How to College by Andrea Malkin Brenner and Lara Hope Schwartz

Students and parents will be celebrating New Trier’s graduation tomorrow (with, helpfully, no rain in the forecast). An excellent guide to the next phase for many of them is HOW TO COLLEGE by Andrea Malkin Brenner and Lara Hope Schwartz.  This new and practical text is subtitled “what to know before you go (and when you're there).”  The authors provide numerous helpful tips in this very accessible book. For example, there are sections titled The New College You (about identity, living with roommates, and making friends); College is School (filled with ideas for mastering academic challenges); Resident Experts (dealing with staff, administrators, and self-advocating with professors); and Life Beyond the Classroom (activities, career, internships, and college town). I turned to the section called Take Care of You which discusses wellness, healthcare and campus security. Yes, there’s some references to insurance which may interest parents more. However, the authors primarily address students; for example, they offer some very useful self-assessment exercises like the 168 Assignment which is complete with charts to track how time is spent (grooming, eating, sleeping, going to class, exercising, studying, etc.) over the course of a week. There’s also some budgeting charts and information about loans and financial literacy in the Money Talk section which would be a great complement to The New York Times’ recent Financial Checklist for High School Grads. And, the final section, Your To Do List, is an organized (if somewhat daunting) summary of steps to achieve over the summer before attending college. Look for HOW TO COLLEGE on our shelves along with an updated and expanded edition of The HER Campus Guide to College Life by Stephanie Kaplan Lewis. Congratulations to our graduates!!