Back to School: YA Books Set at College

Cath is a Simon Snow super fan, who dresses up as characters in his movies with her sister, Wren, for every opening premier. It began as their way of coping with their mother leaving. However, now that the two girls are going to college, Wren has fallen away from the super-fandom the sisters have always bonded over, and Cath feels like she is adrift. College will force her to determine what she really wants in life, to deal with boys and possible...

When Penny Lee heads to college in Austin, Texas, to learn how to become a writer, it's seventy-nine miles and a zillion light years away from everything she can't wait to leave behind. Sam is stuck, literally, figuratively, emotionally, financially. He works at a café and sleeps there too; he knows that this is the chapter of his life that will serve as inspiration for when he's a famous movie director but right life is really testing him. When...

As the oldest daughter, Ada bears the weight and expectations of her entire family. So when she begins college at a Historically Black College, it's the first time in Ada's life that she is allowed to make her own choices. There, she starts to explore the world of dance and her sexuality. She must come to terms with the destiny that has been laid out for her and the one she wants to have.

Born with cerebral palsy, Amy can't walk without a walker, talk without a voice box, or even fully control her facial expressions. Plagued by obsessive-compulsive disorder, Matthew is consumed with repeated thoughts, neurotic rituals, and crippling fear. Both in desperate need of someone to help them reach out to the world, Amy and Matthew are more alike than either ever realized. When Amy decides to hire student aides to help her in her senior year...

"Sparks fly when American good girl Allyson encounters laid-back Dutch actor Willem, so she follows him on a whirlwind trip to Paris, upending her life in just one day and prompting a year of self-discovery and the search for true love."--

Shane has been doing college all wrong. Pre-med, stellar grades, and happy parents...sounds ideal -- but Shane's made zero friends, goes home every weekend, and romance...what's that? Her life has been dorm, dining hall, class, repeat. Time's a ticking, and she needs a change -- there's nothing like moving to a new country to really mix things up. Shane signs up for a semester abroad in London. She's going to right all her college mistakes: make friends,...

"Eric Bittle may be a former junior figure skating champion, vlogger extraordinaire, and very talented amateur pâtissier, but being a freshman on the Samwell University hockey team is a whole new challenge. It is nothing like co-ed club hockey back in Georgia! First of all? There's checking (anything that hinders the player with possession of the puck, ranging from a stick check all the way to a physical sweep). And then, there is Jack-- his very...

Andie Rose has a plan: transfer from community college to competitive Blue Ridge State, major in psychology, and become an iconic self-help figure. Her plans go off the rails as soon as she arrives, and soon they're in rubble at her feet. Andie finds the power of her voice on the school's legendary pirate radio station-- the same one her mom founded-- and begins to find that the best-laid plans-- and friend groups-- are not necessarily the right ones....

A freshman at MIT, seventeen-year-old Mei Lu tries to live up to her Taiwanese parents' expectations, but no amount of tradition, obligation, or guilt prevent her from hiding several truths--that she is a germaphobe who cannot become a doctor, she prefers dancing to biology, she decides to reconnect with her estranged older brother, and she is dating a Japanese boy. Can she find a way to be herself, before her web of lies unravels?

"Ben survived freshman year of college, but he's feeling more stuck than ever. His classes are a slog, his part-time job working with his father is even worse, and his best friend Dylan's been acting weird for weeks. Ben's only real bright spot is his writing partner Mario, who's been giving him a lot of Spanish lessons and even more kisses. Mario's big Hollywood dreams make Ben start to dream bigger--and the choices he makes now could be the key...