All of us will go through it or have gone through it already. Spending hours filling out college applications, scholarship applications, visiting colleges, and taking the dreaded tests or whether it was the PSAT, SAT, ACT, or other college entrance exams, it was a big hassle. I applied at Presentation College in Fairmont, MN in the month of June 2011. I chose this college because it was the only college close to where I lived. It was also because it had the program that I wanted to major in, medical assistant. I talked to the admissions and office coordinator, Susan Barnes, and she had me started on the admissions registration and also the credits and classes that I would be taking for the program. After my financial aid had been done and I was registered, my classes finally began on the 30th of August 2011. On my second week of college, I started to think that college and high school were basically similar in the requirements of graduating, yet different in the level of studying, the strictness of the teachers, and also paying rent if you live far from home.
Studying takes a lot more of my time than it did high school. In high school all I basically had to do was read a chapter that was five pages long and answer some questions on a sheet were given by the teacher, and it wasn’t four pages of question is was possibly a maximum of ten questions. In college I find myself reading twenty pages of a chapter and answering an estimate of twenty questions, a brief essay, and defining all the terms. If that’s not cramming all the information of the chapter in your head, then I don’t know what is. In the same week we have a quiz in the chapter. High school was basically read the chapter assigned, answer a few questions for homework and then discuss them during class the next day.
High school had some pretty good teachers I will admit, but they also had so many rules. For starters, if the rules were broken there would be punishments like staying after school, scraping gum off of underneath the chairs, detention, or even getting your phone taken away. Who would do that? In college, I have seen the exact opposite. The teachers are not as strict there is no sit up straight, raise your hand, no talking while I’m talking, or take a bathroom pass, or worse no food or drinks in the classroom. College is a little laid back with the exception of making sure your homework is turned in on time, and the rule that is most important NO CHEATING! You can talk to your teachers more and when you need to go you get up and go if you know what I mean. If you didn’t eat breakfast before you came, bring a protein bar or some pop for that extra sugar dose. As long as your assignments are done and turned in on time there is nothing to really worry about.
Taking a big step and going to college can be exciting yet scary for the people who live do not live with their parents because that means their parents are not there to provide them with everything. This includes washing their clothes, fixing food, or providing money. A typical college student does not live with their parents, and live in the campus or share a home among friends and split the rent and some utilities. Some college kids, including me, have their own home and pay mortgage every month including utilities, and other costs if you have children. Going to college and supporting a family means going to school and going to work no matter what. It can be a bit over whelming. This is where high school is the easiest. All there is to do is go to school, do the homework, and let the parents worry about the rest. There is not apartment, no rent, no cooking and cleaning, unless you were punished.
In college there is also more freedom. The teachers don’t call you house to be sure you didn’t just skip class. They don’t call your teachers to say how you kept talking during class, and haven’t done your homework for weeks. In college everything depends on you. You make the decision of whether skipping class is worth it, of whether you want to do your homework or not. One thing to remember is that to every decision there are consequences.
There is a big difference but they are also similar in some ways. For example, high school and college both have to do the assignments that the teacher instructed, and they both need for you to put some effort in doing the assignments clearly and done on time. The grading scale are basically the same; 90 to 100 is an, A 80 to 89 is a B, 70 to 79 is a C and is considered the barely passing grade, anything below that is not acceptable. There are teachers in both where they stand in front of you and lecture. Textbooks are required in both so you can read off of and take notes on anything you might think is important, and usually have to go to class every day to not fall behind on the assignments. You also earn a degree in both. It can be a high school diploma in high school once all the classes are passed, and a masters or a bachelor’s degree when you pass college.
The transition from high school to college is an exciting and challenging time. It is a great milestone in one’s life. There are many differences between the life of a high school student and a college student. Some people will be able to jump right in and adjust to this change seamlessly. Others will take years to adapt or may never grab hold of the whole college experience. High School and College are both educational grounds for a student to grow and enrich their lives with knowledge. High school and college are like puzzle pieces on one side they fit together, but on the other side they are something completely different.
