Binge: What Your College Student Won't Tell You

By Barrett Seaman

In Binge, Barrett Seaman reveals what every parent, student, and educator needs to know about the college experience. Seaman spent time with students at twelve highly regarded and diverse colleges and universities across North America­. During his two years of research, he immersed himself in the lives of the students, often living in their dorms, dining with them, speaking with them on their own terms, and listening to them express their thoughts and feelings. Portraying a campus culture in which today’s best and brightest students grapple with far more than academic challenges, Binge conveys the unprecedented stresses on campus today. While sharing revealing interviews and the often dramatic stories, Seaman explores the complexities of romantic relationships and sexual relations, alcohol and drug use, anxiety and depression, class and racial boundaries, and more. Despite the disturbing trends, Seaman finds reasons for optimism and offers provocative and well-informed suggestions for improving the undergraduate experience. Sometimes alarming, always fascinating, and ultimately hopeful, Binge is an extraordinary investigative work that reveals the realities of higher education today.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Turner Publishing Company
• Release date: Dec 10, 2010
• ISBN: 9781118040041

Reviews for Binge

[sunshine608 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I probably wasn't the audience for the book, being that I am one of the Student Affairs Professionals ( even though he kept lumping us in with Res Life Professionals) Seaman talked about in the later chapter. I read this because it seemed interested, but after finishing I am wondering where the excess was. Seaman gave a pretty interesting overview of college life, but there was no big expose like I was hoping. Overall an interesting book for parents and others interested in collegiate life to read to understand what's happening on college campuses today and the events that have shaped them within the last 40 or so years.

[ennie_2 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I am so glad I'm not in college these days, as I'd be upset by all the binge drinking and drugging that reportedly goes on. My own experience in the early '70s was very tame (or maybe it was just Barnard). As detailed in this book, students are doing all sorts of things on campus with administrators seemingly looking the other way and no real supervision. Efforts are being made, and it's not all chaos, but... ick, drinking.