The college years can be a time of wonder and enlightenment, an all-too-brief experience in which minds are expanded, personalities are realized and lifelong friendships are established. But it's also a great time to pass out in the bathrooms of strangers, guzzle drinks with names you wouldn't pronounce in front of a nun and have noisy sex in library reading rooms. This isn't to say you can't continue this behavior after graduation, but it's far more acceptable while you're laying the groundwork for a career in medicine, law, finance, education or -- God forbid -- journalism. Otherwise, you'd better be a musician or a Hilton sister if it's understanding you want.
But as the following pages suggest, college isn't all about debauchery and excess; actual learning can be involved. This is why City Link has presented this overview of college and university life in South Florida. It's all here: the worst professors, the most engaged activists, the strangest courses, the most potent beverages and the best places to hook up on campus -- and we don't mean Wi-Fi, though that's here, too. Read on, enjoy and remember: If you wake up one morning in University of Miami President Donna Shalala's house with your hands bound behind your back, an angry goat in the kitchen and empty cans of Red Bull and bottles of Southern Comfort scattered about the floor, don't make a sound, don't ask any questions and run like hell. And if it happens again, change schools immediately.