Terese King went to Marian College, a liberal arts school in Wisconsin. In the entire place, there were 2,900 students. That’s the size of the entering freshman class at Washington State University, where King is director of new student programs.
When those freshmen descend on Pullman this week, most will be much better prepared than King or I ever were.
As small as her college was, King remembers that at first she was overwhelmed by her new surroundings. Marian was two hours from home, but it felt a world away.
“They just dropped me off,” King, 39, said of her parents.
Join the club. They all just dropped us off.
That’s no rap on parents who raised my generation. That’s the way it was. If they dropped you off, you were lucky. My parents unloaded my stuff and took me out for Chinese food before leaving me alone in Seattle. A friend of mine took a plane, solo and with just a duffel bag, to the unfamiliar city where he’d chosen to go to school, then managed to bum a ride to campus.
Some would say such tough love made us self-reliant. I don’t say that. If you happened to be at the University of Washington in 1972, I was the one with her nose in a map. The geography was easier than the steep learning curve of campus culture.
I wanted to be on the right track. In such a big place, I wasn’t sure how to find it.
This weekend, having been to Target and Bed, Bath &Beyond for the necessities of a tricked-out dorm room, my son and I are packing. (Here’s a tip: Don’t ever ask an 18-year-old guy, in public, if he wants throw pillows that match his quilt.)
My son is bound for the University of Montana in Missoula. The difference between then and now is enormous. Before even starting, these freshmen have shaken the lost-on-campus, lost-in-the-system blues.
Most of them started touring campuses as high school juniors. In June, my son and I spent three days at freshman orientation. Parents and students attended separate sessions, with topics as varied as academic success, eating well on campus and the dreaded “Money Matters … and Boy, Does it Matter.”
Separately, we had the chance to ask pointed questions of upperclassmen on a student panel. Useful answers came from simple questions:
“If you could repeat freshman year, what would you do differently?” One young woman said she’d be more likely to keep her dorm door open while studying, she had missed out on making lots of friends.
At WSU, King said freshmen have been offered summer orientation for 16 years. Students pay $150 for the three-day program and live in dorms.
“The whole purpose is to help with that transition from high school to college,” King said. “They’re more at ease, they know the resources, who to ask for help in tutoring or if there’s a roommate conflict.”
The payoff goes beyond easing a few anxieties. King said students who attend orientation are more likely to return as sophomores. “We have a higher retention rate for those students,” she said.
It’s time and money well spent, considering today’s college costs. Talk about times changing, the University of Washington’s in-state undergraduate tuition was $144 per quarter in my first year.
At my son’s orientation, a professor asked how many students had ever bought a movie ticket but hadn’t gone to the movie. Not one hand went up. Students were then asked to consider how much more each class was costing them.
I was reminded of that when I asked King for one tip she’d share with all those freshmen about to land at WSU.
“Go to class, that’s a big one,” she said. “No one else is there to tell them when to get up and when to study. Being a college student is like having a job. They should consider it their job.”
In a time when parents help every step of the way, when stores offer dorm-room gift registries and when colleges pull out all the stops so students can succeed, King’s basic advice is worth repeating on that long drive to Pullman, or wherever.
Sure, you still need that list. Shower shoes? Check. Laundry bag? Check. But if you forget a desk lamp, no big deal. The campus bookstore will have one.
Whatever you do, you bright and shining freshmen, don’t forget King’s advice. It’s as good in your day as it was in mine:
Go to class.
Columnist Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460 or muhlstein julie@heraldnet.com.
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