My Freshman Year post

The reading for this week was My Freshman Year By Rebekah Nathan also known as Cathy Small. As an anthropologist she decided to take a closer look at the freshman population of a University to get to know why they do what they do.

What was the most surprising aspect of the book, and why did it surprise you?

The most surprising part of this book for me was the section called Who Eats with Whom: A Study of Student Dining starting on page 61. I think that it was surprising for me because I usually ate with groups of mixed ethnicity during much of my freshman year. There were usually a few distinct groups that I ate with, mostly Chemistry nerds and people from hall government. The NDSU Chemistry program has many different cultures represented and it would be very difficult to go to a meal with a group and not have different ethnicities present. With a dining background like this, I was not really aware that it was common to have such separations. I think that it makes sense in general though. As a freshman I was a little shy and nervous about moving and doing things. It seems logical that people might try to find things that are familiar, and a shared language or culture is comforting. I have never seen people take their food to go and eat in their dorm. I didn’t sit and watch people for hours, but I feel confident that this didn’t happen very often which leads to my surprise.

I was an RA for a year when I was an undergraduate and I think that the book did a fairly good job of getting the motivation behind the programs that the RAs did, but I don’t think that I have ever heard of a dorm with this much going on at once. It seemed like she must have really tried to hit up all of the events that she could. It is good to be involved, but if you want the true college experience you would want to pick just a few and go to those. RAs know full well that most people have other things to do and they are not surprised when nobody shows up for programs. The goal is really just to get people talking to each other, but once everybody reaches a comfort level they resist change. People will form their clans and do things with them because it is easier than trying to do too much with a big group of strangers.


In light of the challenges faced by undergraduate students highlighted in the book, what advice would you give new college instructors?

First they should understand that there are a lot of different time commitments to which students need to allocate their attention. If a teacher just looks at the credit load that students have they may think that there is plenty of time to study, but there are things like work, organizations, and clubs that students do as well. The longer I have been in college the more I found that the grades really don’t matter. They are a bad tool for evaluating students potential. The real benefit comes in making connections. Most of the information a person needs can be learned on ones own if they are motivated, and a potential employer looks at what reference letters and experience the candidate has. This, of course, doesn’t count when considering pre-med or pre-pharm students, but for most other students there is a lot of leeway. This makes some of the professional organizations and clubs very important for students.

With that in mind a teacher should only assign reading or work that is important. On page 122 the author comments that “82 percent of seniors said that they sometimes, often, or very often come to class without completing readings or assignments.” She goes on to explain a few of the reasons on page 137. If the material is not important or needed for later in the class it is not going to get any attention. Furthermore, if there is some reading that you feel is very important it should be mentioned in a manner that suggests just how important it really is. I would suggest that this varies, because a teacher always saying something will be on the test gets a little old and makes people fear the monster of a test that you must be thinking of.

I would also suggest that new college instructors make sure they know that many cultures have different views on how education works. If an instructor has trouble getting through to some students they should try and figure out what they can reasonably do to accommodate them. It doesn’t need to be a mystery. If there is a problem the easiest way to approach the problem is to ask. There may be a sense of the student not wanting to disagree with you, but from the experience that I have had with foreign students, they will quickly come to learn that talking to the teacher is not a bad thing.


Has this book changed your perspective on undergraduate students? If no, why not? If so, how so?

The book really didn’t change my opinion of undergraduate students. It did enlighten me with a few statistics that made me a little more aware of why undergrads do what they do. I think that I had a pretty varied undergraduate career that ended fairly recently, though. I was an RA, I switched majors, I talked with students of different cultures that were in my majors, and I grumbled about how unfair the professors were. I even took the wicked easy Human Sexuality class that she mentions. While I didn’t pay as close of attention as the author, I did have a fairly similar undergraduate experience. I will admit that there were differences, and that her freshman year covered much of the things that I did through my whole undergrad career.