The Naked Roommate: And 107 Other Issues You Might Run Into in College (Naked Roomate)

by Harlan Cohen

Paperback, 2013

Status

Available

Call number

378.198

Genres

Publication

Sourcebooks (2013), Edition: 5, 560 pages

Description

Study Aids & Workbooks. Nonfiction. HTML: Hundreds of thousands of students agree, The Naked Roommate is the #1 go-to guide for your very best college experience! From sharing a bathroom with 40 strangers to sharing lecture notes, The Naked Roommate is your behind-the-scenes look at EVERYTHING you need to know about college (but never knew you needed to know). This essential, fully updated edition is packed with real-life advice on everything from managing money to managing stress. Hilarious, outrageous, and telling stories from students on over 100 college campuses cover the basics, and then some, including topics on: College Living: Dorm dos, don'ts and dramas; lying, noisy, nasty roommates Finding People, Places and Things: Facebook, Twitter, and beyond; Friend today, gone tomorrow Classes: To go or not to go?; How to get an A, C, or F Dating: 17 kinds of college hookups; long distance = BIG concerns The Party Scene: The punch in the "fruit punch"; Sex, drugs, and the truth Money: Grants, loans and loose change; Credit cards and online gambling In college, there's a surprise around every corner. Luckily, The Naked Roommate has you covered!.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member norabelle414

A superbly written and helpful book. Interesting, humorous, and not condescending. It's informative, and doesn't gloss over or sugarcoat the unseemly issues that sometimes arise in college, especially with roommates. (Sex, drugs, rock 'n' roll too loud, etc).

Highly recommended for students entering

college who don't know what to expect, or how to deal with it. This book could single-handedly wipe out horrible passive-aggressive behavior forever.

Not recommended for parents to read, especially those that worry too much.

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LibraryThing member kaelirenee

According to (an annoyingly un-cited) study in Skip Downing’s On Course, only about 15% of people who are fired are fired because they can’t do their “job.” They are incompetent. The other 85% are fired because they lack “soft skills”—interpersonal skills, time management, the ability

to party and have a life and then come in to work and do their jobs. I doubt the Department of Education has ever done a similar study, but I’d be willing to believe the same is true for college students. The hardest part of college isn’t studying and academics. Well, OK, those are hard. But everyone expects them to be hard. What they don’t expect are roommates who run around naked, one night stands they can’t remember, or crushing homesickness. Those are the soft skills that you never get in high school, from parents (especially for first generation students), from the admissions office, or even from college classes. As a professor who teaches a Freshman seminar class at our university (and university librarian), I’ve tried to teach these kinds of skills to my students. But I know that I come off sounding like a teacher—take notes, don’t drink too much, wear a condom, study 3 hours for every hour you are in class—and I’m sure my students listened to me as much as I listened when I was in college. The book we use to teach them these skills was worse. It’s hokey, patronizing, and frequently overlooks the reality of college life.

The Naked Roommate covers everything I really do wish I knew in college, without ever coming across as condescending or even omniscient. Harlen wasn’t a stellar student, but he made things work. He has the tone I wish I could have with my freshmen. He’s the older brother who is willing to tell you exactly how much you really will drink. But he’s also the older brother who won’t listen to your crappy excuses—screw peer pressure, he says, if you do drugs it’s because you wanted to do them. He gives tips on how to cheat a little smarter, and then reminds you that if your dumb ass gets caught cheating, you deserve to be expelled. He gives you a whole toolkit of things to help first year college students (commuters, non-traditional students, and international students all get tips in here). I’m hoping that using this book in little bits and pieces in my seminar class will convince students to read it themselves and get all the good information.

That 15% statistic comes into play when you look at the topics he covers, too. Only ONE chapter covers typical academic topics such as note-taking and how to make an A, C, or F (and, to bruise my ego a little, I think he mentions a librarian once). He devotes an entire chapter to relationships and another chapter to sex, though. There’s at least 85% of this book that covers the softer skills in college life. He repeats the one bit of advice I hope all my students leave knowing, though: get to know your professors. Only he gives tips on how (and how not) to do it.

Those of us who made it all the way through college needed this information. Those who started college and didn’t make it through probably really needed this information.

Rather than get your high school graduate another copy of “Oh, The Places You’ll Go,” think about packing them off with a copy of this book.

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LibraryThing member cdp02005

The Naked Roommate: And 107 Other Issues You Might Run Into in College by Harlan Cohen (2009)

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