Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Robert H. Miller is a graduate of Yale University and the University of Pennsylvania Law School. He is the critically acclaimed author of Law School Confidential and the coauthor of Business School Confidential and Med School Confidential.

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Everything You Need to Know About College!

Don't get to the end of your college career wishing you had "figured it all out" sooner. If you want to know what to do and what not to do to take full advantage of the opportunities for educational and social growth and success in college this is the book for you!

Campus Confidential is the ultimate insider's guide to surviving and thriving in college. Written in a friendly, conversational style, Campus Confidential offers a comprehensive, chronological treatment of the college experience by the author, a Yale graduate, and a blue-ribbon panel of fourteen diverse "mentors" from colleges and universities around the country. But this is not just another fluff-filled freshman handbook. Campus Confidential is the complete guide to the college experience providing solid, road-tested advice for every stage of the process, from high school students getting ready to apply, to college seniors looking for jobs or applying to graduate school, and everything in between.

Campus Confidential first takes you step-by-step through the college admissions process, with chapters on how to conduct a productive college search, prepare for the SAT, write effective applications, and use the famed "Relevance Calculus" to choose the college that best matches your interests. It then discloses the ten things you must do before you leave home and the ten things you must do as soon as you arrive on campus.

Campus Confidential takes you through a goal-setting workshop at the beginning of each year of college, teaches you how to stay safe on campus, demystifies fraternities and sororities, and provides advice on living with roommates, developing effective study habits and time management strategies, choosing a major, making choices about sex, drugs, and alcohol, acing final exams and term papers, going abroad, writing a thesis, deciding what to do after college, and much, much more.

Simply put, Campus Confidential is the one "must-have," complete college survival handbook that you cannot afford to be without.

Aus dem Klappentext

Everything You Need to Know About College!

Don't get to the end of your college career wishing you had "figured it all out" sooner. If you want to know what to do and what not to do to take full advantage of the opportunities for educational and social growth and success in college—this is the book for you!

Campus Confidential is the ultimate insider's guide to surviving and thriving in college. Written in a friendly, conversational style, Campus Confidential offers a comprehensive, chronological treatment of the college experience by the author, a Yale graduate, and a blue-ribbon panel of fourteen diverse "mentors" from colleges and universities around the country. But this is not just another fluff-filled freshman handbook. Campus Confidential is the complete guide to the college experience—providing solid, road-tested advice for every stage of the process, from high school students getting ready to apply, to college seniors looking for jobs or applying to graduate school, and everything in between.

Campus Confidential first takes you step-by-step through the college admissions process, with chapters on how to conduct a productive college search, prepare for the SAT, write effective applications, and use the famed "Relevance Calculus" to choose the college that best matches your interests. It then discloses the ten things you must do before you leave home and the ten things you must do as soon as you arrive on campus.

Campus Confidential takes you through a goal-setting workshop at the beginning of each year of college, teaches you how to stay safe on campus, demystifies fraternities and sororities, and provides advice on living with roommates, developing effective study habits and time management strategies, choosing a major, making choices about sex, drugs, and alcohol, acing final exams and term papers, going abroad, writing a thesis, deciding what to do after college, and much, much more.

Simply put, Campus Confidential is the one "must-have," complete college survival handbook that you cannot afford to be without.

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Campus Confidential

Jossey-Bass

Chapter One

Know thyself.

Socrates

Chances are, you've been thinking about it, at least in the abstract, for years.

Initially it might have started as a fascination with a particular college or university, based on the success of one of its sports teams or stimulated because a parent, older sibling, or other relative went there, or because the coolest teacher, youth group leader, or camp counselor you ever had was going there.

So maybe you ordered a sweatshirt or car window decal online, checked out the school's Web site, or maybe even visited the campus.

From there, as the PSATs rolled around (if not sooner), you might have started to think more seriously about the subject-about where you might want to go and, more important, where you might actually be able to get in.

And that's where we're going to pick up the story: sometime in the beginning or middle of your junior year of high school (or sixth form, if you're in prep school)-the time when, to maximize your chances of success in the upcoming admissions process, you should really start thinking seriously about college. But where in the world do you start?

The world of college admissions seems so large, and the task so enormous, that it often feels easier to procrastinate and push things off for another day. Don't.

Start now.

