Anna Matenaer

Reading Responses
Preface:
This part of the book makes it seem like she is determined to fully immerse herself into
the college experience. Her role as a professor made it somewhat troublesome for me to
immediately believe she would be able to capture the first year experience fully so I was
interested to see how she interacted with students.
Does she have a main focus on any specific part of the first year experience? If so, what is
it?
How is she planning on staying undercover as someone who does not have the same
appearance as an 18 or 19 year old?
Chapter 1: Welcome to AnyU
Right off the bat I feel tension with her choice of AnyU, which implies that her
experience could be had at any college across the country. As a college student, I am fully
aware that each college and the experience that goes along with that schools beliefs and values
has a large impact on the experience. I also notice in this chapter her confusion about students
and student life on her campus, which leads me to the conclusion that she is more focused on
how students choices impact their classes.
How will she immerse herself in student culture while having a different maturity level and
worldview?
Will she sympathize more with student behavior as a student herself than she did whilst
being a professor?
Chapter 2: Life in the Dorms
Her choice to live in a single seems reasonable but also is an obvious flaw in her desire
to fully live the first year experience. She focuses heavily on the language of the students and
the posters that cover the walls of her floor. Because of her age, she is aware that she is not
caught up on the lingo of college aged students, which I find problematic because it might
make it more difficult for her to connect with some students.
How would be different had she lived with a roommate?
What sort of effort is she putting into connecting with other students or is her focus solely on
asking them about their experience?
Chapter 3: Community and Diversity
This chapter has many themes that are still relevant in college life today. The struggle for
community in dorms is something I have spoken with my RA about. The disconnect between
students wanting to have a community and then not showing up at community events is a very
real thing that I believe happens at most colleges. However, Nathan fails to focus on the
friendships that were probably still made on her floor despite the fact that they did not show at

community events. Her focus on diversity seems somewhat bleak and misunderstood because
of her repeated use of minority and no distinction between people. She focuses heavily on
races impact on friendships and makes it seem as though that is the only defining factor in
friendships that she noticed.

How did she analyze the data about how students made friends?
Did she encourage students to act in any way because of her difference in age?
Chapter 4: As Others See Us
In this chapter Nathan seems to acknowledge how much of an outsider she is when she
spoke with international students about the American students habits. It was somewhat
surprising to hear how independent she thought college students were as that is something I
dont always see here at Marquette. The idea of the typical american was present here and
isnt a topic I really dispute, as the opinions stated by the international students are generally
correct.

Did Nathan feel that she connected with the international students better based off of their
mutual outsider-ness? Why or why not?

How did the opinions of the international students sway her opinion of the American
students?

Chapter 5: Academically Speaking

In this chapter, Nathan expresses her frustration with the lack of student participation in
classes, but also dives into why the students arent speaking. She interviews a few that tell her
the same thing. She also notices that people dont speak up much, but posters around campus
express the feelings of many of the students. Nathan also learns about dorm talk to see what
students are talking about outside of class time. She interviews students and asks them which
topics they talk about the most amongst friends. Her study seemed a little uneven as there was
more focus on women than men. She also asked students where they are learning the most
during college and was surprised to hear students saying they believed they learned more
outside of the classroom.
How could she have expanded her study to include more male points of view?
Was she engaging in dorm talk with students or was it strictly interview based?
How do these answers compare to how students now feel?
Chapter 6: The Art of College Management
Nathan explores the idea of time management and stress in college. She looks at how
students are planning their time and breaks it into native rules for making a class schedule.
She sees how students plan their schedule to be the most efficient for their time and choose
classes with teachers that they know. She learns about how students interact with their
professor strategically. Its interesting how much she defines how students work so hard to not

have to work hard in classes.

How do these experiences translate at other schools such as Marquette?
Did this frustrate her to see as a professor? Or did it answer questions for her?
Afterword: Ethics and Ethnography
In the section about the act of writing, Nathan acknowledges she learned very personal
things about students and was surprised at many of the aspects of student life she hadnt known
about. She talked about how other students were surprised that she was actually a professor
and she felt somewhat like she had tricked other students. It was interesting to see how she felt
about the project after it was done.
How would her findings have been different had she appeared to be the same age as the
students?
Did she feel she had betrayed any of the students that had told her information?
How similar would these findings be to if the study was conducted today?