Sherrie Nist-Olejnik - College Rules!: How to Study, Survive, and Succeed in College

For Sherrie Nist-Olejnik, the fourth edition of College Rules!written after retirementrepresents a career-spanning culmination of her many interactions with mentors, colleagues, students, and teachers. For Jodi Holschuh, this bookwritten after becoming a full professor and director of a doctoral programrepresents a way to put the research about college-student learning that she had been reading about and conducting into the hands of the students who need it the most. One professor emerita, one professorneither of whom would have been able to accomplish her goal of writing College Rules! without the help and support of many individuals.

First, our heartfelt thanks to Barbara Collins-Rosenberg, our agent, who encouraged us to update College Rules! with the most current information on college learning.

Second, thanks to Lisa Westmoreland, Clara Sankey, Chloe Rawlins, Emily Blevins, and Daniel Wikey at Ten Speed Press, who in various and wonderful ways helped spruce up College Rules! for its readers.

Third, theres not a thank you big enough for our mentors, colleagues, and teachers, both past and current, who taught us to be teachers, researchers, writers, and questioners. These individuals, although too numerous to mention, also gave us the self-confidence and skills to be successful in the sometimes treacherous world of academe.

Fourth, a special thanks to Dr. Deborah Martin and Dr. Ian Lukas for allowing us to share parts of their syllabi with our readers (and their potential future students). Many, many thanks to Dr. Douglas Holschuh, Dr. Denise Domizi, Mr. Blake Powers, and Dr. David Caverly for their help and insights on technology. Their collective wisdom was invaluable.

Fifth, this book could not have existed without our students. We have learned as much from themeven more, perhapsthan they have ever learned from us. For both of us, teaching and other interactions with students continue to breathe new life into our research and other writing. It adds meaning to what we do and on many a day simply makes us smile.

Sixth, thanks go to our parents, Charlene and Roy Miller and Mary and Stanley Patrick, who instilled in us the love and pleasure of learning. Their curiosity and love of learning helped us recognize these characteristics in ourselves. For that, we are eternally grateful.

But most of all, we thank our spouses and children: Steve and Kama; Doug, Maia, and Sam. Our husbands, Steve Olejnik and Doug Holschuh, encouraged us to write this book and believed in our idea that if students knew how to learn in college right from the start, they would ultimately have an easier and more enjoyable college experience. Our children, Kama, Maia, and Sam, had very different roles. Kama drew on her college and work experiences to offer advice and guidance. Maia and Sam helped us remember the road to college in middle schoolbeginning to read more difficult textbooks, algebra 1 tests, geography map testsboth the good and the, well, not so great. They make the learning process seem transparent and funwhich is what we hope for you in college.