It’s 5:30 a.m. and Michael Severin is waking up two feet from the ceiling.

Just another day of classes, he climbs down the six steps of his loft’s wooden ladder like so many times before trying to be quiet as to not wake his roommate.

Fast forward two years later, and things are a little different. Today, Severin still wakes up at 5:30 a.m. every morning but doesn’t have to struggle to safely get out of his bed anymore. He lives in an off-campus apartment with his new roommate, his wife.

Having lived in every residence hall community including Towers, old Richardson Court Area, new Richardson Court Area, Friley, Eaton, Buchanan, Frederiksen Court and SUV, Severin is not your average student. He is a second-year resident in small animal cardiology. A veterinarian who graduated from Iowa State with a Bachelor of Science in Zoology in 2005, Severin received his doctorate of veterinary medicine in 2006 and is also working as a masters graduate student in biomedical sciences.

Although he has a busy schedule, he has found time to add something else to his plate — writing a book.

Published in August, Severin co-authored a college survival guide for freshmen with fellow Iowa State alumnus, Kipp Van Dyke, entitled, “The Voice of College: The Freshmen Experience.”

The book is 450 pages and 43 chapters of advice and stories from the authors’ own experiences. Targeted towards high school seniors and college freshmen, the guide illustrates what one might encounter during his or her first year of college and how best to deal with it all. The book touches on topics from campus safety, social networking, rising costs of college life, secrets to getting good grades, living green and tips on personal wellness. 

With over 15 years of shared experience, Severin and Van Dyke have worked with numerous college freshmen. Between the two of them, they have served as academic resource coordinators, resident assistants, community advisors and substance abuse peer educators. Although past the point of being clueless freshmen in college now, the duo wasn’t always so confident and knowledgeable.

Van Dyke, a 2002 ISU graduate with a Bachelor of Science in child and family services, also having earned a Master of Science degree in community counseling in 2004 from Mankato and now a Residence Life Coordinator at Kansas State University, was a first generation college student when he came to Iowa State as a freshman in 1998. Like many other college freshmen, Van Dyke struggled to stay afloat in his classes.

“I had a heck of a time in my math class…to the point I thought maybe I wouldn’t make it at ISU. That was a very real and scary feeling. Fortunately, I was committed and made it through that class,” Van Dyke said.

This year, one in four college freshmen will drop out. Whether because of illness, a lack of financial support, poor grades and struggling in classes, or personal problems, there are numerous reasons first year students are leaving school. During the 2008-2009 school year, Iowa State had a retention rate of 84 percent. This means that roughly 15 percent of students at Iowa State left school after their first year. 

Since 1998, Iowa State’s retention rate has stayed fairly consistent with an average of 84.3 percent of its students staying after their first year.

After being asked if he could have benefitted from the freshmen survival guide, Van Dyke said, “Yes. As we put this together, I kept that in mind. I think back to my first year, and I didn’t have a whole lot of guidance. I want to help people like me who may need an extra tip or two to succeed in a class and also help those who are on the right track stay on it and maximize their opportunity.”

Far from the life he lives now, Severin’s first semester in college helped him come up with some of the material he would use for the book. 

“My first semester I lived in Towers, which at the time was known as the ‘party dorm.’ My [community adviser] was fired half way through the semester for serving alcohol to residents. Most nights were too loud for studying, and I moved to old RCA in the spring semester,” Severin said. “My roommate was homosexual, and I experienced firsthand the discrimination he faced which was an experience that broadened my perspective. Towards the end of my freshmen year, I entered several leadership positions including being a Cyclone Aide for the summer, hired as a resident assistant for the fall, and was co-instructor for freshmen honors seminar class.”

Google will recover 1,040,000 results relating to the three keywords, “college freshmen tips.”  Numerous writers and outlets are trying to cash in on the lucrative business of these college freshmen survival guides filled with “helpful hints and tips.” 

Future students receive “Keys to Success” at Iowa State’s freshman orientation. Although some will actually sit inside and read the book during those summer days, others may let it collect dust on a book shelf.

Walking into Kate Moore and Jessie Folken’s room, one might become mesmerized. Pink Christmas lights clutter the bathroom mirror while an exotic hammock swoops delicately down from the top bunk of the two freshmans’ lofts. Moore, freshman in art and design, and Folken, open option freshman , don’t seem to mind the business of the environment as they quietly work on homework. Sitting on top of a disheveled slump of papers on Moore’s desk is “The Naked Roommate.”  

This book, not to be confused with other reading material, is another college freshman survival guide. Apart from a naked roommate, the book presents readers with “107 other issues you might run into in college.” 

“I think this really helped me out a lot,” Moore said. “I haven’t had any surprises yet at least.” 

Across the room on Folken’s desk are novels and a dictionary but an absence of any sort of college survival guide. 

“I feel like I could have used one,” she said. “It probably would have been helpful.”

With all of these freshmen survival guides, some freshmen and their parents might be wondering which book is the best pick. 

“Mike and I were in Las Vegas when he received an e-mail about providing some quotes for someone writing a book about how to be successful in college. A light bulb went off in both of our heads and we thought, ‘You know, we have a ton of experience and insights, why would we give it to someone else for a book?’” Van Dyke said. “At that point, we drove to a bookstore to see what was out there and we felt we could fill a void that wasn’t there. Most books we saw were either written by people who had failed and were providing ‘don’t do what I did’ type of information, just full of quotes, or they were over the top with unrealistic advice. As we continued discussing and outlining the book, we both got really excited at the opportunity we had to provide new students with this very relevant information that we had already been giving to students we worked with.”

Severin said he looked at several books before leaving for school and felt they were either dated or “falsely chic, like made up instant messaging conversations relating everything to ‘dude,’ ‘pizza’ and ‘beer.’”

“I sure could have used ‘The Voice of College handbook’ if it were available at the time,” Severin said.

Although advice is abundant in the guide, Severin and Van Dyke still offered some tips for freshmen on what is crucial to surviving their first year here at Iowa State. 

“Keep focused on your long term reason you are at college — to actually learn the material for your future career and making the grades that will allow you to be successful and competitive,” Severin said. “Also, make connections with other students or groups; if you don’t connect with anyone you will not want to come back. Lastly, stay active; many high school students go from two-hour sport practices every day after school or at the very minimum gym class three times a week to almost no exercise in college, where there are many things that will cause you to gain weight such as sitting while reading, studying, being on the compute, unlimited food in the dorms, and nothing that forces you to be active. It’s important to be proactive your freshmen year to build working-out as part of your daily routine. Otherwise with food as good as the UDCC, it’s not going to be the freshmen 15 anymore, it’s going to be the freshmen 45.”

Van Dyke also had advice for students.

“I think you have to be committed to what you are doing and enjoy it,” he said. “College is a lot of ups and downs. How one handles them leads to success. I also believe you have to connect with people who can help you. It could be your RA, a professor, advisor, etc. Ask lots of questions. Outside the classroom, make good decisions and realize all decisions have consequences. Just enjoy the great opportunity in front of you.”