How to Survive Your Freshman Year: Fifth Edition

BRAND NEW Fifth Edition of this perennial best seller! How to Survive Your Freshman Year offers incoming college freshmen the experience, advice, and wisdom of their peers: hundreds of other students who have survived their first year of college and have something interesting to say about it. Based on interviews with hundreds of college students at every type of higher-learning institution across the country, this book has insights on every aspect of college life, including, what to take to the dorm, living with roommates, Facebook and other social networks, extracurricular activities, choosing classes, studying, going abroad, finances, food, the social scene, doing laundry, staying in touch with friends and family, and much more. Highly readable, much of the book consists of short snippets with some interesting insight and advice from the college students interviewed. The book also includes expert input from college advisors and officers.

SCOTT C. SILVERMAN, Ed.D., is the Coordinator of Orientation Programs in the office of Student Life at the University of California, Riverside, his alma mater. His professional career began as a peer mentor, and later as a teaching assistant for environmental science and first-year seminar courses at UC Riverside, where he earned a BS and MS in Environmental Science. Throughout his tenure as a student, he was a heavily involved student leader and activist, having roles in multiple student organizations, student government, peer mentoring, and in community activities, including nonprofit work. While completing his MS, he started working as a graduate assistant supporting student organizations, and separately, running a campus-based community non-profit providing support services and educational programming to college students at UC Riverside, before transitioning into his current position.

In 2007, Scott earned an Ed.D. in Higher Education Administration from the University of Southern California. His doctoral research on Facebook and other online social networks, “Creating Community Online: The Effects of Online Social Networking on College Student Experiences,” was chosen for the Outstanding Research Award by the National Orientation Directors Association (NODA) in 2008. Scott continues to be involved in NODA, serving on planning committees, as a regional representative and an Associate Editor of the Journal of College Orientation and Transition. Currently, he enjoys attending campus and community events with friends and family and, when the occasion arises, decking himself out in face paint and school colors on campus.

FRANCES NORTHCUTT, Ed.M., is an academic advisor and admissions reader in the William E. Macaulay Honors College of the City University of New York at Hunter College. Her advising career began when she became a peer advisor at Wesleyan University, where she earned her BA in English. She went on to advise students at the University of California, Berkeley and at the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia, where she also taught classes on college skills and professional development. She has presented at conferences of the National Academic Advising Association and was selected as the Outstanding Advisor (Primary Role) for the Mid-Atlantic region in 2006. She has a master's degree in Higher Education Administration from Temple University.

Mark Bernstein graduated from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. While there he started a business that provided students with "survival kits" consisting of unhealthy food sent by their parents, who were trying to cope with their loss. He went on to earn a law degree at New York University and to run CNN Interactive.

Yadin Kaufmann graduated from Princeton University. He was involved in journalism and started a student agency to publish a book he wrote. He survived his freshman year by chugging Hershey's Syrup, straight up. He also coauthored The Boston Ice Cream Lover's Guide. He went on to earn a law degree at Harvard Law School, where he was an editor of the Law Review, and to manage a venture capital fund.