Summary and Analysis of Rebekah Nathan's My Freshman Year, Ch. 2

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She also claims that the abundance of options in college life, options such as what classes to enroll in and when, clubs to join, the comprehensive choice of major, ways to spend free time, and even where to have lunch, make it difficult to forms groups of friends from within the same dorm. This directly substantiates the main claim by telling the reader the reason for the lack of community within dorms. This is supported through evidence she gathered by closely following the daily activities of ten students. She only mentions the names of four of these students in the book, but these four students, Casey, Ossie, Cynthia, and Kyle, all have widely varying schedules and, though they live within the same hall, seldom spend free time together. She states “It is hard to create community when the sheer number of options in college life generate a system in which no one is in the same place at the same time.” The multitude of options involved in college life isn't the only other thing restricting community in dorm life, however.

It is stated by Nathan that good friends are more likely to be made through overlapping interests than they are through common living arrangements. She informs the reader of this by saying “... the people who “naturally” meet (i.e., by virtue of having the same commitments) are most likely to be those who are glaringly alike.” This, in a way, can be compared to high school friendships. They are formed from within a classroom, a limited pool of people, so the likelihood of finding someone with similar interests isn't strong. In college, one would be much more likely to find friends in a extracurricular club or a class that wasn't focused on general education than in a dorm, simply because it would be implied they are there because the topic interests them, not by chance. Though I made friends in high school, the previously mentioned close friends I now have were met in a free time activity, supporting Nathan's claim.

There are multiple reasons for the lack of “community” in dorm life. The business of college students leaves little time for indulging in social activities. The abundance of choices throughout a normal day at college makes it so people who live in the same dorm don't spend time together because they are separated by clubs they choose to participate in, and, by extension, their personalities. People are more likely to spend time with other friends in their free time because these will be people who likely share hobbies or enjoy the same pastimes.

Works Cited

"Nathan’s My Freshman Year Ch. 1-5 [Jessica]." Qualitative Methods. N.p., 30 July 2012. Web. 04 Sept. 2016.

Woitasnd. "Chapter 2." My Freshman Year By Rebekah Nathan:. N.p., 04 Sept. 2016. Web. 04 Sept. 2016.

Nathan, Rebekah. My Freshman Year: What a Professor Learned by Becoming a Student. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 2005. Print.