Kollege Knowledge: A Grrl's Guide to Surviving the First Year
()
About this ebook
Related to Kollege Knowledge
Related ebooks
The Real Freshman Handbook Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTurd Ferguson & the Sausage Party: An Uncensored Guide to College Slang Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsStay Prepped:: 10 Steps to Succeeding in College (And Having a Ball Doing It) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNo-Sweat Homeschooling Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5No-Sweat Home Schooling: The Cheap, Free, and Low-Stress Way to Teach Your Kids Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Which Reminds Me of a Story Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA School of Our Own: The Story of the First Student-Run High School and a New Vision for American Education Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Moving Forward Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Homeschooling Parent: Self-care and Feeding of the Person Who Makes It All Happen Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Ultimate University Survival Guide: The Uni-Verse Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Let Them Thrive: A Playbook for Helping Your Child Succeed in School and in Life Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGoodnight Dorm Room: All the Advice I Wish I Got Before Going to College Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHow to Raise Your Parents: A Teen Girl's Survival Guide Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Middle School: How to Deal Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Your Turn: How to Be an Adult Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Love Learn Live Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPencils Down!: A Forty-Five Year Teaching Odyssey: a Teacher’S Manual for Educating for Life. Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSurviving High School: Essential Tools to Prepare you for the Road Ahead Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHow to Yodel Standing on Your Head in a Toilet: It's as Easy as - Living in a World Without Numbers Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAnd Gladly Teach Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHow to Start the School Year RIGHT!: 5 Simple Steps to a Great Beginning Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings21 Amazing Tips for Your Freshman Year Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSTOP DON'T READ THIS Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHow to Survive Homeschooling - A Self-Care Guide for Moms Who Lovingly Do Way Too Much Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSecrets From The Middle: Making Who You Are Work For You Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Best Four Years: How to Survive and Thrive in College (and Life) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBecoming the GOAT*: Stuff you need to know about life that they don't teach at school Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHomeschooling Myths: A Personal Perspective Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Ladder of Life: Balancing the Climb Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNot Much Just Chillin': The Hidden Lives of Middle Schoolers Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5
Humor & Satire For You
Love and Other Words Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I Will Judge You by Your Bookshelf Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5101 Fun Personality Quizzes: Who Are You . . . Really?! Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5A Man Called Ove: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Screwtape Letters Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Best F*cking Activity Book Ever: Irreverent (and Slightly Vulgar) Activities for Adults Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Don't Panic: Douglas Adams & The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Big Swiss: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Swamp Story: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mindful As F*ck: 100 Simple Exercises to Let That Sh*t Go! Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Farrell Covington and the Limits of Style: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Plato and a Platypus Walk Into a Bar...: Understanding Philosophy Through Jokes Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: the heartfelt, funny memoir by a New York Times bestselling therapist Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Soulmate Equation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Anxious People: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Killing the Guys Who Killed the Guy Who Killed Lincoln: A Nutty Story About Edwin Booth and Boston Corbett Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer: A Novella Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Best Joke Book (Period): Hundreds of the Funniest, Silliest, Most Ridiculous Jokes Ever Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Britt-Marie Was Here: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5My Favorite Half-Night Stand Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Go the F**k to Sleep Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The 2,548 Wittiest Things Anybody Ever Said Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Tidy the F*ck Up: The American Art of Organizing Your Sh*t Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5John Dies at the End Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5In a Holidaze Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Everything Is F*cked: A Book About Hope Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Kollege Knowledge
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
Kollege Knowledge - Courtney Fenner
it.
1: Home Alone
Housing Choices
First stop in your new college city or town: your dorm!
When I was an undergrad, there were four housing options available to first-year students: Old Dorms (built in the 1940s), New Dorms (built in the 1970s), Brown College and Hereford College. Old Dorms tended to be for more traditional students who wanted a standard hallway full of rooms that held students who were inclined to Greek (sorority/fraternity) life. New Dorms were suite style—several rooms situated around a living room—and tended to draw a more diverse group of students. Brown College was for smart hippies and Hereford College was for quieter types who wanted a small community that reminded them of home.
