PCU

David Spade and Jeremy Piven in PCU

Jeremy Piven destroys anything that comes into view with a sarcastic wit that is timeless and perfect for a college movie. Teamed up with a larger Jon Favreau, Piven gives lessons in college etiquette along with an enlightened and useful view of classes to take as a freshman that are the Rosetta Stone of education. PCU takes no hostages among the various factions at their school, demystifying the higher education experience with an almost religious fervor. Roll around in the genius of this movie until you stink of old sheets and older pizza crusts. Pay particular attention to Piven’s advice about overcoming the lack of a car.

Road Trip

Tom Green with a snake in Road Trip

Surpassing adolescence as the premier rite of passage into adulthood is the cross-country car trip with your buds. Road Trip tosses together an unlikely group of friends and acquaintances and sends them across America to take care of a certain mistakenly sent package to one of their girlfriends. An amusing college movie that shows off a deep love for the buddy travel genre, Road Trip bookends the journey with the universally dreaded end of term finals—the heart of the movie is the companions realizing they need to be freed from from thei high school past in order to experience the present.

Old School

Will Ferrell partying in Old School

A soul check of a movie because if you’re not dying of laughter by the time a certain flying tackle into a fountain that takes place, then there’s a probably a good chance you spent your childhood torturing small animals. The college frat gets a remodel when a bunch of guys well past their prime decide they can start up their own—and it steam rolls into the land of belly laughs and snorts from there. The inability to let go of their early twenties is the main center of focus here, but it’ buried under a surface of the classic bonding of miscreants and weirdoes who form the same bonds that a typical fraternity would produce. Will Ferrell is on point in Old School with Vince Vaughn flanking him as they combine into a Voltron of awesomeness making this a college movie you can watch again and again.

Accepted

Justin Long and Jonah Hill in Accepted

Ingenious in its concept about a fake college acceptance letter that snowballs into the need to actually build a fake university to perpetuate the lie, Accepted makes your adolescent fears of not getting in anywhere a reality and then pushes it off a cliff. Timeless is the fear of rejection and the necessity is the mother of invention and all that jazz. Seeing Lewis Black play a dean and eventual professor alone is worth seeing, not to mention you’ll garner some valuable insight into the sheep-like pursuit of higher education. Whaddaya know, you might just learn something.

Back to School

Rodney Dangerfield throwing a football in Back To School

Back to School doesn’t even bother saying hello before it tears into the sanctity of college with wild abandon. Rodney Dangerfield is at his peak as a father who feels out of touch with his son and chooses to attend school with him so they can share the experience. The problem being that Dangerfield plays a rich businessman and therefore knows how money makes the world go round and applies it to his classes and his free time. Quips and one-liners bounce off the scenery with enough slapstick to satisfy any type of comedy lover. Without any need for a moral anchor, this film strives to deliver as much laughter as possible while carrying along a story that’s built on a foundation of the love between a dad and his son.

The American Pie sequels

It may seem obvious, but the best way to get your fix of summer movies like American Pie is to go straight to the source. That is, check out the sequels. Both of the sequels in the “official series,” American Pie 2 and American Wedding, have the same sensibility as the first American Pie movie (duh), and they were released in the summer too. Why settle for an imitation when you can get authentic-Jason-Biggs-sexually-humiliating-himself action?

Clueless

Alicia Silverstone getting mugged in Clueless

While it may not have the same level of raunchiness as American Pie, Clueless qualifies due to their similarly comedic approaches to life as an American teenager. If you’re looking for scenes of apple pies getting penetrated, look elsewhere. But if you just want to laugh at teenagers in a sunny outdoor milieu—i.e. teenagers being stupid in Southern California—you’ve come to the right place!

Bring It On

Kirsten Dunst's "naked" dream in Bring It On

Hey, not all summer movies like American Pie are masterpieces. But Bring It On is high school movie that came out in the summer—what else do you want? Bring It On is a little more by-the-book than American Pie, focusing on a climactic cheer leading competition and all, but it still shares a certain sensibility with it—which is again, laughing at teenagers as they struggle with their “problems”. It also follows in the grand American Pie tradition of having a ton of direct-to-video sequels that have almost nothing to do with the original. Not to mention, it features Hottie McHotkins (AKA Eliza Dusku) and Kirsten Dunst back when she was still cute.

Superbad

McLovin' dancing in Superbad

Finally, a summer movie like American Pie that actually comes close to matching its raunchiness factor. In the language-and-crudely-drawn-penises department, anyway. Its plot, involving two teenagers on a mad quest to get laid makes it similar to American Pie, and as an added bonus, most would agree that Superbad is a funnier, better, and more authentic depiction of teenage life than American Pie. So what we’re really trying to say is that what you should be looking for is “summer movies like Superbad.”

The House Bunny

Girls post makeover in House Bunny

If this list is any indication, a good chunk of summer movies like American Pie are targeted at the fairer sex. The House Bunny is no different, featuring Anna Farris as a former Playboy bunny who becomes a sorority house mother. And unlike a lot of teen  comedies, it actually got a fair amount of critical praise, albeit praise that singled out Anna Farris’ performance as being somewhat too good for the material. Still, it counts.

Your search for summer movies like American Pie might last until your dying breath, but this list should make your quest a little easier. If nothing else, the movies on this list will make remembering YOUR awkward teenage years that much easier/funnier. And if you’re still in your teenage years now, uh, sorry?