Beyond the Brochure

A look at college life past the marketing

There is a lot of hype surrounding the ideal college experience. College brochures feature groups of friends smiling widely. Playing a conventional game of Frisbee on a pasture of immaculate grass surrounded by towering brick archways and academic buildings that make you feel smarter by just having a glance at them.

Social platforms, such as Old Row cover their media outlets in videos of a fraternity tailgate with beers being sprayed throughout the air and a mosh pit of dancers underneath.

Our elders spend every family gathering gabbing about the “good ole days” and “remember when stories” from their collegiate years.

Yet as Stetson University students mourn the loss of two of their fellow classmates, they are aware, now more than ever that no marketing platform can completely encompass the college experience.

The University of Minnesota performed a research survey in 2007 that produced some interesting results on the health and habits of college students. Each one of these Minnesota colleges had taken part in the marketing of an extravagant, larger-than-life college experience, yet poll results show that wasn’t always the case. It wasn’t so much that the Frisbee games or parties advertised were false. All of those things can be part of the college experience, but that may not be all you’re signing up for.

Mental illness is prominent among the many issues that can arise during a student’s collegiate career.

Psychiatric research shows that may be in part due to the fact that a variety of mental illnesses advance during the early adult stages of life. The University of Minnesota’s polls showed that 27.1 percent of students reported a diagnosis of mental illness, most notably depression and anxiety. 15.7 percent of the 27.1 percent reported their diagnosis to be within the last twelve months. College life also reportedly takes a toll on students’ physical health with 38.5 percent of respondents falling in weight categories of overweight or obese. Additionally, the research survey showed that the crazy party lifestyle that many of the social platforms market as the college experience to strive for might not be all it’s cracked up to be. Alcohol, drugs, and tobacco use are prevalent on college campuses with 36.5 percent reported as high risk alcohol use within the last thirty days. Beyond poor performance in academics, high risk substance abuse can also lead to other negatives such as sexual violence in both male and female students.

The gap between the perception of how college is marketed and the results of the University of Minnesota’s survey are outstandingly different. So where does college life actually fall on the spectrum between the two?

Stetson University students hope to reveal the realities of college life through four student’s stories of their collegiate experience. Rafael, Christina, Michael, and Tascha all have unique outlooks on how they have experienced college. They have taken a selfie by the fountain as shown in the Stetson brochure, attended parties and gotten a little wild like they have seen on TV, and experienced the negative effects high stress, numerous deadlines, and growing up can have on a person.

Rafael’s Story

Rafael is a newbie in terms of college life, with the end of his first year approaching just this May. Yet in that one year he has already learned a lot. Coming into college Rafael admits that he had fallen victim to the various marketing of college he had seen in pop media. Rafael doesn’t deny the amount of partying that happens in college but doesn’t feel like every party has the hype seen on Instagram or Twitter, but that could also be a result of going to a college with four thousand students. “I expected it to be a lot more socializing then actually getting stuff done but I was wrong. It’s the opposite,” he said.

Even with all the unpredicted academia, Rafael has still made time to meet wonderful friends and form a tight-knit group that he considers a family unit on campus. Finding friends that he feels like have his back and are always ready to have fun has been the high of his college experience so far. During his first year of college he has also done a lot of self-discovery.

“I’ve learned that I am not perfect, that not everything can be done, and that some people just won’t like me.”

Christina’s Story

Christina’s college experience is quickly approaching its end mark with her graduation date being the end of this semester. “After four years here as a student athlete I think I have definitely experienced the full spectrum,” she says.

Christina has not only been a member of the lacrosse team all four years she has been at Stetson but even had the opportunity to be the captain of the team. “Being a student athlete, competing in a sport you love, it’s hard work. We wake up early, train hard, and still have to try and maintain academics and a social life,” Christina adds.

Academics plus the student athlete schedule can be a lot but Christina has managed to be an athlete and prioritize her education, even taking the Bar exam and applying to law schools as a post-college plan. Christina admits, “It can be a lot of late nights and the stress can feel overwhelming, so it’s important to balance out times to de-stress.”

For Christina, taking a break from the stress includes finding time with friends and seeking the kind of college experiences she will tell her future kids about, if she can remember them.

Except the time she may or may not have gotten kicked out of the house she was renting after one of her parties got a little too wild and the landlord deemed the house a brothel. That, she might not share with her kids, at least until after they are out of college themselves.

Like Rafael, Christina also credits her college experience to be a time of self-discovery. A torn ACL that left her benched in lacrosse combined with the devastation of the end of a long term relationship definitely left an impact on her.

“It was hard. The wait time and recovery work I had to put into healing my leg to be able to play again followed by heartbreak,” she recalls.

“It took going to a pretty dark place before I could find the strength to rise above it.”

Most days Christina’s attitude and confidence in herself is stronger than before but some days the weight of it all; school, sports, and just being a female in her early twenties can hit pretty hard.

“Talking to people and having a support system is important,” she says. “It’s okay to be the star athlete one day and have a tough practice the next, to lock yourself in your room for hours to study for a test or stay out all night, and it’s okay to have a really great day or a really bad one. The legendary, the hurt, the strength you find in yourself, it’s all a part of the full package college gives you.”

Michael’s Story

“Coming to college for me, my high has been making lifelong friends and bonds that will never break. My lows are taking it all for granted and not realizing the time I have here is limited,” Michael says. A lot of those friends Michael was able to find in joining a fraternity. Being a member of a fraternity has given Michael a lot of opportunities to experience the MTV version of college. “Social events are a part of any Greek organization and makes it easy to always find something fun to do,” he says. After three semesters in college Michael admits he has put a lot of focus on the party scene and having fun. He enjoyed all the great times he had with friends but he feels more confident this semester after doing some prioritizing and putting other aspects of college on his list.

While he has definitely had fun Michael doesn’t think college has lived up to what he had hoped.

“I still have a lot of things I have to explore and college doesn’t always give me the opportunity to do so,” he says.

Michael thinks he will look back at college with fond memories but he is excited to take on real adult life as opposed to the slightly less grownup lifestyle college is. “Everything at college is here for you. You don’t really do the adult things yet like taxes or have serious responsibilities. I am ready to see what else is out there beyond college.”

Tascha’s Story

“I didn’t even realize I had an anxiety disorder until I came to college,” Tascha recalls.

“I thought I would go off to college and figure my life out entirely.” Tascha, now a junior, laughs at her previous statement, “I think I have less figured out now than I did before enrolling,” she says.

College has opened big doors for Tascha. She was able to go to two different universities and credits that for adding depth to her outlook on college life. She also was able to spend a summer in Bali as a yoga instructor which she believes will be one of the most memorable experiences of her college career.

Now back in the states, Tascha serves on the standards board of her sorority. “It’s a lot of work and a big time commitment, but I love seeing so many of my sisters around and watching them succeed.”

For Tascha, college may not have been exactly what she pictured. She doesn’t have the next thirty years planned out — sometimes not even the next thirty minutes — but she appreciates everything she has gotten out of the experience.

She explains, “It wasn’t what I thought it would be, one school so much in fact that I left, but as it turned out for me sometimes what you think you want out of something can be a lot different then what you actually need.”

College is full of growth and experiences that go so far beyond any marketing associated with it.It’s wonderful, terrifying, stressful, and sometimes it’s exactly what you need.Rafael, Christina, Michael, Tascha and every other college student’s story of their college experience and the effect it has had on them, that’s going beyond the brochure.

To learn more about isSUes surrounding Stetson University, check out Camila Pinzon’s article on summer school at https://medium.com/@cpinzon/669d9c2ea40c.