The most popular kid on campus meets a beautiful journalist who makes him realize that maybe he's afraid to graduate.
In certain circles, Van Wilder is a living legend at Coolidge College, where he's been a student now for seven years, not yet having completed his degree requirements. Despite being bright, he never attends classes anymore, instead hosting parties, imparting his brand of wisdom to his adoring fans, hosting school organization fundraisers, and rallying the college spirit among the student body. Conversely, Van loves his Coolidge life. In his antics, he has a 2ic in Hutch, and always hires a personal assistant, this year's being a South Asian transfer student named Taj, who wants to learn from the best, namely Van. Van's college life is threatened when his wealthy neglectful father only now learns that Van is still in school, Wilder Sr. who has been paying his way all this time. As such, Wilder Sr. pulls the plug on that subsidy, meaning that Van has to figure out a way to pay for his Coolidge life. Because of his living legend status, Van becomes the subject of a series of articles by the college paper's star reporter, Gwen Pearson, an assignment she would rather not do, preferring harder hitting material. However, in Gwen needing to spend time with Van, Richard Bagg, Gwen's arrogant fraternity president pre-med boyfriend, tries to place Van in a bad light time and time again, believing that Gwen and Van are falling for each other. Also in spending time with Gwen, Van may come to a true understanding of why he has stayed at Coolidge for such a long time, and what he should be looking for in his future.—Huggo
After seven fruitless years, perpetual undergraduate Van Wilder has earned the reputation as a college sluggard and the campus soul. But all good things must come to an end. And out of the blue, Van faces his first real crisis in years: given his legendary reluctance to finish college, his father has decided to cut off his tuition to force Van to graduate. As a result, refusing to accept that the party is over, Van Wilder embarks on a mission to earn money by doing what he knows best. In the meantime, Gwen, the campus newspaper reporter, has set her sights on exposing Van. After all, being Wilder comes with great responsibility. But this time, Van is neck-deep in trouble. Will the coolest guy in college pull off a surprise victory?—Nick Riganas
Van Wilder is a guy who has been at his college for seven years. He spends most of his time throwing parties and "fund raisers". When his father decides that it's time for tough love, he doesn't pay his tuition. So Van becomes a professional party thrower. At the same time, Gwen who writes for the college paper, is tasked with doing a story on him, but Van is too busy partying to do that. So she writes it using info from people who talk about him and writes an unflattering piece, which doesn't make him happy. He then dares her to see if she can get the true story but is more interested in trying to score with her, which is not easy because she has a boyfriend, who is a snob, and who is not too happy with the amount time she is spending with him. So he tries to get rid of him.—<[email protected]>
To Van Wilder, college doesn't get you ready for life, it is life. So when his father puts a stop to his cash flow, 7 years into his time at college, it looks like the party might finally be over for Van. Down, but not out, Van, and his team devise a way to make money from partying. However that soon come to the attention of the college magazine, who send out sexy college reporter, Gwen to do a feature on the infamous Van Wilder, Party Liaison for the graduation front page. But when things start to go wrong for Van, he realizes that this time he may need to do something really crazy... GRADUATE!—Ryan Farrow
Vance "Van" Wilder (Ryan Reynolds) is a confident and sardonic seventh-year senior at Coolidge College who is popular among most of the student body. With no ambition to graduate, Van spends his days driving around campus in his customized golf cart, posing nude for figure drawing classes, and organizing soirees and fundraisers for his peers. Among his friends are his roommate and close confidant Hutch (Teck Holmes) and his newly hired assistant Taj Mahal Badalandabad (Kal Penn), a sexually repressed foreign exchange student from India.Upon learning that his son is still in school, Van's father (Tim Matheson) arrives at Coolidge intent on bringing him home. When Van refuses, his father decides to sever Van's financial support. Faced with dis-enrollment due to unpaid tuition, Van seeks a payment extension from the registrar, Deloris Haver (Cynthia Fancher). After Van has sex with her, Deloris hands him the paperwork for an extension, which Van realizes he only needed to ask for in the first place. Van realizes he needs 4 monthly payments of $5K each to remain in college.
