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The common culture surrounding college
is a bit like a rhinoceros with a peg leg. It just doesn't make much
sense. Depending on the source you're going to, college is either, an
awesomely fun opportunity to get drunk and party or the most
stressful time of your academic career.
The media is always spreading this
perception of college as a fun place to go and do fun things.
Naturally, it tends to ignore the boring parts about that little
“going to class thing,” because it's not particularly
entertaining. All they portray is the good stuff (or two seconds of a
person stressing out as they try to study.) That's obviously not a
very balanced perspective of college life.
High school teachers tend to give the
exact opposite impression. They'll lecture students constantly about
having to prepare for college. “Well... you can slack off now but
you MIGHT NOT BE PREPARED FOR COLLEGE,” they'll tell you with a
tone that sounds like your mother not-so-subtly hinting that you
should do something. Many students that pay attention closely to
these lectures start to think that college is some crazy rigorous
academic boot camp. This view of college is just as insane as the
media's image.
The Real Difficulty of College
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Is it academically harder? Well... I'll
get to that but this is absolutely essential to understand first.
The hardest part of college for most
student's is adjusting to regular everyday life. During high school,
most students have parents that coddle them and offer help whenever
they need it. Most students don't concern themselves with laundry, or
shopping for groceries, or dinner, or anything mildly related to
maintaining a home. Most don't even know how to maintain a schedule.
This is where most students fall short (even if they blame their
grades.)
The students that are used to doing
their own laundry, buying groceries, and paying their own bills don't
have nearly as many problems in college. Staying in high school 6
hours a day makes doing all those things a major challenge. If you're
used to doing them through high school then college for 3 or 4 hours
of class a day is a breeze.
Even the students that think they're
struggling because of social pressures, or time limitations, or
course challenges are really just talking about the consequence of
their failure to manage their own daily life. One of the most common
example's of this uses time as the excuse. Many students that fail
blame their lack of time. They say they don't have enough time in
their day to get the work done. That's usually complete crap. Those
students usually just haven't learned to manage their own schedule
right. Instead of planning for work in advance, students spend hours
doing things that only feel like necessities because they haven't
planned right.
When you're going to college, the most
important factor you need to consider is your non-academic life. That
will be where you succeed or fail. You need to learn how to set
priorities in your daily life. There will be some days when you need
to make tough decisions. That's generally a sign that you need to
reassess what you're really looking for out of your time. You can't
do everything you want. Make sure you decide on what you do
consciously instead of stumbling through it.
Academic Challenge
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Many teachers make college sound like
it's an unbelievably challenging environment. That is, typically,
wildly untrue. Most colleges don't accept students on merit unless
they're absolutely qualified and capable of competing with the
academic workload. With that in mind, it does make some difference.
If you're going to a typical state
university then you're probably not going to struggle with the actual
academics of your courses. The challenges you will face should be
close to right in line with going through high school. If you manage
your life properly then you will not need all-nighters to get great
grades.
If you're going to a less typical
college with high standards (MIT, etc.) then you're going to probably
end up struggling more. The word struggling might be a little harsher
than required. Generally, you won't struggle because, if you've been
accepted you're probably, again, right in line with where you should
be academically. That being said, the pace is not going to be the
same as a state university. That means you'll probably need to manage
yourself a whole lot better than a regular college student.
If you're a good student through high
school then you should have absolutely nothing to worry about
academically going into college.
(I know. This belief is completely
counter to the mainstream messages but it's true.)
People love to make things sound more
challenging than they are.
Teachers don't want to say, “Yea.
College is a breeze.” That will not motivate high school students
into working hard for great grades. In a little more insulting, but
no less true perspective: Most education major applicants don't get
rejected from schools. That means, unfortunately, there are more
“less well-endowed” teachers intellectually. (Of course, that's
not all of them. It's just more likely they find it challenging than
some other majors.)
People that fail to graduate from
college often announce horror stories about the challenges but
they're also wildly biased. No one wants to admit that they are
solely responsible for their own failure to graduate from college.
That leaves them blaming the college instead.
Don't believe the hype. College isn't
all that bad... Unless...
Personal College Torture
You don't have to struggle through
college but many students do end up adding to their own personal
challenges unnecessarily.
College is not guaranteed to be a
breeze.
No one should go into college expecting
to get perfect or even nearly perfect scores. I know, it's possible
but it's an absolutely insane waste of time and energy. Students that
spend too much energy trying to perfect everything are the same
students that end up driving themselves nuts and hating their lives
in the process. Don't fall into that trap.
For typically good students, college is
as difficult as you make it. If you require a 99 or 100 score to be
happy then you're going to need to study all-day, and everyday to be
“happy.” In most cases, studying that much will take away your
happiness anyway.
Great grades aren't the only way a
student can end up drowning in their own workload though.
Some majors are not appropriate for
some students. I know, it's not something anyone likes to admit but
it's true. A student that hates math IS going to struggle to get an
engineering degree. A student that hates English is going to hate
getting an English degree. This should make sense to most people.
If you don't like a subject then don't
do it! It's not an investment if you're setting yourself up for a
life you'll absolutely hate. I'm not one of those “do only what you
love” people but really, don't do what you hate and expect not to
struggle.
It goes farther than that though.
Medical (and a few other majors) are
notoriously difficult. While most students that don't hate the major
can survive the course load, don't expect to dominate everything in
one of those competitive majors. That's just asking for
disappointment.
So... college is appropriately harder
than high school but don't stress out about it. It's right in line
with the next level of your education. The hardest part is managing
your personal life. If you can take care of that then your academic
life is going to be no more challenging than high school.
(Oh... and the parties are never as fun
as they look on TV.)
Want to be prepared to kick-ass through college? Be sure to check out my books.
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