My Freshman Year: April 20, 2011. Journal 1

My Freshman Year: April 20, 2011. Journal 1 (Chapters 1, 2, and 3).

           
Our assumptions and bias coming into this book were related to our own experiences in college because all four of us are college freshman.  While reading this book, we all found ourselves relating our own experiences in college to her experiences.  In Chapter one the most memorable lesson that  Nathan learned about the rules of college dorm life was when she tried to open a beer in her dorm study lounge, breaking the rules of her student handbook code.  This experience was surprising and comical to us because we, as university students, know that alcohol outside of dorm rooms is absolutely unacceptable, and the thought of a professor from the same university being unaware of campus rules seems unbelievable.

           Also in chapter one, we related as a group to the university welcome week at the beginning of the semester before classes begin when students are encouraged to join a multitude of student organizations.  We can related to this because we have experienced the same thing with the Blugolds Organization Bash before each semester starts in Eau Claire.  During the welcome week, Nathan was mistaken as a parent who had misplaced her son or daughter who was attending the university--this is comical to us because we admit that if we saw a fifty year old woman on campus, we would make the assumption that she is a parent of a student. 

            In chapter two, as a group we disagree with Nathan's research in analyzing door decorations and pictures on the doors of dorm rooms in her hall.  She made assumptions about those people by just looking at their activities and their quotes, and we don't think judging students in this way is accurate: "A majority of the content was booze, nakedness, craziness, youth, celebrity, and sexuality" (Nathan 24). We don't think that this analysis of pictures and quotes on doors is fair to all student who attend college.  We personally don't see this theme on every door in college, and think it's unfair to label college students as people who are only interested in these lifestyles.  A more effective analysis would have been to talk directly to students about their activity on campus, or ask about what the pictures on the door mean to the individual in the room.  A drinking picture doesn't have to represent an entire lifestyle, it could represent a fun night with a group of friends that reminds them of a friendship and loyalty.  

            Another effective way to analyze the way in which students represent themselves to other students would to be to analyze the pictures on the desk of a student after being invited into the room of that individual.  Desk pictures often tend to be of the individual's family, friends, pets, and true ambitions.  The pictures that reside on the inside of a dorm room more closely represent the personality of the individual, and we wish that Nathan would have gone deeper into this analysis.   There is a distinct difference between students representations on the outside to other students and their representation to people they are close to and comfortable with.

            In the third chapter, as well as throughout the first three chapters, Nathan's tone seems to be an extreme feeling of surprise after researching college students.  A direct example of this surprise can be seen in her study of diversity within close groups of friends. She was surprised to find that within social groups, there was almost no diversity.  How could a professor who worked at the same university and interacted with many students not see this distinction before researching it?  Nathan seems very unobservant to us after we read this piece of research.