High School And College

The Differences between High School and College

Making the transition from high school to college is a big step for high school students and knowing the similarities and the differences will help ease the frustrations. Considering college after high school is a major decision for high schools seniors to consider. Having experienced high school and attending my first year in college, I can say that there are plenty of similarities as well as some very big differences.

However, high school and college have so much in common. For instance, both schools are open five days a week for a set number of hours each day. Both schools require students to use textbooks, pencils, pens, and paper. In addition, students sit at a desk in a classroom, listen to, and learn from their teachers or instructors. Students are encouraged to ask questions if they do not understand what their instructors are saying. At the same time, students take notes and they have homework assignments to complete. In fact, high school and college require the students to take quizzes and tests, which are a big part of the students' grades. Both high school and college have a large affect on a student's future. In all of these ways, high school is similar to college.

However, high school students should be aware of some of the differences. In college, students are responsible for their own time. It is the students' responsibility to go to class. The instructors will not call the student's parents if they do not attend class unlike high school students; they have someone else to plan his/her time for them whether it is their teachers or their parents and if a student does not show up for class the teacher or another faculty member will call their parents. Also in high school, all of the students have a guidance counselor to register them for class. When on the other hand, college students can schedule their own schedules with the help of an advisor and can sometimes take online classes on a blackboard system from home when high school students have to go to school every day. In fact, in college students have a lot more freedom than high school students do. College students' class time may vary throughout the day. They might spend only twelve to sixteen hours each week in class, and sometimes can have between forty to fifty students in each class when in high school students have to go from one class directly to another spending six hours each day with having no more than thirty-five students in each class. Although high school is thirty-six weeks long a year, some of the classes extend over both semesters and some do not. Nevertheless, in college there are three semesters, there is the fall semester, the spring semester, and the summer semester with all different classes unless a student has to retake a class.

In college, grades are not always assigned for all the work that a student does actually his/her instructor may give them assignments just to test their research skills or to increase his/her knowledge about a certain area