I lived in Old Dorms in a single room—because I didn’t want a roommate¹—in a former storage closet that had been converted to a bedroom. No joke. But it was my choice to live in that closet, and I could not have been happier. For the first time ever you will get to choose where you will live, at least this is how it goes at most schools. If you don’t get to choose, tough tootsies.
For those who do, there will be so many options for how and where you can live. A few choices that may exist at your college or university:
• Academic communities – You’ll get to live in a building with people who are the same major as you (if it’s a major with coursework starting in your first year).
• Language communities – This is life in an immersive language environment. For example, the French house, the Russian house, the Spanish house, etc.² It’s a terrific way to become fluent in a language other than English.
• Focused communities - In this type of living arrangement, building a sense of real family is important, so there are scheduled party nights, potluck meals and required group dinners each week. I was kind of jealous that I was never part of one of these communities in school.
• Single-sex housing – Most college residential buildings are comprised of both women and men with each hallway being single-gendered. But in SSH, the entire building is same-sex, which might be a welcome comfort for those who are uninterested in having to endure the funkiness of college-boy smell (which will burn your nasal passages).
Also, check for small details like whether there is an elevator or air conditioning. If these are must-haves for you, you’ll either need to choose housing that has these accommodations or get a ginormous fan for the window of your hotbox dorm room and get used to burning thighs as you climb the stairs home.
Consider the distance from the center of campus as well. If it’s super-far and only accessible by transportation, you’ll be away from tons of student activities.
However you choose to live, give it some real consideration; this is where you will spend at least the next nine months.
Some colleges have living and learning communities where you can live with people who have similar interests as you. If you can get into one your freshman year, it can help make big dorms feel smaller when you don't know many people yet. I was in a Women's Leadership Program focused on science and medicine and lived with 12 other girls during my freshman year. We all took our two chemistry and English classes together. We had 8 a.m. Friday lab for four hours and had 15-page lab write-ups due. So while everyone else was going out for Thursday night college nights, we were all sitting in the hallway writing up our labs. It made not being able to go out a lot easier, and it also made it highly unlikely that any of us would blow off our write-ups just to go out with the rest of our floor.
– Chelsea
Packing
Your university will supply you with a packing list. Pay close attention to the things that are not allowed. For example, extension cords are not allowed most places and neither are space heaters, as they can both start fires easily.
Some things I couldn’t live without:
• an ironing board
• a TV
• a raincoat and umbrella
• all-weather boots
• several pairs of sneakers
• my stuffed dog, Barkley
The things that mattered most to me I brought and kept the year long. But don’t bring everything you own to college, especially when it comes to your clothes. There will not be enough storage space. Follow this schedule instead:
Keep hoodies, a light jacket and a raincoat at school year-round.
If you’re going to a school that’s too far from home to frequently visit or to one so far north that it can start snowing in October, then of course bring as many clothing items as you’ll need.
This drop-off/pick-up method will be more efficient for your closet and drawers, not to mention that your mother will secretly smell the clothes you’ve left in your old bedroom and think of you when you’re gone. Sweet...and creepy.
Move-In Day
You will have a resident assistant/advisor (RA) assigned to you in your dorm. She (most RA’s are the same gender as their residents) will be the most cheerful person you meet during move-in weekend. An RA’s general job is to look out for the safety and welfare of her residents—that’s you. During your first year, she lives in the same hallway or suite as you. She is there for you as a resource; it’s fine to inundate her with questions and ask for help. Bear in mind, dear one, that she also serves as hallway police and is legally obligated to report you if you break a serious school rule or commit a crime. While she might be friendly, that doesn’t mean that she is your new BFF.
Generally on move-in day, there will be lots of people pushing and pulling, unloading and hauling, sweating and cursing. Not only will there be the chaos of transferring many lives into a few tiny buildings, but there also will be separation anxiety swirling from parents and students alike.