FRESHMAN AT LARGE

When Beth leaves the comfortable circle of her mid-western background, her family and her well-bred beau--to enter a liberal University, she does it with the conscious wish for independence. And the school she attends (based on Antioch), its emphasis on self discipline, its program of field work, and its heterogeneous student body at once reenforce and challenge this desire. Deeply involved in the program of her college, Beth feels the old ties becoming more and more tenuous as she is torn between her desire to cling to the old and embrace the new. Her experience both as a student and a worker enrich her to such a point that she enters her second year with a firm sense of self and the conviction that she has found and earned her right to independence. A story which touches on problems directly related to the age group for which it is written and on larger problems of growth and self understanding, this employs intelligence and sensitivity.