Jim Terhune
VP of Student Affairs
Swarthmore College
I guess to a certain degree, the answer depends on what movies you’re talking about. College life isn’t one wild party frequented exclusively by movie stars who want to be your best friend. And, though I’m surely biased on this point, faculty and deans are not one-dimensional villains driven by an uncontrollable desire to make students’ lives miserable. On the contrary, we’re teachers who want you to succeed and get the most out of your college experience. By and large, real college life is a lot more ordinary and complex than the way college life is portrayed in the movies. By ordinary, I mean no magical or mystical transformation occurs when you step onto a college campus as a student. At first, there’s a lot about being at college that’s new and different, particularly if being at college includes living on your own for the first time. The academic expectations are different. The relationships with faculty are different. And figuring out how to balance life, work, family, and friends takes some time. But you’ll work it out, and very quickly your life at college will start to feel very normal and natural.
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