Are you wondering if you can find a yearbook in college like the one you had in high school? Perhaps you are just curious or you may want to know if your college memories are being captured for you.
Well, here is what you need to know about the topic of colleges and yearbooks:
Do Universities Publish Yearbooks?
Although some colleges do publish yearbooks, this is a dying tradition and you will be hard-pressed to find a university that did offer a yearbook – even the ones that are available now tend to be in a digital format or published online.
How Many Colleges Still Have Yearbooks?
It is difficult to get an exact considering the sheer number of universities. However, only a handful of colleges bother to publish a yearbook anymore.
Most of these yearbooks are available online or as digital copies. Very few colleges have physical copies anymore.
Even the ones that do publish physical yearbooks tend to publish only on demand. Thus, it is only if a certain number of students request a copy will the yearbook be printed.
This isn’t a new phenomenon either. It is a process that has been taking place over the last decade with more and more colleges catching on.
Why Don’t Colleges Publish Yearbooks?
For one thing, there are so many more students in college now than there were before. In fact, there are millions more students now.
As a result, it is getting more and more difficult to keep track of these students. Not to mention, even if you did, you can expect the yearbook to be pretty thick!
There is also the fact that there are a greater number of departments, clubs, and activities around campus. This is making it increasingly tricky to ensure that one department keeps track of it all.
This is especially true since the college students themselves have enough studying, work, and extracurricular activities to do.
Social media has also made publications such as the yearbook redundant. People don’t have to rely on the yearbook to keep track of the social events, websites and platforms will do that for them.
To add to this, yearbooks are rather expensive to publish, which makes them expensive to purchase. Students these days have enough expenses without needing to shell out money for a yearbook that has become redundant.
As there isn’t nearly as much demand as there used to be, colleges don’t feel the need to keep up with the tradition.
Are Yearbooks Still Popular Among Students?
No, students aren’t as interested in yearbooks as they once were.
A couple of decades ago, a yearbook was the only thing you had to remember the good old days. Few people had cameras and due to the cost and inconvenience not as many pictures were taken. Not to mention, everyone was a bit too busy having fun.
These days, though, most students have a tendency to document every few minutes of their lives. Thus, important and unimportant moments alike are all stored on a digital interface.
Best of all, this interface doesn’t have an expiration date and you don’t have to worry about the pictures getting damaged. Instead, it can be stored indefinitely.
As the number of students in college has grown, the student population is no longer such a tight-knit group.
In fact, unless you are in a class with someone, live in the same dorm, or attend the same club or organization, you may never meet.
A lot of people don’t want memories of people that they haven’t even met. Thus, the yearbook has become quite redundant as a result of that.
How Can You Know If Your College Has a Yearbook?
In some instances, you may be informed at the end of the year that a yearbook is being published. The yearbook may be free or you may need to pay for it.
It is likely to be a digital version so you will be provided with a link to it or be informed of how to download it.
In this case, asking students may not actually get you very far. Even if there is a college yearbook, it may not be very popular. Therefore, most students may not know about it.
It is best to ask your college administrators or speak to the journalism department. They will be most likely to know. Your librarian may be able to help you out here too.
Should You Get a Yearbook If Your College Has One?
This is entirely up to you. If it is a free copy, then you should certainly get one. It can help you to remember the name of your classmates long after you have forgotten about them.
It can also be great to remind yourself of some of your most fun or fondest memories.
If it is a paid yearbook, though, you may want to consider how much it costs. If it is expensive it may not be worth your money, particularly if you have documented your own college experience to your satisfaction.
On the other hand, if it is fairly affordable then it is something that you may want to do. It can be fun for you to flip through it as you get older.
What are the Alternatives to a College Yearbook?
If your school doesn’t have a yearbook you can make up your own!
Make the most of your college experience as you can and take as many pictures as you like. This option can be better than a yearbook as it only documents memories and events that are relevant to you.
Keeping track of the college newspaper is another idea. All of the important news and events are documented here. They are also often digital copies that may be saved for a long time.
Are Yearbooks Published by Colleges?
Some colleges still do publish yearbooks but for the most part, these have lost favor in most universities across the country – while some do have digital options – many have given up on these too due to the increase in popularity of social media.
