| Written by Breanna R. |
You might really enjoy the New York Times Bestseller, The Naked Roommate: And 107 Other Issues You Might Run Into in College, by Harlan Cohen. It was named the “Number One Going-to-College Book.” It’s only approximately $10 on Amazon, but, with your Rutgers–Camden NetID and password, you can read it for free. Once you have university access to the library databases, you can search “the naked roommate” in the general search bar and Voila! The Naked Roommate appears, available to be read for free online via ProQuest Ebooks.
Chapters
If the title wasn’t enough to grab your attention, the chapter titles are interesting, too, and give a breakdown of subject matter the book addresses, which extends much further beyond potential roommate weirdness and troubles and covers everything you need to know about this whole college thing. Following is a list of the chapters.
- Chapter 1: “Arriving on Campus: So Real You Can Smell It, Touch It, Taste It”
- Chapter 2: “Residence Halls: Living, Eating, and Bathing with Hundreds of Strangers”
- Chapter 3: “Roommates: Good Ones, Bad Ones, and Everything in Between”
- Chapter 4: “Finding Friends: Your Social or Antisocial College Life”
- Chapter 5: “Getting Involved on Campus: An All-You-Can-Do-Buffet”
- Chapter 6: “Greek Life: Behind the Doors, Windows, and Walls of Fraternity and Sorority Life”
- Chapter 7: “Life Inside the Classroom: Assuming You Wake Up and Go to Class”
- Chapter 8: “Dating and Relationships: Your Higher Education in Lust, Love, and Loss”
- Chapter 9: “Sex: Having It, Not Having It, Hearing Other People Having It”
- Chapter 10: “Drinking on Campus: Tapping the Keg of Truth”
- Chapter 11: “Drugs on Campus: The Smoking, Snorting, and Pill-Popping Truth”
- Chapter 12: “Money, Laundry, and Cheap Eats: Assuming You Have Enough Money to Eat and Do Laundry”
- Chapter 13: “Things Not Mentioned in the College Brochure: What They Didn’t Tell You”
- Chapter 14: “College: A Higher Education: It’s Almost Time to Say Good-bye”
Tone
Cohen is super witty and enjoyable to read. You forget that you’re reading another “How-to” text and instead feel like you’re having a conversation with someone who is realistic but still wants the best for you.
This might come to you as a surprise, but I wasn’t a fan of “tip books”—that is, until I wrote this book. I don’t just like this one because I wrote it (although that is part of the reason). It’s because this book is genuinely different. It’s based on what today’s college students are honestly thinking, feeling, and doing on today’s college campuses. It’s their voices sharing their stories and experiences that will expose the uncensored truth about what’s really going on in college. Not only will you get page after page of telling tips from students on over one hundred college campuses across north America, you’ll also get the latest facts, stats, resources, support services having to do with college life, and some advice from me—someone who has been a freshman twice, has visited over four hundred college campuses, and has interviewed over a thousand students.
Cohen, page 5
Transitioning
Cohen really emphasizes that there is a third part to college planning (in addition to Part 1: Searching and Part 2: Selection): Transitioning.
Now more than ever, incoming first-year students lack an understanding of transition . . . roughly one in four students doesn’t return to the same campus for their sophomore year (the number is higher at many institutions). Less than two-thirds of students who start college will finish with a degree (percentages vary by type of college). Then there are the social and emotional challenges that throw students. This book is a tool to help students navigate the social, emotional, physical, financial, and academic transition.
Cohen, page 12
Cohen is right. My first year as a college student, I attended a four-year university, which was almost two hours away from home. I wish I had a blog like The Raptor’s Nest or a book like The Naked Roommate to help me with that “transitioning” thing that I never gave a thought. I, like the stats show, was one of those students who didn’t make it more than one year. I went home the first weekend (and every weekend after that), suffered from bouts of depression and overwhelming feelings, succumbed to many different versions of peer pressure, and had some roommate issues. Then, I came to Rutgers–Camden. Luckily, Rutgers–Camden recognized this third part of college planning and provided the necessary awareness and resources to make sure I pulled through with part three. Having a book like this will help, trust me.
Additional Resources (i.e., other stuff besides this book)
Additional resources are The Naked Roommate: For Parents Only and The Naked Roommate’s First Year Survival Workbook, both also written by Harlan Cohen. If you’re a commuter, a community college student, a first-generation student, a Canadian student, an international student, or a nontraditional student, you can go to https://nakedroommate.com/ to find tips just for you in addition to those outlined in the core book.
References
Cohen, Harlan. The Naked Roommate : And 107 Other Issues You Might Run Into in College, Sourcebooks, 2017. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/rutgers-ebooks/detail.action?docID=5320196.