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Are you a smart and savvy pre-collegiette looking for answers to some of your most personal questions about college? You know, the ones about boys, classes, roommates and parties that your school’s guidance office can’t help you with? Jen is here to answer those questions! Whatever your concern, she’ll do her best to help you so you can make sure you don’t just survive college, but rock it!

Is college anything like it’s portrayed in the movies, like Legally Blonde? –Alondra

Alondra,

From the movies that I’ve seen about college, I’d think it’s safe to say that most don’t accurately depict every part of college life, but some aspects can be totally true.

However, I go to a private Christian college where the party scene is nothing like what you’ll see in the movies since we have strict rules when it comes to behavior and discipline. Due to that, I’m definitely a bit biased! My friends who do go to “party schools” have said that the ragers are pretty intense, so I guess movies accurately depict that part!

When I think about Legally Blonde specifically, the scene that stands out to me is when Elle is sitting in the circle with the other law students when they’re giving their awkward introductions. During your orientation week, you’ll definitely experience too many weird group “get-to-know-you” games that will embarrass you regardless of whether or not your dog is a Gemini vegetarian.

Another part of Legally Blonde I enjoyed that I’ve found to be true is when she ends up becoming good friends with people she didn’t get along with in the beginning and ends up saying deuces to Warner, the reason she wanted to go to Harvard in the first place! I think it goes to show you that you never know whom you’ll meet in college, and your relationships will definitely change throughout the years as you learn and grow.

I also want to point out that you really are going to have to work your butt off to do well in your classes. Have you seen movies about college where the students literally do absolutely nothing besides partying and still seem to have good grades? This is so not a reality. You’re going to have to know when to turn up and when to buckle down so that you don’t lose your scholarship or fail a class.

One last thing: think back to before you started high school and ask yourself if all of the movies about high school were true. If you found them to be pretty accurate, then you might feel the same way about the comparison between college and the movies. If you thought that they hyped up high school life too much, then you might feel that way about college-based movies, too.

The best part of it all is that no matter what happens during college, you’ll find a way to make it entertaining and memorable. Your own experiences and memories that you’ll make when you’re at college will prove to be better and more exciting than any other movie out there, because it will be your journey, and it will be amazing.

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Jen is a 2016 graduate of Messiah College, where she majored in journalism and minored in gender studies. She's a proud Bostonian who is obsessed with tattoos, puppies, magazines and Sephora. She's been reading Her Campus since high school and was thrilled to join the HC team as a National Contributing Writer in September 2013. She became an HC Beauty Blogger in February 2014 and continued to write on-trend beauty posts until July 2016. A few highlights from her time writing for HC included attending and writing about two BeautyCon events and Cosmopolitan's Fun Fearless Life in 2015. You can follow her on Twitter @JenFlanagan14 and on Instagram @jenlea14.
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