You’ve read the books, you’ve heard the advice, and you think you have a fair enough handle on what to expect when you get to college.
Sure, you may have heard all the advice about hectic schedules and immense freedom, but there are some things that the experts just can’t tell you. Like how, now that you’re responsible for your own food, you might have to concede that potato chips do not, in fact, constitute a food group. Or that textbooks are expensive, and you may actually have to give up something to be able to fund them. Or even though your roommate may be obnoxious and self-involved, he’s the one you’ll most likely go to for advice.
College isn’t just about classes, grades and gossip. It’s about finding yourself. That is the biggest difference between high school and college. Here are some more differences.
You Actually Learn
College isn’t about cramming for tests and spitting the info back out. It’s about retaining actual knowledge that you can use even when you’re out of the classroom.
“Some students respond well to the lecture/listen method used in most high school classrooms,” says Tamra Orr, educational writer and author of America’s Best Colleges for B Students. “Others like labs or hands-on work. Still others prefer to read the material rather than just listen to it.”
Explore the different learning styles and use the ones that work best to your advantage.
You Define Your Own Success
“Even high school, valedictorians can fall prey to the distractions of college. And even students who performed at an average level in high school can boost their performance to honors caliber if they receive cutting-edge study skills guidance,” says Gunnar Fox, author of Kick Ass in College: A Guerrilla Guide to College Success.
Also remember that what worked for you in high school may not necessarily work in college. For one, subjects are taught in completely different ways. In high school, you concentrate on what happened; in college, you’ll discover the why. In high school, you learn grammar and sentence structure; in college, you’ll study literature. In high school, you learn a foreign language; in college, you’ll get to experience the entire foreign culture.
But the most important thing about studying in college is that no one’s going to tell you to do it. Your classes aren’t arranged for you, teachers won’t monitor your class attendance, and you’re expected to budget for your own textbooks. Though you can get help when you need it, for the most part, you’re on your own.
You Get to be an Adult
“A lot of college freshmen get so swept up in the excitement of leaving home that they end up spending their sophomore, junior and senior years trying to make up for all of the partying and relationship drama they indulged in during their disastrous first year,” says Fox.
Now that you’re in college, you’re independent. No parents to make sure you get to class on time or telling you what to do (or what not to do). You’re an adult, and you’ll be treated like one. That’s exhilarating, but can be terrifying, too.
Orr recommends that you spend time learning what college life is all about. “Read about it, talk to college reps and most importantly, visit college campuses. Arrange to spend the night—or several—to see what it is like. Talk to first-year students and ask them what they have learned.”
Friendships and Relationships Change
College is also a time when you have freedom in your relationships. “You’re deciding who you are and what relationships work for you,” says Rebecca Kiki Weingarten, career coach and co-founder of Daily Life Consulting. “It’s experimentation on a psychological as well as social level.”
Rather than seeing the same people day after day, now you’ll be exposed to a wide variety of people from different family backgrounds, cultures, social circles and countries! This is a great opportunity for you to learn about the world, and you’ll find you have things in common with people you least expect.
Be careful with romantic relationships.
“Don’t allow a romance to dominate your life,” says Fox. “Resist the urge to cocoon with your sweetheart in a world inhabited only by the two of you. Intimate relationships must be built in the context of real-life needs and responsibilities. Oh yeah, and don’t date your professors.”
College is Your Home
In high school, you got up in the morning, came back in the afternoon, did your homework and were done with school. That’s not the case in college.
Your college will be your home—you will eat, sleep, study, have friends over and do your laundry in your dorm. You’re not going to be in class from morning to afternoon every day. Instead, you’ll attend classes in between other things—and no one’s going to force you to attend those, either.
“Prepare to take on a lot of responsibility, learn self discipline, meet people, have incredible amounts of fun, deal with loneliness and homesickness, have the intelligence and strength to deal with a myriad of temptation, and find out who you really are,” says Orr.
You’ll need a lot of self-discipline if you want to get things done, and Fox advises seriously considering getting a PDA and adopting a sensible way to budget your time. He also suggests being realistic about your financial resources by thinking about every dollar you spend.
“Success is a lifestyle,” he says. “Hang with and model the successful people you encounter in college. You’ll find they have a lot in common—not just in the way they study, but in their whole approach to life.”
Article reprinted with permission from Next Step Magazine.
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