Going to college can be the most exhilarating, terrifying, and mystifying experience all at once.
To help navigate this crucial life step, there are a plethora of good books providing tales and guidance to prepare for the first great adventure.
Here are our top picks.
“Choosing College: How To Make Better Learning Decisions Throughout Your Life” by Michael B. Horn and Bob Moesta (Jossey-Bass, $18).
Choosing a college is likely the most important and complex decision a high school student has to make, so Horn and Moesta steer students toward thinking about why they want to matriculate in the first place. Once they understand their motivations and the author’s reason, it becomes easier to pick the school most likely to be a match.
The authors make the case that traditional college metrics are outdated and fail to point students toward useful conclusions. They include more than 200 case studies of how and why students made the decisions they did, showing readers how to make one of the most impactful choices of their life.
“The Years That Matter Most: How College Makes or Breaks Us,” by Paul Tough (Mariner Books, $9.80)
American colleges, Tough writes, are slanted toward helping the upper class succeed while creating unnecessary barriers for everyone else. From this premise, he dissects the college experience for an unflinching look at the realities of attending college in the US, from the burdens of the admissions process to how colleges prepare students (or don’t) for everyday life.
While this book may not fill incoming students with hope and wonder, it will show them what they’re up against in colleges today, and in doing so, provide a needed reality check.
“College Hacks” by Keith Bradford (Adams Media, $9)
This book avoids the formality of official advice books, coming off instead like the wizened college senior who takes new students under his wing, showing them the “real” deal to surviving and thriving throughout their college experience.
The power of this book is in its variety and scope, with advice on everything from acing exams to retaining studied information to emerging victorious in beer pong and extending to the more practical and mundane. Last minute stain on your shirt just before class? Dorm smells like … well, a dorm? Can’t seem to hand in a paper without one key typo? This book will show you how to overcome issues you couldn’t otherwise know about unless you’ve already been to college.
“The 5-Ingredient College Cookbook: Easy, Healthy Recipes for the Next Four Years and Beyond” by Pamela Ellgen (Rockridge Press, $8)
Contrary to popular belief, eating nothing but fast food for four years is not conducive to a successful academic experience. This book contains over 100 recipes geared toward college students in that they’re cheap, tasty, and easy to make.
Learn how to cook everything from French toast to Thai chicken ramen to vegan enchiladas in the time it takes to watch an episode of “The Office.” Also featuring a refresher on kitchen basics, this book helps wean students off fast food and microwave specials, and toward an assortment of fresh and healthy fare.
“College Essay Essentials: A Step-By-Step Guide to Writing a Successful College Admissions Essay” by Ethan Sawyer (Sourcebooks, $9.60)
Few things are more stressful than having to write an essay from scratch. Now add high stakes — like, only getting into the college of your dreams if the essay is compelling and well-written — and you have a recipe for weeks’ worth of stressful dreams.
In this book, Sawyer deconstructs the college essay, removing the mystery to tell students exactly what they need to address and how they can best do so.
Sawyer informs students that there are only four types of college admissions essays, and instructs them on how to determine which would be most impactful for them. The book includes real student essay stories, brainstorming activities, editing advice, and more to provide a comprehensive roadmap for students that helps them replace fear with confidence when sitting down to write this potentially life-changing essay.
“Educated: A Memoir” by Tara Westover (Random House, $13)
There’s no more relatable feeling for college students than the sense of being out of place. New home, with new friends, new challenges, and without the hovering guidance of parents for the first time, going to college is often a student’s first major life re-alignment.
Westover, born to Idaho survivalists, experienced the ultimate in culture shock when she left home to attend Harvard and later Cambridge, and spent years wrestling with the vast differences and contradictions of these two very different sides of her life.
Any student feeling displaced at school can take comfort and guidance from Westover’s experiences, as well as assurance that whatever their past, they can ultimately guide their own lives as they see fit.
