HIGH SCHOOL OR COLLEGE

A COMPARISON-CONTRAST
VANESSA CANDIDO
III LAVOISIER

You're going to college! It's exciting, but you're probably a little nervous about freshman year, right? You know how your high school teachers have been telling you that college is going to be much more difficult than high school? Well, they're right.

Scared? Part of the scary part is that you don't know what to expect academically. People keep telling you your school work is going to be tough, but you don't know exactly what that means. So how is college different than high school?

High School is mandatory and free. You need permission to participate in co-curricular activities. You can depend on your parents and teachers to remind you of your responsibilities and help you set priorities. Every day you proceed from one class directly to another. Most of your classes are arranged for you. They approach you if they believe you need help or tutoring. They remind you of your incomplete work and provide you with information you missed when you were absent. Teachers communicate knowledge and facts, sometimes drawing direct connections and leading you through the thinking process. Consistently good homework grades may help raise your overall grade when test grades are low. You may graduate as long as you have passed all required courses with a grade of D or higher.

Being a first-year student is fun! Unlike high school, where your first year is usually filled with anxiety and the occasional wrong-classroom mishap, colleges prepare first-year students with an orientation that builds a strong bond among class members. Many colleges offer additional early orientation programs (usually a camping trip or gathering hosted in a nearby city) to foster relationships before the school year even begins. It will make your college transition easier if you already have bonds with your classmates. Once orientation is over and the upper-class students are back on campus, you will find that they are excited to meet the first-year students, and you become very comfortable in the college setting very quickly. You will be faced with many moral and ethical decisions you have not previously had to face. You must balance your responsibilities and set priorities. You may graduate only if your average in classes meets the standard for your major. Most majors departments require a student to maintain a 2.25 GPA in the major and a 2.0 cumulative average.

In my own point of view, it doesn’t matter if you are a high school student or a college one. You just have to do your best in everything that you do and you should be always aware of your surroundings so that you will not have a hard time in adjusting yourself. You should also have self-confidence to carry your self and the most important thing is that, you should have a trust to your self and believe in your own strength and capabilities.