The Secret Syllabus: A Guide to the Unwritten Rules of College Success

by Jay Phelan, Terry Burnham

The unwritten rules of success that every student must follow to thrive in college



The Secret Syllabus equips students with the tools they need to succeed, revealing the unwritten rules and cultural norms and expectations not included in the official curriculum. Left to figure out on their own how the academic world works, students frequently stumble, underperform, and miss opportunities. Without mastery of the secret syllabus, too many miss out on the full, rich experience available to them in college.

Jay Phelan and Terry Burnham share the essential lessons they have learned from struggling, unfocused students as well as award-winning college instructors and researchers. The Secret Syllabus draws on Phelan and Burnham's experiences with thousands of undergraduate and graduate students. Weaving engaging storytelling with practical, actionable advice, they illustrate both productive and counterproductive approaches to achieving academic excellence, and highlight the importance of setting and attaining goals, nurturing strong relationships, developing resiliency, and more.

This fresh, funny, and boldly innovative book enables students to develop the consistently winning and effective behaviors that will equip them to thrive on campus and beyond.

Genres: Nonfiction, Education

288 pages, Paperback

Published July 5, 2022

Reviews

[Bibliotekar · Rating 5 out of 5]

I so wish this had been written when I started college (ahem, decades ago) because it's just that useful. It looks at the college experience from an anthropological point of view - teaching the unwritten rules of the academic culture. This provides a good framework for advice on how to handle many of college's challenges - what to do during office hours, how to make a positive impact in a 300-person class, how to budget your time, how to approach a failure (test/class), how to choose a graduate school, how to be a great job candidate after college, etc. I've got a bachelor's and two master's degrees, but this book would have been so helpful early on! I only wish there had been a chapter on research/academic expectations with ideas like taking a library tour (tailored to your area of study) to learn resources and how to access them remotely, utilizing writing centers on campus, and how to effectively find/start/run study groups.

[Kristina Forsha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good book on how to improve your college experience and excelle in college. Absolutely loved it, and was so interesting I practically couldn't put it down.

[Anirudh Mannattil · Rating 2 out of 5]

I will not be rating this novel on a scale of 1 to 100, as it is a non-fiction read and hence difficult to rate due to the multitude of factors at play.

Quite engaging but drawn-out take on preparing for college. I had several issues with the novel but the commonality amongst all of them is that the strategies provided are neither ground-breaking nor unwritten. Unfortunately, these have all been discussed in great detail previously so there is really nothing new to learn.

Simply acts as a confidence boost if the methods outlined aligns with your own (they did, for me) but apart from that, ...

[Niki C · Rating 4 out of 5]

The advice in this book is absolutely sound. If you follow through with most of it, you'll do absolutely wonderfully. There's some pieces that I don't believe apply (at least in some cases) like "Don't talk to the professor in the minutes leading up to a lecture." If you're at a small college, at least, I've found that the professors will try to talk to you before a lecture almost no matter what. So take some things with a grain of salt. But much of the advice here, especially regarding your professors, is incredibly valuable. So much of this I have followed and already seen the results of. Dedicate yourself, and I promise you, you'll do great.

[Lily Chown · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was so helpful as I prepare to go off to college in the fall. It was incredibly useful learning about things from a professor’s point of view as I now feel like I have a new mindset of how to approach certain parts of college (such as office hours, relationships with professors, and even assignments). I highly recommend this book for anyone about to start college and looking for tips on how to make the most of their experience.

[Beth Butler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of practical and explicit tips for getting more from college than grades and a diploma. Office hours, recommendation letters, internships, and more. If I had read it when I went to college it could have helped, or not because I thought I knew everything and wouldn't have actually followed the advice, lol. Definitely would be worth reading as a college student.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

actually pretty helpful, book dad made me read, title says it all

[Emma Hershey · Rating 2 out of 5]

i read it. it is a book. i might’ve learned something but i really don’t know.

[Sunshine Silver · Rating 4 out of 5]

Highly recommend for anyone early in their academic progress in higher-ed. Very useful information, although most references utilized are not recent.

[Kim Persons · Rating 1 out of 5]

This should be subtitled- How to be a college bro