Gwen Pearson (Tara Reid) works for the school paper, and despite her talents for journalism, her articles do not generate interest from the student body. Her editor assigns her to get an "unattainable" human interest story on Van Wilder as he normally refuses to do interviews for the paper. After a couple of attempts to get money fast (Running sexy tuition classes, and helping people with their sex problems in exchange for money, organizing naked mile runs), Van is approached by the Lambda Omega Omega fraternity (who are the biggest losers on campus with bridging eyebrows), offering to pay him a thousand dollars to throw them a blowout party and boost their popularity.Overhearing two of the Lambdas expressing their excitement over the party's success and their satisfaction with Van's work, Gwen writes a story crediting Van as the host of the party. Though Van hates the article at first, he realizes it can be the "cash cow" he needs to stay in school. Van eventually agrees to sit down with Gwen for the follow-up piece after losing a hockey bet to her (her brothers play professional hockey and Van is jacked at his own game), also she has the chance to make the front page of the graduation issue, if she can get the follow-on article on Van.
Gwen's boyfriend, Richard "Dick" Bagg (Daniel Cosgrove), is a pre-medical student and the president of his fraternity Delta Iota Kappa as well as the student government. As he learns of Gwen's work with Van and suspects a growing bond between them, he moves to sabotage their prospective romance. Van and Richard exchange escalating pranks ( Richard had lured Van away from the party by inviting him to dinner with Gwen's parents, but Van wins the day by getting the parents to do vodka shots from each other chests), culminating in Van, Taj and Hutch replacing the cream filling of a batch of pastries with canine semen taken from Van's English Bulldog Colossus.Though Gwen grows closer to Van (They talk about why Van is trying to earn money to stay in school, when most people try to graduate asap), she accesses his transcripts from the Admissions & Records office while doing background work on her piece, learning that Van has actively avoided graduating for the past seven semesters; he stopped attending classes years ago, 18 units short of graduation. Angry that Gwen dug into such personal details, Van disassociates himself from Gwen and takes a contemplative look at his life.Van comes back to Gwen and says that he will work really hard to graduate for the both of them. Richard hears about this, and decides to propose to Gwen.. Gwen rejects his proposal. She goes to meet Van, who was hurting and exchanging saliva with a hottie in his room.
Richard arranges to sabotage Van's latest party with Jeannie (Emily Rutherfurd), a member of a sister sorority by smuggling under-aged children into the party (organised by Van) and getting them drunk, then calling a campus police officer to the scene. As a result, Van is arrested for providing alcohol to minors and faces expulsion from Coolidge. A depressed Van prepares to leave Coolidge until Taj inspires him to fight back against the charges. The student body pools its resources to defend Van against the charges before a university panel featuring, among others, Van's collegiate adversary Professor McDougal (Paul Gleason), Deloris and Richard.While the law club invests time coaching Van to plead innocent to the charges, the rest of the student body works to generate support for Van. Having learned from his past mistakes and what Gwen has shown him, Van goes off-book during the hearing; though he did not intend for underage students to attend the party, he nonetheless considers himself responsible for ensuring its legality. He throws himself at the mercy of the court and asks that rather than expelling him, they force him to graduate; he offers to complete his remaining units before the semester ends, earning a degree in leisure studies. Professor McDougal surprises everyone with his swing vote, casting the 3-2 vote in favor of Van's reinstatement, and Van begins studying for the finals - which will be held in just six days.
In retaliation for Richard's underhandedness (having learned it was him who set Van up and his later-revealed infidelity with Jeannie), Gwen spikes Richard's ritual protein shake with a powerful laxative just prior to his taking the Medical College Admission Test. Unable to hold out (since bathroom breaks are forbidden during the test), Richard "dials down the middle" on most of his multiple-choice exam sheet, and hurriedly exits the exam room. As he rushes to find a bathroom, he is intercepted by one of the doctors from the group meant to interview him for admission to Northwestern Medical School, who pulls him into an office to meet with the others. Unable to hold himself any longer, Richard strips off his pants and has violent diarrhea in the wastebasket in the room, to the revulsion and horror of the doctors present.
Van uses the entire exam period for his last final with Professor McDougal, finishing with a negative attitude. McDougal himself delivers the news to Van that he passed. McDougal notes that he had been so hard on him all those years because he believed Van was not living up to his potential. Gwen finishes her article on Van for the graduation issue revealing Van's many contributions to the students and staff of Coolidge in the last seven years, his superhuman accomplishment of a semester's worth of studying in just six days, and Richard's plot to have Van expelled; Richard is last seen reading the article in a restroom, his medical school dreams and reputation completely destroyed.
The university celebrates Van's graduation with a wild party held in Van's honor. Van's father appears (having read Gwen's article), admitting he was wrong and expressing his pride in Van's success. Gwen then arrives, lovingly reuniting with Van.
