Boy Meets (The College) World

Honestly.

I have no shame in admitting in Boy Meets World is one of my favorite shows ever. 

Although the show aired its first episode less than a week before my first birthday and ended before I entered high school I feel as though the show is timeless.  It kind of scares me how relevant I find Boy Meets World and I’m not embarrassed to say that I’ve learned many life lessons through watching the show.

The first five seasons of the show followed Cory, Shawn, Topanga, Eric, Feeny, and later on Angela through their middle school and high school careers.  We saw them love, learn and most definitely hurt throughout the 100 episodes that made up their pre-college lives.  And these themes definitely did not change once the gang made their way to college.

For this blog post I re-watched the first two episodes following six characters entrance into the college world.

AIN'T COLLEGE GREAT - 6x03

This is the first episode in the Boy Meets World series that focuses on the group of friends and their major adjustment to college.

Cory Matthews, seconds in to the episode clearly plays the overzealous new student, finding the positive in absolutely everything college related.  Shawn, Cory’s best friend takes a more realistic approach to college and at times is even embarrassed by Cory’s over the top behavior.  Cory quickly ignores the advice of his friends and girlfriend and registers for an extremely heavy course load that he is nowhere near ready for.  Cory registers for Quantum Physics and other difficult classes, which at first he is positive he can handle but quickly after his interaction with the professor seen in this clip he knows he’s made the wrong choice. 

Cory quickly attempts to talk to the Dean of Students at first hoping to get help rearranging his class schedule.  The Dean offers no help and Cory is left turning to his high school principal Mr. Feeny who takes matters into this own hands speaking to the Dean himself.  The episode is wrapped up neatly with Cory’s friends Shawn, Angela, and Topanga admitting they rearranged their own schedules to allow for Cory to take intro classes he needs.

The problems that Cory faces in many ways minor many of the problems that first year students face when they enter a university for the first time.  Many students come taking a heavy course load that they think is necessary to be on track and eventually many of them end up hurting in the long run because they quickly learn that high school and college are in no way the same thing.  Cory at one point during the episode complains to Mr. Feeny that he was in no way prepared for college, and this is something that many college students say after they actually experience college.  In Cory’s situation his problems where fixed fairly quickly and his life went back to normal, but although Boy Meets World is realistic it is not real life, and many students take semesters to get back on track after making some wrong decisions their first year.

Although they weren’t all successful here are some of the things Cory did the solve his problems: 

Talk to a Dean/Academic Adviser

Sadly, in the episode Cory visited an angry, bitter Dean who had little to no interest in helping him, but at actual universities, especially Rutgers that is complete the opposite.  Since Rutgers is a large University is is impossible for a Dean to reach out to every single student but they are available resources and they do want to help.  One thing that I stressed to my students is to use some of the many recourses that Rutgers has to offer because in many cases it is those resources that will help students both help their GPA’s and their sanity. 

Talk to a Mentor

When going to college you are not expected to know everything, especially at a large University like Rutgers, so sometimes you need to find that one person that you can go to for advise and help in the stressful situations.  For many students that is an old high school teacher (Like Feeny to Cory), an older student, a professor, a dean, resident assistant or even their Orientation Leader.  I can’t count the amount of times that I’ve gotten messages on facebook from former students asking me questions about things as simple as how to buy a football.  The only dumb question is a question never asked.

FRIENDLY PERSUASION - 6x04

This episode seems to take a step back and starts at the groups freshman orientation.  The orientation program in the episode doesn’t even begin to touch on some of the things focused on in the Rutgers orientation program and actually looks a lot more like a social get together than anything super informative.  But Shawn definitely did get something out of the orientation, he decides he wants to branch out and meet new people.  To allow himself freedom to do so Shawn breaks up with his long-term girlfriend Angela.  

Cory and Topanga are horrified and Cory takes it upon himself to try and get Shawn and Angela back together.  Cory and Shawn have some conflict when Cory find a rubber band on the door and doesn’t interpret it the way that Shawn expected him too.  In Shawn’s mind the rubber band on the door meant that the room was occupied and got upset at Cory for barging in on Shawn and his date.  Cory instead of being upset with Shawn for yelling at him is more upset at the fact that Shawn is in the room with a girl that is not Angela.

Throughout the episode Cory makes an effort to become better friends with Angela when he realizes that other than her being his best friends former girlfriend he knew literally nothing about her and they had spent virtually no time together one on one.  Angela at first is apprehensive but eventually opens up and shares a secret with Cory, one that she hadn’t even told Topanga: the fact that she didn’t want to break up with Shawn.  Cory in an effort to prove himself to Angela and cement the friendship that they have created keeps this information to himself and doesn’t share it with his girlfriend Topanga or his best friend Shawn.

This episode focuses on a different aspect of college life than the episode beforehand.  Tit focuses on relationships and how they develop and fall apart in the college years.

 

Freshman Orientation

The freshman orientation seen in the episode is nowhere near as extensive as the one that Rutgers student take part in it does bring to light some of the feelings that people feel after attending their own orientation. 

Shawn sees college as a chance to branch out and meet new people and through this he leaves his girlfriend Angela behind.  Sadly, this is something that many people deal with when coming to college.  They end and they start new relationships in attempt to get the complete “college experience.” 

Roommate Issues

Cory and Shawn's roommate conflict are nowhere near as severe as other roommate conflicts that I have heard about in year and a half here at Rutgers, but the confusion over the rubber band touches on the fact that roommate conflicts do occur even though my might be minor.  Over the summer I told my students to make sure to reach out to a resident assistants to solve any issues with their roommates that they felt they could not solve themselves.  Because most people are not lucky enough to have their best friend forever as their college roommate. 

Making New Friends

Although Angela and Shawn’s relationship fell apart quickly, that didn’t stop Cory and Angela from forming a new friendship.

In my opinion Cory and Angela represent the people who casually know each other than eventually become good friends through an awkward experience.  While working as an orientation leader there were many students in my group that either lived very close to one another or even lived in the same town and it wasn’t until their experience at orientation that they came together and began forming bonds.

Shawn wasn’t wrong for wanting to branch out because it is something most students’ want and need to do to have a successful career.  But although it is healthy to branch out that doesn’t mean that everyone wants to, Cory and Topanga for example never leave each other’s side.

--

The two episodes I watch collective totaled roughly 40 minutes and in that 40 minute time span the Boy Meets World gang experiences just s few of the trials and tribulations that go along with being a college student.  Trials and tribulations that are still relevant to this day, years after the episode was written and aired. 

I'm done now. 

- Paige