Comparison of High School Life and College Life
High school life and college life are two different lives of a student. There are very many factors that differentiate high school life and college life of a student. Normally, when the students are done with their high school education, they proceed to their college education. In the colleges, the students are assumed to be old enough to take care of themselves without their parents to watch over them. This is where most students mature and learn how to live their lives without supervision from the parents. This paper will compare and contrast the two lives; the high school life and college life. Among the factors that will be discussed include social life, class, methods of teaching, independence, learning environment and culture.
Balance between Social Life and Academic Life
More often, it is difficult for any student to balance between social life and academic life. In high school life, most students are being helped by their parents in balancing their social lives and their academic lives. Once a student gets into college, it becomes very hard for those students to rely on the care of the parents and therefore, they have to balance their social lives and their academic lives by themselves. In high school, parents normally give their children motivation, rules, and living structure but in college, the rules, motivation and living structure of the students are not given by the parents. All of these things are now in the hands of the students. High school life is less overwhelming than college life. This is because unlike colleges, the weekends and the evening activities are not on the hands of the students but on the rules that are given by the parents. Most parents are very strict to their high school children. This is because they consider them to be very young. Most high school students are supposed to be home before it gets late, and that is unlike colleges where the errands of the evenings and the weekends are in the hands of the students themselves (Karst " Andrea, 92). The activities that are open to college students and not open to high school students are for instance; organization/club events, lectures, discussions, parties, hostels events and formals. Of course, most parents cannot allow their high school children to be partying during evenings as they are considered young. High school students tend to focus so much on their studies compared to the college students. This is because, in colleges, there are very many activities and freedom that are likely to distract a student unlike in high school where the freedom of the student is limited (Adelman, 35).
Differences in Learning Environments
The learning environments of high school and college are very different. The way the students acknowledge their teachers in the two environments are very different. In high school, the teachers are acknowledged as sir and madam, but in colleges, they are acknowledged as professors and doctors. Unlike high schools, students in colleges are not provided with the notes but instead that are given the freedom of choosing what to write and what not to write. In high school, the students are given notes by their teachers, and that means that whatever they are going to write is what has been given to them by their teacher. The similarity of the two environments is that in both, the students are guided by either a professor or a teacher. The teachers in college are not the same as those in high schools as they differ in several ways. The first way in which they differ is that college teachers will not put too much effort into one's success as those in high school do since they cooperate with the parents to discuss performance of the students. This is because high school teachers are always evaluated based on the performance of the students where they are given standardized exams which do not exist in colleges. Also, the lecturers have more knowledge and high level of education in specific fields than the high school teachers who have a degree in education and hence they not only educate the students but also contribute in their specifications and others are even renowned researchers in the world. Also, in high school teachers and parents combine their power to control the student's behavior hence bringing up the students morally upright. They also follow the academic performance of the students after every test unlike in colleges where they rarely advise students on how to behave and also in the academic performance.
Comparison of Classes
Classes in both high school and college are run in the same manner where a teacher addresses the class while standing at the front of the class. The teacher teaches and gives exams to evaluate how much the students have studied. Although in high school classes occur at the same time frame the whole week while in college students might have classes once or twice a week. Also, the exams given might be of similar formats where the students are given essays or multiple choices questions where they are given booklets to write their answers. Also, in high school, there are limited numbers of students per class while in colleges a class can hold a large number of students. In high school, there is a schedule that guides students on what to do at a specific time unlike in campus where one is required to keep in mind the exam and test dates.
Differences in Responsibilities and Freedom
This is perhaps the biggest difference between the college and the high school students since a college student has responsibilities to do. College students are taken as adults hence they are held accountable for all their actions and behavior where no one pays a follow up to them to go to class or to revise for their exams, and the professors are never willing to negotiate on the grades, unlike high school. The high school students have been trained to follow the rules and attend their classes without failure, and the teachers give a direction on what is supposed to be done hence the students have no freedom to do as they like which is different with the college students who decide on what to do by themselves. In colleges students choose which class to attend and are not always given a guideline on what to expect during a test.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the paper has discussed the similarities and differences between high school life and college life. It is clear that as much as the two lives have similarities, they also have their differences. From the above discussion, it can be concluded that college life has more freedom than high school life because the college students are responsible for taking care of themselves unlike the high school students who are cared for by their parents.
Works cited
Adelman, Clifford. "The Toolbox Revisited: Paths to Degree Completion from High School through College." US Department of Education (2016); 33-40
Kirst, Michael, and Andrea Venezia. From High School to College: Improving Opportunities for Success. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2014:90-94.
