Are there any blogs targeted at college freshmen?

August 13, 2005 5:33 PM

I have for a few months now been considering starting a blog aimed at people heading off for their first year of college.

I want to focus on a few things new students often having trouble with; stuff like getting work done, keeping organized, eating well, not letting yourself get burnt out, etc. I'm thinking something along the lines of 43folders but more targeted at college problems and (hopefully) less Mac-centric.

a) does anything like this exist?

b) can anybody think of a name for a project like this? I have a few ideas, but nothing particularly engaging.


I read this thread which had some neat ideas. I have a little wiki on my computer that I've been adding to occasionally over the last little while, and I have lots of ideas for content, I'd just like to make sure there isn't anything else out there before I start trying to make something work.


Thanks in advance for the help.

posted by cmyr to Computers & Internet (13 answers total)

There are quite a number of blogs by college freshmen, and communities on LiveJournal that deal with the subject, but I haven't seen a blog for college freshmen.

It's an interesting idea; keep us posted.
posted by divabat at 6:33 PM on August 13, 2005

My college newspaper's website has some sort of "Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About College" guide for freshmen. It's not a blog, but a collection of older articles linked on a common page, certainly not very comprehensive.
posted by brad! at 6:55 PM on August 13, 2005

The Freshman 15? Freedom 15? Let's get drunk and crazy?
posted by fionab at 7:31 PM on August 13, 2005

The Prudent Young Adult's Secondary Education Primer?

Or eXtremeBLOG UNIVERSITY!
posted by parallax7d at 9:25 PM on August 13, 2005

I like the Freshman 15.
posted by danb at 10:21 PM on August 13, 2005

There's definitely an audience for a site like that. I don't have a recommendation for a name, but if you email me (anil at dashes dot com) I can put you in touch with people who've launched similar niche blogs to great success.
posted by anildash at 11:31 PM on August 13, 2005

uniblog
freshblog
blog101
snogblog
willthatbeontheexamblog

sounds like a good idea, good luck
posted by Rumple at 11:46 PM on August 13, 2005

You may want to check out My Freshman Year, which my roommate (who works in Student Life) just read and thoroughly enjoyed.
posted by joshuaconner at 1:09 AM on August 14, 2005

I wish this had been around when I started school. As for a name, how about GenEd?
posted by TTIKTDA at 1:14 AM on August 14, 2005

I really like GenEd. The only name I could think of was Dormster.

Once you get the site off the ground, I would *highly* recommend advertising it on thefacebook.com. Kids at my university eat, sleep and breathe thefacebook and they'll do anything thefacebook tells them to.

Anyway, good luck with the project. I'd love to see it once you launch.
posted by katieinshoes at 7:22 AM on August 14, 2005

Hasn't Target already covered this? But seriously though, I still don't think anyone's done a more complete job of documenting the freshman experience than Mr. Andrew Hicks. Though his journal is called "Another Year in the Life of a Nerd" so it's just one niche of college life. But perhaps one that overlaps slightly with MeFi readers. =)
posted by idontlikewords at 7:48 AM on August 14, 2005

Response by poster: I like the sounds of GenEd. I'm also kind of fond of both freshman and freedom 15, perhaps just shortened to Fresh15? Has that easy to remember sort of ring to it. On the other hand it does sound kind of like it's trying to hard to be hip, but then that's kind of my thing.

gened.org might be available. fresh15.com looks free, too.


katieinshoes: Thanks for the advice re: thefacebook. If/When I get this off the ground I'll probably end up crawling back for publicity type advice. I'm in a bit of a squeeze because school is approaching so quickly, and I'd like to have everything up and running, but that's what I get for putting things off.
posted by cmyr at 9:06 AM on August 14, 2005

How do you pronounce GenEd? Like a short-hand for General Education? Here's one vote against that; I've had experience in several US and Canadian higher ed campuses, and I don't really relate to that, let alone know what that means, but YMMV. It looks like "gened" as in something that had to do with genes. I always think about how one would tell someone else, either over the phone or email, where the capitalization isn't evident and the pronounciation may be a bit garbled to your ear. "Gen Ed" or "gened" just don't parlay into the content of your site. And I'm not just saying that because Freshman 15 was my $0.02!
posted by fionab at 11:29 PM on August 14, 2005