Review: 77 Things You Absolutely Have to Do Before You Finish College

Title: 77 Things You Absolutely Have to Do Before You Finish College
Author: Halley Bondy, James Lloyd
Format: egalley
Pub. Date: March 11th 2014
Source: Netgalley & Zest Books

★★★★

Four stars.

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The point of this guide is fairly obvious: this is a list of things every collegiate student should do before they graduate. Being in university myself, I had to pick this up to not only see what else I could be doing to make the most of my experience, but to also see how many of them I had already done. I'm happy to say, by the way, that I have done a fair few.

I strongly agree with many of the items mentioned in this book. For example, that you should make your dorm room into a homey, personalized space. My first year I didn't bother, and I hated being stuck there to sleep and study. The next year I went all out, getting rugs and wall decs and things like that, and my dorm has become my favorite place to be. Another great example of advice from this book is to spend time in your library without doing homework. The library holds far more than you realize, and it's a great resource and honestly just a cool place. (And I say this not biased as a future librarian.)

I did find some of the advice to be a bit less helpful, or at least inapplicable. For example, exploring your town without a goal or destination. My town isn't always the safest, and I would never consider just aimlessly wandering. I might find something cool, but I could also get myself into trouble. Another one is that you should rent an apartment on your own. I wish, but financially, it's not in the cards. My loans are great at covering on campus housing, and that's where I'll stay.

All in all though, this is a solid guide that I would recommend that any high schooler or current college kid take a look at it. This is the kind of manual that would make for a great graduation gift or last minute advice- so much of it is useful. Thanks to Netgalley and Zest Books for the chance to read this.