College
holds a prominent place in pop culture – movies and YAF books focus mostly on
college experiences and choose real and fictional campuses as their setting for
drama, comedy and everything in between. Indeed, this transition from high
school to college is often perceived as a threshold of adulthood and one of the
most important turning points in a person’s life. However, how accurately you
picture college in your mind? Are there any misconceptions? Are you ready for
new freedoms and responsibilities? Here are the key points that will help you
to assess all this.
Assignments
One of the
key differences between high school and college is, of course, the number and
the nature of the assignments. When I was at school, I had to spend about 4
hours to write my assignments for
the next day. That is without the reading to refresh the material in my memory
and some additional projects. I must say it was grueling and I looked forward
to starting college because there were virtually no homework (or so I used to
believe).
Indeed, in
college, you only get about three assignments during the entire semester, which
doesn’t seem that much. However, each of them carries more weight when it comes
to your final grade. They are more meaningful but more stressful as well.
Time in-class
In high
school I used to spend about six hours in class each day – that is just a
little less than a full-time job. Add my homework and I would come off even
busier than an average working grown-up.
In college
it’s only about fourteen hours a week, which must seem a breeze after the high
school, but here’s a caveat – you are expected to spend twice as much time
studying independently and working on your assignments. Hardly a relief, yet
college offers you more flexibility and no useless busy work. You have a
syllabus that explains what is expected of you to guide you through the course.
Class size
In school,
classes vary in size but usually, there are about twenty to thirty students who
attend lecture-based lessons in standardly equipped classrooms.
College is
widely different. Depending on the size of your college and the nature of your
class, the size of your group can be anywhere from two to five hundred
students. The classroom might be a tiny lab or a huge lecture hall. The format
is everything from hands-on practice to a discussion club to an entirely
lecture-based class.
Schedule
In school, I
had the same timetable week after week and the schedules for every day were
similar. My time was rigorously structured and my attendance closely monitored.
In college students
are expected to manage their own time. You will choose from a variety of
elective classes and for some of them, there will be an option of time you want
to attend them (morning vs. evening classes). For most classes attendance isn’t
obligatory but encouraged. As for the formal schedule you will get as a result,
it will be very complicated with weekly, biweekly, and monthly classes, so to
keep track of them all and for the assignment deadlines you should map up your
timetable for the semester.
Responsibility
In high school, my teachers and parents guided
me in my priorities, reminded of my responsibilities and organized my day and my
academic year. If I would stray from those guidelines they were quick to
correct my behavior.
In college
students must balance their responsibilities and set priorities for themselves.
What they do and don’t do is entirely up to them. They are responsible for
studying, assignments, budget, meals, laundry, and facing the consequences of
their choices. Some of those choices are simple and merely concern
time-management, others are complicated and ethical in nature.
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