How to Handle the Transition from High School to College?

A very important part of life is education. Graduating from high school is what every student is looking forward to. However, going to college is a big accomplishment for all students. With that being said the leap from high school to college is a very large one. Many students enter post-secondary education expecting the experience to be the same as the one they had while at secondary school. The assumptions made by these students are wrong and they will soon hit reality very quickly realizing just how different college is.

College costs more, presents more academic challenges, and offers more responsibilities for students.

First, in terms of cost, college is more expensive than high school because of tuition, living expenses, and books. Anyone who wishes to attend college must pay fees, whereas it is free to attend high school. The government funds high schools, so high school students do not have to pay for their education. In addition to tuition, college students must also worry about the residence or rental costs for living close to the college’s campus.

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High school students have no living expenses because the majority of high school students live at home with their parents for free. College is also more expensive than high school when it comes to the cost of learning materials, such as textbooks. College students must buy textbooks for each course they take. These books are not cheap, and they often wind up costing students several hundreds of dollars once they are purchased for all their classes.

High school students never have to worry about buying their textbooks because high schools always keep a set of books that can be checked out for students' use and then returned at the end of the year. Not only do college students have to pay more money than high school students for their education, but the college students also have much more work to do on top of all their other responsibilities.

Secondly, the workload in college is more challenging than the workload in high school. There are more assignments in college, and they are also more challenging and can take up much time to complete successfully. High school students don’t have to commit as much time and effort to their assignments and can often finish all of their homework in the same amount of time it takes a college student to complete a single assignment. In addition to the extra time that college students put into their work, students experience extra pressure because their final grades are based on each assignment. The weights of assignments in college and high school are very different. In high school, it's more common that your teachers and your parents cooperate to discuss the progress of your studies. They contact each other to help you. They also combine their authorities to control children but on the other hand, in college, it’s a freedom of action. It’s your time to take on your responsibilities. College students are consistently placed under more academic and just general pressure than high school students.

Thirdly, high school isn't an option it's mandated to attend while on the other hand college is a choice. College generally means a lot of freedom; both general freedom as a human being but as well as academic freedom it's completely up to you to have control over your education. Time management is supposed to be a learned skill in high school and carried on into college where they put to the test in a more difficult level. Even though the environment in college is to be independent you depend on the skills learned from highschool to achieve that independence. College is when you become the dictator of your future. Advisors at the college level suggest the mandatory classes students take but as a college-level student, you are able to form your own schedule, pick classes at the times you want to take, and choose the professors you want to be taught by. You don't have counselors picking your classes and there's not really any leniency to make it your own. There are no parents standing alongside on your academic journey. It's only up to you to choose how successful or unsuccessful your experiences will be. As a college student you aren't forced to be present in class, yes some professors want your attendance to be mandatory in some classes but generally, no one cares if you skip class or not as in high school your parents would get notified of an absence and there would be disciplinary problems coming along with that. In simpler words, you must have some sense of self-discipline to overcome the difficulties of college. Being able to be good at being your own boss and make the most beneficial choices for yourself is very important as a college student. Having a great mindset comes a long way as well, if you train yourself to stick to your mindset then you’ll always have that feeling of guilt for skipping classes or not trying with the greatest effort on your assignments.

College and high school are different in many ways but they both ultimately share the same goal in teaching students to learn. On the basis of financial, academic, and self-discipline aspects, college is more costly, more academically challenging, and more self-mastery than high school. The differences need to be taken into account by those students who are entering college from high school. If new post-secondary students are more aware of these differences, they will be more adequately prepared for the challenges that college will present.

Works Cited

Sarikas, Christine. “High School vs College: 15 Key Differences.” PrepScholar, 1 June. 2018, https://blog.prepscholar.com/high-school-vs-college-15-key-differences. Accessed 2 Oct. 2019.

Vaiana, Dominic. “How Different Are College and High School? (Hint: Very)” College Info Geek, 23 Jan. 2019, https://collegeinfogeek.com/college-vs-high-school/. Accessed 2 Oct. 2019.

“High School vs. College.” My College Guide, https://mycollegeguide.org/blog/2018/01/high-school-vs-college/.