The Transition From High School To College

By Francine Fluetsch on August 30, 2014

This article is brought to you by CORT, a subsidiary of Berkshire-Hathaway and the world’s largest furniture rental and relocation services company. To learn more about how we can help college students like you, click here.

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As with anything in life, we always think what we are enduring in the moment is the hardest thing we will ever have to deal with, until we are given something harder.

That’s basically the best way to describe the transition from high school to college. I basically thought that college wouldn’t be all that different, but it is a pretty big transition to get used to. Don’t let this freak you out; once you get in the swing of things you’ll be okay.

So what exactly are some of these differences?

Homework:

In high school we would groan if we got more than an hour of homework a night. I remember my best friend and I would complain to one another in the morning that we had to stay up until midnight finishing an assignment (and that’s mainly because we napped from when we got home until dinner time) and we thought it was so unfair.

Me: Ugh that math homework took foreverrr last night.

Her: Tell me about it. I couldn’t even finish watching my “America’s Next Top Model” marathon.

Me: I know! So unfair. Don’t they know we have lives too?

In college it’s a good night if you can go to bed at midnight! My roommate and I always joke that if by some miracle we finish before 12 a.m., then that means we can reward ourselves with a Netflix sesh.

Homework always counted for more in high school than in does in college. In high school, as long as you did your homework, you were on your way to getting that A, even if you didn’t do so hot on the tests.

In college the homework technically counts for less points, but it’s in your best interest to do it, even if the professor isn’t collecting it, because you are learning a lot more information in a shorter span of time.

Tests:

In high school, I pretty much would never study, because I knew that even if I bombed the test, I could make it up or the extra credit I earned would cover my butt.

In college, tests matter, and you aren’t going to get a free ride from the homework. Some teachers will offer extra credit, but it will be minimal compared to what you were used to.

I had one teacher that gave us 10 extra credit questions, but if we got them wrong they would count against us, so I only answered about 3 that I knew for sure were right.

There won’t be many multiple-choice options either, so your best bet is to actually learn the art of studying. I came into college thinking it would be like my AP classes, but boy was I wrong.

Attendance:

In high school, it’s mandatory to attend, and sure you might lose points for being absent, but usually the teacher would just give extra credit to the kids who were always there. Mostly, it just sucked for you if you missed because it meant making up assignments.

In college, however, professors can and will drop you if you miss more than three classes, or if you don’t show up on the first day for whatever reason. (Bigger classes might not take attendance, but they have the ability to do it with T.A.’s and I-clickers, so watch out!)

This isn’t to say that they are heartless and won’t take any excuses, but they are going to be stricter because they don’t know you, they have tons of kids who want the class, and you are an adult and it’s your problem if you aren’t there. High school was training you for the real world, but college treats you like you’re already in it.

Your parents aren’t there to make sure you wake up, so it’s on you to set your alarm and hope it goes off. Now, could you skip class if you want to? I mean, if the professor doesn’t take attendance, of course you can, but you’re paying a lot of money to be there, so make sure you won’t be missing anything important.

What to wear:

I remember when I first started high school, there was this thing called the two-week rule (do they still do this?) where you couldn’t wear the same outfit for two weeks. I never ever went to school without at least some makeup on and never would have been caught dead in sweats and a tank, because people are mean and they judge in high school.

In college, people don’t care. You want to wear your pj’s to class? People will look at you and think “damn, I should have done that today.”

Living in the dorms with people and having them see you in the morning with your bed head and your footsie pajamas makes you realize that it doesn’t really matter (yes they do make footsie pajamas in our size, check in Target). Sure, people still get dressed and ready for class, but the awesome thing is that you don’t have to. No one will judge.

Going through the transition and being out of high school is where a lot of people have to grow up. You become more independent without having to be fully in the “real world” and you start to realize that all the worries of high school weren’t actually that bad. Who would have thought you would miss the good old simple days of high school?

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