HARVARD GAZETTE ARCHIVES

Into the Unknown

Jennifer Hanson compiles a guide to freshman survival

By Shawn Zeller '97

Special to the Gazette

Every year a new batch of first-year students experiences the sometimes joyous, sometimes shocking experience of leaving the nest. In addition to college-level courses, athletics, and extracurricular activities, first-years must deal for the first time with the odds and ends of everyday life as independent individuals. Living in dorms, managing finances, even doing the laundry are new experiences for many first-year students. Perhaps next year, thanks to a new book by Jennifer Hanson '97, first-years everywhere will have a little easier time of it.

This past summer, Hanson wrote The Real Freshman Handbook. Subtitled "An Irreverent, Thorough & Totally Honest Guide to Life on Campus," Hanson's first book provides a witty and informative manual on how to survive the first year away from home.

The Process

Hanson formulated the idea behind the book during the summer after her first year. Working for the CUE Guide at the time, she spoke with a literary agent who loved the idea. During intersession of her sophomore year, Hanson submitted a proposal, including a sample chapter and table of contents. Soon thereafter she got a call from Marnie Patterson, an editor for Houghton Mifflin publishers in Boston. They offered a book deal and Hanson accepted.

Hanson wrote the book over last summer, the bulk of the writing time coming from late June to late August. For the first part of June, Hanson, after hiring several high school friends, researched the various problems of first-year students and the solutions of those who already went through them.

"I tried to incorporate as many outside voices as I could," explained Hanson. "Although this book was written by a Harvard student and hopefully will benefit future Harvard students, it is meant to be a book for anyone entering college for the first time."

The Book

The final product is a handy, humorous book that will fit in any first-year's backpack. Still, the book, which consists of nearly 200 pages and 22 chapters, is also comprehensive.

"I really tried to think of every question a first-year might have," said Hanson. "And I wanted to present the information in a conversational way, a conversation between peers."

Indeed, the book covers everything from choosing courses to how to get out stains in an anecdotal, friendly, and reassuring manner.

In the introduction, Hanson asks all the right questions. "How do you go about choosing four classes from a catalog of three thousand, let alone surviving them? How can you maintain full-body fitness without leaving your Barcalounger? And most important of all, how can you ensure that your nocturnally foraging roommate is out cold, his coonskin cap covering his face, by midnight the evening before your Sanskrit exam?"

Reflections

Although Hanson enjoyed writing the book and is proud of the final product, she has new respect for the rigors endured by the professional writer.

"The writing itself was not hard since most of the book came from my own experiences," said Hanson. "What was hard was to be self-disciplined. Writing is a very solitary activity. It was lonely at times."

If she had it to do over, Hanson explained that she would spread the actual writing process out over a longer period of time.

In the immediate future, Hanson, a history and literature concentrator, is more worried about her upcoming senior thesis than writing another book. She is now in the process of applying for grant money in order to spend part of her summer in Natchez, Miss., a town she has been studying all year in her junior tutorial. Although her plans are not set in stone, at this point Hanson hopes to explore the relationship between architecture and the natural surroundings in Natchez.

"My real love is American literature," said Hanson. "But writing this book certainly was an experience!"