Seniors

For most students, college is a time of dizzying personal change, both confusing and exhilarating. Seniors: Four Years in Retrospect helps prepare undergraduates to take full advantage of these invaluable years of questioning and growth. The filmmakers of Frosh, the widely acclaimed chronicle of one year in a racially diverse freshman residence hall, returned to Stanford three years later to see how college life had changed five of these students. Combining extensive footage shot during senior year with prophetic clips and "outtakes" from Frosh, the two directors have produced an altogether new film focusing on the different trajectories students from diverse backgrounds take to a fulfilling and successful college experience.

Monique, daughter of a crack-addicted mother, almost drops out during her first year but is taken under the wing by two black women mentors; she graduates with honors and plans to go on for her Ph.D.

Cheng, an academically driven, politically conservative Chinese American pre-law major defies his parents by taking a job as a high-risk investment banker in Singapore.

Sam, a white, male, heterosexual "jock," accepts increasing campus diversity but still seeks his own cultural enclave in the BMOC fraternity.

Brandi comes to Stanford as a logical consequence of her upper middle class African American background; but she drops out for two years to discover a reason of her own for going to college.

Debbie "washes out" of her pre-med program and becomes disenchanted with her sorority; she switches to Women's Studies where she develops the self-confidence to go on to a prestigious med school.

Together these concise case studies constitute a unique sociological investigation of continuity and change on today's college campuses. The film will help students, faculty and counselors discuss such issues as:

the importance of student advisors and appropriate role models, especially for first-generation college students

the pros and cons of taking time off during college

the benefits of changing majors and revising career plans

the economic, peer and family pressures affecting career choice

the role of Greek life and ethnic "theme houses" in promoting cultural diversity - or campus Balkanization

the development of individual and community identity on an increasingly polarized campus

the reassuring fact that most undergraduates survive Freshman year and invent their own unique college experience