Think of college. If you thought of red Solo cups and huge crowds of people, you may be a victim of the false college portrayal seen in movies. College is always thought of as constant partying and rarely focuses on the realistic aspects of going to school. Especially at a school like UMass Amherst, affectionately called “The Zoo,” students get a warped sense of what attending a university is really like. Students need to remember that college is rarely ever like it seems in the movies.
Sydney White is a great example of this. For those of you who haven’t seen it, Sydney White revolves around the story of Amanda Bynes trying to pledge her mother’s old sorority, but she ends up working with her friends and creating her own. In this movie, college students are portrayed as constant party seekers who have all the time in the world to establish their own. Hollywood centers on the college tropes of worshipping Greek life and never-ending “keggers.” Even at the largest schools in the nation, this is not reality.
People forget that the main point of attending college is to receive higher education and earn your degree. Remember Neighbors? This movie is a comical interpretation of what it would be like for a grown couple to live next to a fraternity house. This movie embodies all the false narratives the film industry is trying to push about college. First of all, not everyone is in a sorority or fraternity, and you don’t have to be to have a social life. Many incoming students and even committed underclassmen have the common misconception that they have to rush a frat or sorority to be socially accepted and relevant. At a school where Greek life is everything, this may matter more, but at UMass Amherst, it is not necessary.
Another common misconception is the idea that students can constantly skip class and get their homework done “some other time.” The hard work that it takes to be an actual college student is clouded by the falsities that college students are lazy and always hanging out doing nothing. If that is the case, I have been doing the entire college experience wrong. Yes, I go out and hang with friends, but a great deal of my time is spent catching up on homework, not sleeping. Skipping class may be closer to a reality for some people, but it is nowhere near as sustainable as Hollywood wants you to think. If it is not a lecture, the professor usually makes attendance mandatory.
One thing that the movies and I can agree upon is that college students are always broke. However, why are there never any realistic portrayals of students working while they go to college? On-screen characters, supposedly our age, complain about never having any money, but I can’t recall an instance where a college student is seen juggling work, classes, and a social life. Work tends to be left out. The characters on camera say they are broke and live like they have an expendable income. Then, in the next scene, viewers are shown a dorm room that could be a luxury hotel suite. It’s not realistic.
I hate to be the one who bursts the bubble, but real-life college rarely lives up to the expectations that movies cast. Going out and meeting new people and making the most of your social life is important, but it’s not everything. Avoid the pitfall that the media has tried to establish. Fun fades quickly when you’re only living for the weekend.
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