8 Ways College & Highschool Differ

Check out this great article from USA Today, highlighting the differences between highschool and college: Everyone gets the pre-college jitters during the countdown to move-in day and orientation. You start to freak out just a little bit — all your teachers always said college would be harder than high school, but how hard? We all know college is different from high school, but exactly how different? • Living with your classmates If you’re going to live on campus, more often than not, you’ll be seeing people from your Psych 101 class in the dining hall and the lounge. Hanging out with your friends is as easy as walking a few feet down the hallway. Doing group projects has also never been easier, but this means you can’t just leave your problems at school; you live at school. Speaking of school… • More work This isn’t your high school English class where you had an easy paper every two weeks. There’s going to be lengthy assignments and chunks of readings that may or may not come up in lecture. You actually have to work for that A — there are no As for effort in the eyes of a professor. As if this wasn’t enough… • No helicopter parents Your parents can’t remind you when that paper is due, to do your laundry or make you a late-night snack. They can’t check your grades for you and tell you to get your act together. They might tell you what they think you should do, but as an adult, they can’t legally force you to do anything. Lucky for you, this also means… • Freedom Finally. You’re out of the house and on your own. You can stay out as late as you want, hang out with whomever you want and study whatever you want whenver you want. You don’t have to go to class, you can sleep til 4 p.m. and no one will judge you. However you want to live your life, the choice is up to you. But here’s the catch… • With great power comes great responsibility Uncle Ben’s right. While you don’t have a curfew, you also need to get sleep. No one can tell you to go to class, but no one’s obligated to give you the notes either. It’s all about time management and prioritization skills, and you can’t blame anybody but yourself if your report card is D-sappointing. But don’t fret! If you’re studying something that you really like… • Actually enjoying classes Generally, if you choose a major you love, you’ll find yourself sitting at the edge of your seat, engaged in discussion, and actually caring about the things your professor is talking about. Every student in a class is someone who consciously chose to take that class, and more often than not, you’ll actually befriend a lot of the people in your major. College isn’t all about the classroom though… • Experience over knowledge In college, you actually go out into the world and learn about life for yourself. There’ll be a lot of firsts in your freshman year, and things you can’t learn in the classroom are sometimes the most important (i.e. the fastest route to class, how to have a good relationship with your roommate). And funnily enough… • Everyone makes mistakes A big part of the high school experience is the way that rumors fly around. In college, no one has enough time to worry about who’s dating who, or what happened at that frat party. Everyone’s just too busy. You’re expected to make mistakes in your freshman year; laugh them off, learn from them, and live.  

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