by Chanel Zagon | @chanelzagon
Welcome to college campus (read: party central) the home to thousands of party animals, aka students. On a campus tour you’ll see cheerleaders busting moves on the lawn, a cappella groups in chorus on the sidelines and we may even take you for a stroll down frat house lane. And if you’re really lucky, we will take you behind the scenes to our studio, Hollywood Pictures.
Hollywood, you’ve painted an exuberant image of university life; filling eyes with awe and raising the expectation university life is like a jamboree on campus. Frat parties, sororities and losing your head – or your clothes on ‘spring break’ are the norm. Don’t get me wrong, uni is fun, but there’s a thing called movie magic.
So, here are seven movies that got university life wrong:
Pitch Perfect
Without a doubt, a university’s activities fair has a wide scope of clubs and extra-curricular activities (say hello to Quidditch club). But an a cappella club where students compete against other a cappella clubs across the globe, while finding the time to study and get a degree, may be a slightly far-fetched plot orchestrated by Hollywood directors. Apologies to all hopeful a cappella champions, but university isn’t going to be your big break.
22 Jump Street
University is a party where students forget they are students and become party animals. It seems we, college students have party boners; we party hard, drink hard and go hard on drugs (but of course, are not hard-working.) We’ve all heard ‘go hard or go home,’ but going ‘hard’ on everything except work, is not exactly an accurate representation of being at uni. Don’t get me wrong, we love a good party and a good drink, but I think we draw the line at party boner.
Sydney White
We may have lived through Mean Girls during high school with cliques of nerds, jocks and plastics, but when you step foot on campus it isn’t exactly clique haven. Yes, while there’ll always be ‘bitches’ in life, college is a new school, with new rules, so mean girls don’t generally rule the school as presidents of the student council, just saying.
Bad Neighbours
Booming stereos and the blare of police sirens, meet out of control frat party. I guess that rules out just about every single university in Australia. Sorry Aussie freshman, but there is no such thing as sororities or fraternities down under. Damn it, we missed out!
Bring It On Again
Is it just me, or does cheerleading seem to feature in every single movie remotely to do with school? I’m sure cheerleading is cool and, let’s be honest, who doesn’t love pompoms? But the panning shots of cheer squads on the lawns of universities are slightly cringe-worthy. Believe me, not everyone is a cheerleader and there aren’t multiple cheerleading squads in one university…unfortunately. So you may have to search elsewhere for your cheerleading ambitions.
Spring Breakers
Lets be honest, us college students are pretty sexy. Sexy enough to parade around in our underwear for sure (thanks for your high hopes Hollywood). I mean, if you’ve got it, flaunt it! And while there may be some of us who flaunt it burlesque style, the most of us may in fact be fully clothed. Surprisingly.
Legally Blonde
Why not study furiously to pass exams, to go to college, to chase after your one true love? And since it’s a law degree and at Harvard, cough up a 100k in between. College must be cupid if you’re paying that price for love. Somehow though, I don’t see this to be the case. I give credit to Elle’s bold, romantic gesture though…if only college was that romantic.
Uni is a mix of study and procrastination, grabbing coffee in between those early morning classes, and searching for your classroom number aimlessly in your phone (‘cos lets be honest, you still can’t remember which room is yours). And of course, we can’t forget partying on occasion.
