Cliff notes on college life
The College Survival Handbook: By Deborah Clary, Andrews and McMell, $12.95More than a million and a half high school seniors graduating this spring plan to attend college in the fall, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
If you're one of them, you might consider picking up "The College Survival Handbook," by Deborah Clary, a "survivor" of the University of South Carolina class of 1991.
She offers common-sense advice helpful for any student leaving home for the first time, from making the move, decorating one's new digs, the best times to visit the school cafeteria, and she sends out the ol' roommate alert.
Depending on which roommate type YOU are, you may or may not want to live with the "neat freak," "no lifer" or "sloth," the latter which she describes as being "a pig, usually identified by the mounds of clothing, trash and other general debris around their living spaces."
Clary even offers some basic recipes for those who never learned to cook, having had a live-in servant (that would be mom) for years.
And, if you do miss mom, dad or your legal guardian, well, Clary makes a good substitute. She will remind you to exercise, stick to your budget and watch who you date ("You never know when that person who seems so sane and interesting in calculus class will go psycho on you.")
A lot of this information will sound like typical adult advice, especially when it comes to the standard warnings about drugs and sex. But considering Clary's a stranger, it seems as though she really does have your well-being in mind. She details the symptoms of sexually transmitted disease -- the rashes, blisters, warts -- in such a way that any bright college student will find it most rational to never ever have sex. But even though the guide will be helpful with many aspects of college life, you'll still be responsible for the passing grades.
Nadine Kam, Star-Bulletin.
