Stereotypes: The Three Types Of College Students

Growing up, I remember intensively watching popular television sitcoms such as “Saved by the Bell,” “Boy Meets World,” “A Different World,” and more to gain an understanding of what the college life was like. Zack, “the cool kid,” strolled through the dorms seducing any girl he lusted. Topanga, “the weird nerd,” was full of life and salivated at the thought of gaining knowledge. Lastly, Corey, “the average joe,” was viewed as insignificant and faded into the background. These three types of students, “the cool kid,” “weird nerd,” and “average joe,” are the basics for the criteria of what a college student is like. Although sitcom television has conjured its perception of the characteristics of college students, Southern University is a unique institute in which television’s taboos cannot accurately distinguish the types of students that inhabit the university. The most accurate classifications of this unique bunch are the, “Ds earn Degrees Jacks,” “Bob Marley scholars,” and “Rolle Polly round-a-bouts.” The first group of Southern students, “Ds earn Degrees
Jacks,” make up a vast amount of the students that roam Southern University’s campus. Whether in the library, restroom, dorms, or lingering in the back of a classroom, these individuals inhabit no specific location and are a lifeless group. At one point in time or even a different life, these Jacks may have possessed a different spin on life. However, due to countless classroom failures and continuous repeat and deletes, all this group wishes to do is graduate. These fifth semester freshmen and super seniors possess no drive to participate in activities such as campaigning for Miss Southern or pledging Alpha Phi Alpha. All creativity, involvement, and motivation is gone. A letter grade of a D is all they need to wave Southern University goodbye and earn a degree. This next group of SU jaguars find themselves trapped in the middle and make up the largest group of students. The “Bob Marley scholars” devote their mornings, afternoons, and nights to the recreational study and practice of inhaling organic herbs and creating new types and methods of smoking them. They travel to games, go to all the parties, and one or two may even be a well-known member of the campus’s social scene. In the classroom, their eyes possess a crimson red color, and they are the laxest students a professor can have. Intune with life and its deeper meaning, these students tend to excel in courses such as Philology, Sociology, and things of that nature. Their lax mentally may cause them to seem uninterested or not motivated but really, they are deeply taking everything in in a way no professor may be able to comprehend or grasp. Lastly, Southern University’s pride and joy, “Rolle Polly round-a-bouts,” possess very distinct and vital rolls on campus.
These are the students that observers and future jaguar students see on the commercials, pass out flyers to every event and program, present monologues in class, and more. Their headquarters is the honors college but they jug various social scenes and circles. Round-a-bouts tend to distort their trust image to shape and mold themselves into what personalities or task is needed of or from them. They scurry around campus from class to class and from one event to the next. Amazingly, they still manage to maintain at least a grade point average of a 3.3 or higher. Yes, these round-a-bouts are Southern University’s jewels, because when graduation comes and goes, these doctors, lawyers, engineers, accounts, nurses, and more generously give back to the institute that nurtured their
crafts. The vast perception of college students that television manipulates its viewer to believe is truly false. Each college campus and university contains students that are very diverse and unique in its classifications. Southern University is one of those institutions. The three categories majority of its students fall in are molded from the culture and mentalities of its residents. The “Ds earn Degrees Jacks,” “Bob Marely scholars,” and “Rolle Polly round-a-bouts” are three classifications specifically suited for Southern University’s students and no one else.