The expertise of one Iowa State counselor has proved to be so extensive that a Time Magazine reporter felt it was important to interview her for an upcoming article.

Nancy Corbin, director of clinical services for Student Counseling Services, will be quoted in the article “Freshman Blues,” to be published on Nov. 1.

“It was the first time that I’ve talked with anybody from the national press,” she said of her interviews with Time reporter Amy Dickinson.

Corbin, a counselor since 1975, has been working with students at ISU since July 1998.

The interviewing process took only one day.

“It happened very quickly,” she said. “It was a done deal within a matter of 24 hours.”

The article in Time focuses on the adjustment of college life for freshmen and their families.

Corbin said the adjustment is very difficult because students are making decisions that will affect their adult lives, and they put extreme pressure on themselves to get good grades as a measure of their success.

“Grades are only one aspect of success,” she said. “We’re advocating that students not only look at external things that define who they are but internal.”

In the article, Corbin is quoted as saying, “They have ‘point-and-click’ expectations.”

She said this quote means that students need to be patient with their growth processes while at college.

“I want students to remember that they are going through a huge transition and that homesickness and other adjustments to transitions are quite normal,” she said.

Corbin said everyone adjusts to college differently.

“Some students adjust in a week, others in a semester, and still others never feel this is the right place for them,” she said.

The balance between feeling comfortable at school and going home is important, Corbin said.

“Students have to find the right way to stay in touch at home and also create a life for themselves here,” she said.

Various ways to keep in touch ranged from e-mail to having parents come and visit instead of the students going home to visit them, she said.