DEVISING A STRATEGY

The first thing you're going to need is a strategy-a way to approach the admissions process and to narrow down, based on certain characteristics that you determine are important to you, the field of hundreds upon hundreds of possible choices. Perhaps you already have a school or two that sticks out in your mind as a favorite, but even if you do, engage in the following exercise to test why that school is a favorite and whether or not the things that make it a favorite are more broadly applicable. If you are starting from a blank slate, do not despair. This exercise will help you narrow the field of possibilities to a manageable number for further review and study.

First, let's take a look at what some of your mentors considered in making this all-important decision.

"My first criterion was academic reputation," Zoe recalls. "I only applied to schools that I saw as being excellent liberal arts institutions. Being from a small town and very attached to New England, I also chose schools within an easy one-day drive from home. I was also attracted to beautiful, classic campuses, an ambiance that I perceived as liberal or progressive, and an ethnically, racially, and socioeconomically diverse student body."

"I looked at academic reputation, size, location, the social scene, and the opportunity to learn in small-class environments," Jim advises. "If you know, or at least have a pretty good idea of what you want to study, the strength of a university's department in that subject should also guide your decision."

"I considered only those schools with a good music program," Tiffany agreed. "But I also looked for schools that paired that music program with a strong liberal arts curriculum to supplement my musical aspirations.

"Even though I had no idea then that I would be embarking on a music career-being a musician-I did care about the music programs at the various schools I was looking at, as well as the extent of musical endeavors in the undergraduate culture," Tom added.

Other mentors were guided by their interest in high-level athletic competition.

"I applied to five schools and the factors I relied on in choosing schools were limited to the lacrosse record and what kind of lacrosse program I'd be joining if I went there," Aaron said. "I knew I was going to play college lacrosse, so that was the main focus for me in choosing where to go to school."

"I knew that I wanted to attend a liberal arts college in New England where I could play baseball," Dave agreed. "I had decent grades and my college adviser recommended that I look at some of the NESCAC schools like Williams, Amherst, Middlebury, Bates, Tufts, Colby, Trinity, and Bowdoin. All of these schools offered the combination of challenging academics and a level of baseball I knew I could compete at. The Middlebury coach showed the most interest in me, and after my visit, I fell in love with the campus and met some very friendly people. I committed to apply early to Middlebury and got in ED1, so it ended up being the only school I applied to. I lucked out big time!"

"Highly qualified students should also seriously consider the availability of scholarships or honors programs, as many colleges and universities will offer them free or reduced tuition. No loans to pay back means more freedom after college is done," Jim counsels. Many of the mentors also stressed the importance of an intangible "gut feeling" they got while touring a particular campus.

"I went to each campus at least twice, and as I visited campuses, the main thing I focused on was a feeling of `the right fit.' I asked myself whether I could envision myself living here happily for four years," Zoe noted.

Others similarly stressed the importance of the "gut feeling" you get during a campus visit.

"I selected Duke because there was something about it that just felt right," Chase recalls. "It was an intangible attribute that I felt when I went there on a tour. I drove away from Duke knowing that no other school made me feel that way, and I was sold."

"The feeling or 'vibe' you get from a college visit is definitely something you should trust," Tom agreed.

So now it's your turn to figure out what matters most to you. Take yourself somewhere where you can be undisturbed for the next half hour or so. And, as mentioned in the Introduction, get yourself a journal, spiral notebook, or three-ring binder that you intend to dedicate to the purpose of collecting your responses to these exercises. You'll need to access your responses again as you go through college and will want to be able to find them easily. For ease of reference, we'll refer to this as your workbook from now on.

Okay, now turn off your cell phone and prepare to think critically about what really matters to you.

FACTORS TO CONSIDER IN CHOOSING A COLLEGE OR UNIVERSITY-AN EXERCISE IN DEFINING YOUR INTERESTS

Think about each of the following twelve factors and how each one might help you identify things you would like (or dislike) in a college or university. After reading the description of each one, determine whether the factor is unimportant to you (0), somewhat important to you (1), or very important to you (2), and circle the appropriate number next to each factor.

Size of School 0 1 2

Do you want to be part of a small, intimate community with perhaps only a few hundred students in your college class and perhaps only a handful of students in each of your academic classes, or would you prefer to be part of a huge campus where you can study in relative anonymity, and where at least the introductory classes can contain several hundred students each? Is it important for you to know most of the people in your class, or are you happy enough simply to know a few...