7 Things Movies Always Get Wrong About College

It's not all grab-ass and Hacky Sack.

Van Wilder
Artisan Entertainment

If you're old enough to read this sentence, then you know very well that movies aren't meant to be an exact representation of life. Because that would be boring.

Instead, filmmakers bend the rules of reality and infuse their movie worlds with idealistic representations of life, replete with obscenely attractive people and the kind of snappy banter you've maybe had once or twice in your entire existence on this earth.

But that's all good, because dammit, movies are supposed to be different than reality! They're supposed to be better! (Or, at the very least, depressing in an entertaining sort of way).

However, College movies tend to take creative license further than any other genre. Most mainstream movies that take place on a university campus are chockfull of outrageous moments and fake profundity that, quite frankly, just doesn't exist in real life.

Like most films, these are going to feel more truthful on a person-by-person basis, as one viewer's individual experiences might fall in line with what's on screen while another's might be cartoonishly different.

By and large, college movies are ridiculously unrealistic snapshots of a schooling experience that only exists in the writers' wet dreams.

7. Cliques Still Exist Like In High School

Van Wilder
20th Century Fox

Any movie about high school since The Breakfast Club is bound to spend at least a quarter of its runtime focusing on the disparity amongst the various teenage archetypes.

But the average college movie plot takes one of two tacks: 1) It explicitly mentions the sudden abolition of all those pesky cliques that defined the main character's high school experience, or 2) It doubles down on those stereotypes, using the various fraternity/sorority types as replacements for the lunch table scenarios of high school movies.

The truth is, cliques in college life are like bras and inhibitions: Sure, they're still around, but to a much lesser degree and without as much fuss being made about them.

The jocks, the nerds, the criminals, the princesses, and the basket cases are all wandering the campus, but it's not uncommon to see them getting along and even, gasp, mingling.

Most importantly, there isn't one little group of "cool kids" who rule the school. Which brings us to another point...

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Jacob is a part-time contributor for WhatCulture, specializing in music, movies, and really, really dumb humor.