of the Duke men’s basketball team!), what to major in, what to
do after class, and so on. Some of the choices involve timeless concerns;
we knew what fermentation did to barley and malt back in my day. But
some of the choices involve developments as recent as yesterday’s news
and tomorrow’s technology. And students can find themselves on their
own confronting each and every one of those choices.
Students who just coast along will find that the choices are being
made, but by default and without much thought to how one thing affects
another. Such students may graduate (or they may not—it happens all
too often), but they won’t have made the most of the extraordinary
opportunity that college represents.
I hope you won’t be that kind of student. I hope you will read this
book and get the most out of it—and let it help you get the best out of
college.
Mike “Coach K” Krzyzewski
Head Coach, Duke Men’s Basketball Team
Head Coach, USA National Team