A new book available to the Thammasat University community should be useful for all first year incoming students as well as readers interested in education, social science, or sociology.

The Science of College: Navigating the First Year and Beyond is an Open Access book available for free download.

The book is by Associate Professor Patricia S. Herzog, who teaches philanthropic studies at Indiana University, the United States of America.

She and colleagues offer ideas to meet the changing needs of incoming college students based on demographics and social backgrounds. Her advice empowers students to identify and make use of campus resources.

With recommendations based upon social science research, and collective experiences of students, instructors, advisors, and university staff, The Science of College points out that to benefit from the educational experience, students must learn how to access resources and best deal with people who work with students.

This may mean being more aware of university organization, to best know who to ask for which kind of assistance, and navigating who to go to for what, based on their expertise and responsibilities.

Among useful advice offered here is about personal resiliency, or to bounce back from challenges to a successful college career. Learning from personal experiences and challenges can make students into future leaders.

By taking charge of their own education, students understand that as much as possible, they are responsible for what they learn at college. Determination to keep advancing even during difficult or boring times and believing that it is possible to learn what is needed to succeed in different college situations are vital elements to having a good experience in higher education.

Students can learn the skills and abilities that motivate their success during college. By taking a social science and humanities class, they may learn critical thinking.

As they grow into adulthood, student can gain more self-control and believe that they have control over their lives. By helping students get through the difficult times when obstacles appear to block their progress, campus resources can make college success available to a wider range  of young people.

The book begins:

This book aids entering college students—and the people who support college students—in navigating college successfully. In an environment of information overload, where bad advice abounds, this book offers practical tips and guidance. Unlike some of the more widely available advice that is based on outdated, misinformed, or uninformed ideas about what college students need to know, the advice in this book is based upon real students and sound social science research. The wide range of college pathways available to students presents challenges for understanding what information is applicable to their individual path. What students and their parents and mentors need is a book that provides clear guidance on how to navigate different pathways with their own preferences in mind. This guide provides tips that assist readers along well-traveled (and less traveled) pathways through and out of college. The central thesis of the book is that the transition to adulthood is a complex process, and college is pivotal to this experience. This book seeks to help young people navigate that process. For many, college represents the culmination of ambition, independence, and individualism, and each of these themes is represented in this book, especially through the student stories. Challenges vary depending on a student’s demographics and social background. Getting invested in the community is critical to college success, no matter what the point of entry. Universities have many resources, but students have to realize when they need them and figure out how to connect with them. There is no single template for student success, whether considering how to navigate through college or how to find gainful employment afterward. Each student needs to balance their evolving life in their own way. Nevertheless, this book highlights some common issues that many college students face and provides science-based advice for how to navigate college. Every chapter of this book begins with stories from real college students and then summarizes research that is relevant to their stories. The third section of each chapter turns insights from both sources of information into advice for students. The author team of faculty, instructors, advisors, and other campus support staff provide students with tips on how to understand their circumstances, process various situations, and find their way around academic and social life on campus. The final chapters of the book offer interactions among student stories and tips to give students an overall sense of how to forge their own path through college. With each chapter we paint an increasingly complex picture of the challenges and opportunities college students encounter. One way of characterizing this progression is that this chapter focuses on individuals in a developmental stage during which self-focus is normal…

THIS BOOK’S GOALS

Our goal in writing this book is to convey the contemporary experiences for emerging adult college students in a meaningful way. We identify a number of social issues; describe how these present challenges to students; place students’ personal experiences within a broader social context; and offer research-based tips for young people—and the people who support them—in navigating college. Our objectives are as follows:

• Respond to the changing needs of incoming college students;
• Synthesize social science research into practical tools;
• Challenge preconceived and outmoded understandings of career
• pursuits;
• Discuss socioeconomic status, race, gender, and other identities
• in college experiences;
• Identify multiple segments of students, and describe both the
• differences and the commonalities in their needs;
• Develop useful skills for navigating college;
• Empower students to access campus resources and discern
• which individuals on campus can assist them in specific
• situations;
• Reveal the unwritten rules of college;
• Build competencies that transfer to careers and life after college.

In sum, our goal is to empathize with the often-challenging experiences of emerging adults as they explore individual and social identities, encounter rifts in their sense of self or conflict between their various social roles, and then work to achieve balance. We view students to be in the midst of an exciting and demanding life stage that requires they take increasing ownership of who they are and what they want to do, and we want to help them acquire the skills they need to set out on their own particular pathway.

(All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)