R&L Education
Pages: 64
Trim: 7 x 8¾
978-1-57886-139-2 • Paperback • May 2004 • $38.00 • (£29.00)
John T. Kirkpatrick is associate dean of the College of Liberal Arts, research associate professor of Sociology, and director of Justiceworks at the University of New Hampshire. John has worked with first-year college students for 20 years.
Chapter 1 Preface
Chapter 2 Acknowledgments
Chapter 3 Introduction
Chapter 4 The Admission
Chapter 5 The History
Chapter 6 The Professoriate
Chapter 7 The Degree
Chapter 8 The Structure
Chapter 9 The Culture
Chapter 10 The Folkways
Chapter 11 The Mores
Chapter 12 The Life of the Mind
Chapter 13 The Commencement
Chapter 14 About the Author
Kirkpatrick's volume helps new students, parents, and others to understand the fundamental issues of collegiate life, from admission through commencement. The book provides a useful glimpse of the faculty, the meaning of the degree, the complexity of the organization and perhaps most usefully, those strange folkways that characterize institutions of higher learning. For the ambitious and talented who join colleges and universities each year, this small volume is an excellent way to start the journey of a lifetime.
— Gordon Haaland, president, Gettysburg College
...offers a point of view and information not often found in first-year college student books. This book would also be a useful tool for teachers, guidance counselors, college advisors, and parents of new college students.
— Journal Of College Student Development
A College Primer is a different kind of college guidebook. This collection of essays will help students begin to understand the learning communities they intend to enter: their history, the values of the faculty, and the academic expectations that await them. Dr. Kirkpatrick has shared this knowledge with his own students for many years. Now his counsel is available to all prospective college students. In this small book, he reveals the mysteries of academic life and provides students with the keys they will need to unlock them.
— Dr. Joan Leitzel, president emerita of the University of New Hampshire