Chapter One:
In the first chapter, Nathan focuses on the topic of integration into college culture. She develops her plan to go incognito and attend the same university where she was a professor and live with college students. She displays integration by explaining how hard it was for her to become accustomed to walking to class instead of driving, learning about alcohol consumption rules in the dorms, adjusting to the speed and lingo of college student conversations, being mistaken for a mom multiple times during orientation week and throughout the school year, and learning the university bus system.
Chapter Two:
In the second chapter, Nathan analyzed dormitory lifestyle. She carefully evaluated the images within the dorms put up by Resident assistants or by students themselves. RAs usually place positive bulletin boards up in hallways with uplifting and informative messages about how to study for finals or how to protect oneself from excessive drinking. Nathan took special time to decode the decorations on the doors of residents; she looked at decorations only on the outside of doors, and found that common themes were “drinking, smoking, dugs, and sexuality” (25). She also observed how resident meetings scheduled by RAs attracted high attendance for the first meeting, but were disregarded by residents for the rest of the year. Nathan next profiled several freshmen, asking them about their daily activities and activeness in on-campus clubs.
Chapter Three:
The third chapter focuses on community and diversity. Nathan observes when college community means, and she found that communities are created when students have similar schedules including class schedule, on-campus clubs, meal times, and work schedules—not necessarily created by living in the same dorm. Nathan next investigates diversity at her university and how it affects the formation of communities at AnyU. She discovered that when students were asked if they had racially diverse friends, the majority answered yes, but when they were asked to name their closest friends first, then name the race of the already named friends, the majority of the responses showed that the closest friends were of the same race. Nathan observed diversity in the cafeteria, too, noting that certain groups of race stayed together while eating.
Chapter Four:
In the fourth chapter, Nathan focuses on how others cultures perceive our American college culture. She interviews foreign exchange students on the topics of friendships between them and American students. Exchange students noted that American students always pretended to be their friends, and would always say hello, but according to the exchange students, American students seems as though they didn’t care as much about their lives. The exchange students found it hard to tell if an American was actually their friend or was making false suggestions that they should hang out sometime. International students classified American college students by using the terms “individualism” and “independence” (73). The exchange students said that the culture was different in terms of family communication, for instance a student from Mexico commented that she calls her mother everyday, while American students tend to only call their parents once a week. Finally, Nathan interviewed the exchange students on the American education system in comparison to their home educational systems. The majority stated that Americans have much more freedom to take the classes that they want, and an even distribution of opinions stated the education system in American was either easier or harder than the interviewed students home education.
Chapter Five:
In the fifth chapter, Nathan explores the proper way of speaking in American college culture: the social norms for asking questions in class, having contact with professors, and speaking amongst friends and dorm mates. Social norms for classroom discussion were to ask questions in a lecture hall only if the questions addressed issues that would affect students’ grades such as “What will be the form of exams,” “Are the quizzes on the internet?” and “Do you want the first essay typed?” Social norms for contact between students a professors varied; some students admitted to trying to talk with professors in order to establish a relationship and others admitted that they had not spoken to their professors once all year. Social norms for conversation topics between students themselves and dorm mates stayed to the topics of “bodies, bodily functions, body image, relationships, relationship problems, one’s childhood, personal history, the future, alcohol, and drug experiences’ (98).
Chapter Six:
Chapter six focused on time management in college, including how to create the perfect class schedule, limiting workloads, attending class, and cheating. Creating the perfect class schedule included signing up for classes with good professors, trying not to get classes on Friday, and trying to avoid classes before 11am. Limited workloads are encouraged in American college culture. This might include decisions between reading an article or attending a club meeting or attending class if the professor doesn’t take attendance or going out with friends. 81 percent of students had admitted to cheating in some way during college, and Nathan investigates on whether or not students care about cheating. She also asks if they would continue college if they were handed a degree today, and most students answered that they would remain in school.
Chapter Seven:
Chapter seven was a reflection of the lessons that Nathan had learned during her time undercover. The most important lesson that she learned was compassion for the students who she had been teaching and never took the chance to know. She talked about her ideas on improving her teaching style to accommodate student life when she returns to her teaching position. She also confesses the times that she revealed herself as a professor while working in the field when it was absolutely necessary.
