Life of the American College Student

Time to share with you two of my new favorite ways to waste/spend time. 

As you know, I've just completed my sophomore year at Washington University in St. Louis. I've lived in the dorms for two years (Lee 3 and Dauten 3 FOR LIFE). Living in the dorms has been an amazing experience. There's something about the energy that comes with too many people crammed into too small of a space to co-habitate effectively. There are always adventures, laughing, probably some screaming, and somewhere, somebody, is getting sloshed. 

I'm excited to be moving into an apartment next year, and even though I'll be living in a building with most of my friends from the dorms, I can't help but wonder if that energy will prevail when we all have our own rooms, our own spaces, and no reason to band together as a housing unit (see RES-COLLEGE OLYMPICS in the dorms). 

Being away from the dorms for only a week so far, I've already become pretty nostalgic. So what do I do? I start watching MTV's College Life and the internet's very own Dorm-Life. These two shows both focus on freshmen at school and their wayward adventures along the out of high school and into sophomorehood. 

College Life

If you're not familiar with the show, MTV has given a number of freshmen at University of Wisconsin, Madison camcorders and told them to film their first years at school. There are no crews, no mics, no directors on set, just kids with a camcorder. An idea my friends and I have had many a time (ours idea was to just set up a camcorder in a corner and film one of our parties). 

I didn't start watching the show when it premiered. Probably because I was at the time an enrolled college student. College life? I was living college life. Of course now that I'm stuck in Bloomington, IL, I miss the college life dearly. The show is particularly interesting because it's a look at state schools that I've never had. Sure, I grew up on the campus of Illinois State University, but any ISU parties I have attended have been house parties surrounding the large campus. The major differences I've observed between UW-M (I don't know how you kids abbreviate your school, sorry) and Wash U are that drinking is not allowed in the dorms, and the floors don't seem as close. 

Wash U doesn't officially allow drinking in the dorms...but yes it does. Freshmen year, as long as you have your door open (so the RAs can make sure you're not vomiting, dead, or playing beer pong) drinking is okay. No drinking games. No parties (what's a party? when the RA decides it's too loud). 

N

ow, it could be that the College Life kids just aren't filming their floor interactions (or MTV has decided that stuff isn't dramatic enough) but it seems like these kids are friends with their roommates and that's about it. I never get the feeling of camaraderie that I think so specifically defined my freshmen experience. The idea that all these kids are in it together, come hell or high water. 

There have only been five episodes so far, so it's not too late to jump into the show. I caught up in just a night (the episodes are only half-an-hour long each). If you want to start watching this Monday at 10:30/9:30 central, but you don't have the time to watch the older episodes, here's a quick primer of what you need to know:

- Alex is an overachiever who for whatever reason can't NOT fail her classes. Little drama, seems to be in the show less and less every week.

- Andrea is a Miley Cyrus looking princess. She can't decide what she wants. Or rather what she wants is insane. She wants her ex-boyfriend (Josh) to pine after her so she can act like he's a freak for not being able to let their relationship go, but she doesn't want Josh to be happy with any other girl, because she's supposed to be his everything. Least sympathetic character on the show (maybe). Her roommate is awesome for keeping it real and calling Andrea out on her shit. 

- Jordan is a mixed student from Illinois who actually might be the least sympathetic character. He brings no drama with other students (not convinced he has friends), but has the time to spend $2400 on a stupid tattoo when he's supposed to be paying his parents back for school. And yes, his mother has two jobs to put him through college. 

- Lindsay was added in the second or third episode to add some drama. She argued with her roommate for getting sexiled, and is currently hooking up (and de-virginizing?) Josh. Yes. Andrea's Josh. 

- Kevin. Kevin. Kevin. Really the only genuinely entertaining character on the show, Kevin is a bro. He plays beer pong in his room. He sexiles his roommate constantly. He can't pass calculus. And he's gotten kicked out of the dorms for drinking offenses. Oh yes. Give this man a show. 

Dorm-Life

This is a web-show recommended to me by a friend after hearing I liked College Life. This, unlike College Life, is an intentional comedy show. Each episode is around five minutes long, a new episode premieres every Monday on the Dorm-Life website, and there are currently about thirty episodes. This sketch comedy follows the lives of the 5-South freshmen floor, and oddly enough is more believable than College Life. Even though each of the characters are built around a stereotype (douchy RA, overexcited floormate, sorority girls, freshmen with girlfriend back home, theatre kid), the show actually presents situations that should appear very familiar to the typical college student (team-building day, theme parties, shy kid's first shot). And I've got to say, after twenty episodes (the first season and first semester, and how far I am into the show) these stereotypes have grown legs and I've actually started to care about them (much more than I could ever see myself caring about that hoe-bag Andrea from College Life). 

Seriously, I'd suggest this over College Life. It's made me unbelievably nostalgic for dorm life...so you may want to wait until you've actually left school (I know some of you are still there). I'll leave you with the link to the first episode, Roommates, and my favorite episode, Group Shot. It's a hilarious episode, but if you do plan on watching all of them, I'd suggest not viewing the clip. All of the episodes kind of build on one another, and this episode comes pretty late in the first season, so it has plenty of spoilers!

For those of you over the age of 18... what's your favorite memory from your freshmen floor?