How to Survive Your Freshman Year (Part 1)

We’re pleased to have with us Yadin Kaufmann, co-editor of the best-selling college life guide How to Survive Your Freshman Year. In part onne of this interview we’ll talk about the contributors to this best-selling college life guide, now in its thirrd edition, and get a glimpse into what readers can expect to find out about college life.

Q: Thank you for joining us today. Can you tell us a bit about yourself and your co-editor, Mark Bernstein?
A: I’ve been in the venture capital business for the past twenty years—investing in, and helping to build, high-tech startups. I’m a lawyer by training. But I’ve also enjoyed writing for as long as I can remember. I think I sold some poems I wrote when I was about eight. In college, my then-girlfriend (now wife) and I spent a summer in France and came back and wrote a book about it. Then in grad school, the two of us (we’re big ice cream addicts) wrote a book called The Boston Ice Cream Lover’s Guide—which was as much fun to research as it was to write. Addison-Wesley published that one.

My co-publisher, Mark Bernstein, is also an ex-lawyer who went into the business and media worlds. He was part of the team that started CNN.com and ended up running that business for Turner. He then ran another high-flying start-up on the West Coast, and was happily “retired” when I pulled him away to run this venture.

Q: Can you please tell us about your book and why you wrote it?
A: A few years ago, I was thinking about how best to help my oldest son, Dov, prepare for college. My own college experience (at Princeton) was a bit stale … and Dov wasn’t likely to listen to his father anyhow! Sure, I could introduce Dov to my circle of friends and acquaintances—but that’s a narrow group too.

It occurred to me that it would be great to find a way to give Dov—and everyone else who’s about to start college—input about what college life is really like, from thousands of kids who are in college today, and have something interesting to say about it.

So, Mark and I put together a team of journalists whom we call “headhunters.” These headhunters went out and interviewed many hundreds of students at over 120 colleges all across the country—big schools, small schools, Ivies, and state universities; Greeks, geeks, and jocks. They spoke with students at the college newspapers, kids hanging out in the library or in the rec center, kids on their way to class or lounging around in the dorm. One headhunter in Pennsylvania offered free pizza for students willing to share their advice. The interviewers asked the students questions about every aspect of college life— about what they would advise incoming freshmen, and why. We also collected tips at our web site, hundredsofheads.com.

We then compiled the best material that we felt gives our readers direct, informative and humorous advice they might not get, even from their best friends.