August: Back to School Month

The transition from high school to college is a lot bigger than many students realize. Help them make the most of their college academic experience with Academic Success—a six-part series filled with facts, hints, insights, and observations from experts in the field of education and from students who know the ropes. Topics include values and goals; time management; critical thinking and problem-solving; active listening and note-taking; researching, reading, and writing; and studying and test-taking. A Cambridge Educational Production. 6-part series, 10-12 minutes each.

This five-part series, developed and tested by Dartmouth College, helps students master the learning strategies they need to succeed. Accomplished and challenged students can benefit from this introduction to key study tools. Presentations are short, concrete, and highly visual. 5-part series, 10-18 minutes each.

College Days, College Nights is an honest look at the total college experience as seen through the cameras of Oscar-winning director John Zaritsky—and a team of eight film students who capture events that the pros could not have witnessed. An indispensable part of a high school’s guidance library or a college’s freshman orientation program. Some content may be objectionable, and some language may be offensive. (91 minutes)

What happens when college students are allowed to be completely honest about their learning environment? When they’re empowered to speak their minds about their professors, peers, tuition bills, and prospects for landing jobs in their fields? Answer: a revealing portrait, drawn from inside the world of the 21st-century campus, that will benefit parents, high school students, guidance counselors, and young people who are just beginning the college experience. In this documentary, students talk about the ups and downs of higher education and the costs of obtaining it at community colleges, state universities, and private institutions.

A widely acclaimed chronicle of one year in a racially diverse freshman residence hall at Stanford University, this classic film traces a dramatic journey of social experimentation and intellectual curiosity, cultural clashes and spiritual crisis, academic pressure and adjustment problems, but ultimately, individual self-discovery within a diverse community. The film's frank and open approach to gender, racial, political, and academic issues common to all campuses will help prepare any student for the challenges of college life.

"I can’t get hooked on drugs if I only try them once." "Alcohol doesn’t really affect me." "Over-the-counter medications are totally safe." This authoritative four-part series dispels these and other dangerous myths as it clearly presents the facts about drugs, alcohol, tobacco, and caffeine. 4-part series, 29 minutes each.