It was hard to all of a sudden change from school to college education. I know that most of you find it hard as well. The sudden change of everything. It takes time to adapt. It would have been so much better if someone told me it was going to be different.
It's not the life you see in movies. Sure it is fun! But at the same time, it requires a lot of commitment.
As everything else it has its own pros and cons.
Click below to see the pro's :)
Now I will tell you what I wish I had known before I started College. So that you, my friends, will find it easy to adapt.
1. NO ONE WILL PUSH YOU TO STUDY AND PASS EXAMS.
In school teachers were always behind. They made us study. It was as if they studied for us.
I am not complaining about college lecturers, but they don't care if you pass or not. It's up to you to study and get good grades. Sure some will motivate you. But you will witness a sudden drop of external motivation when you move straight from school to college.
2. YOU CAN'T COPY YOUR ASSIGNMENTS.
I remember assignments in school. They were so easy. Specially because everyone could do the same, changing a few words.
At college it matters. Almost all of the assignments you have to submit, is submitted online.
Plagarism checkers are my worst nightmare. It is a headache. You have to do a FRESH assignment.
3. YOU HAVE TO DO A LOT OF EXTRA READING.
Until I finish college education my 'to -read' list of books will always be Psychology books. I have 7 big books and 2 small books lined up to finish up before April.
Sad right? When you know you can't finish it off but still you want to. If I ever could finish up those books, I would have been 200% more confident to sit for the exam.
Not just that. I have to surf the net and find GOOD, HIGH-QUALITY stuff to read.
4. YOU HAVE TO BE THOROUGH WITH THE REFERENCING STYLE, YOUR COLLEGE USES. AND CONSTANTLY BE UPDATED.
Harvard referencing style, APA style, Vancouver style are some of the most popular one's. But there are others as well.
To make things worse, my college uses 'Harvard-Coventry' style. Urgh how much I hate it.
One semester I went through the whole guide and did the assignments. The next semester (after just 3 months) I had to go through the guide again because it was UPDATED. Not much of a change, but complex-ed than before.
5. YOU ASSIGNMENTS REQUIRE {REAL} COMMITMENT.
School assignments were the best. You will feel it when you start doing college assignments. Most of the time it is 30% of your total grade for any subject.
You have to be thorough with the Referencing. You have to be alert on plagiarism. You have to read a lot of extra things.
And the best part of it is when it takes you about one whole week to read and understand the question. lol. You get the irony there right?
6. FRIENDS WILL NOT HELP YOU WHEN IT COMES TO STUDIES (MOST OF THEM)
"Anything else other than studies, I'll be there."
No friend will say so. But it is true. This is competition. As I said before, you'll have to do a lot ( I mean it, A LOT!) of extra reading. They'll share with you what extra materials they use. But most of them! They'll prefer keeping it to themselves.
Can't really blame them. But, they don't. You should help out yourself.
7. YOU WILL MAKE FRIENDS WITH PEOPLE WHO ARE NOT YOUR AGE.
I had friends, who were only maybe 10 years younger than my mom. Not bad. But it's hard to blend in. You'll freak out when your needs totally differ from theirs.
For a group activity at college last week we had to make a list of our basic needs. Mine were so simple, like colorful stuff, food, family and boyfriend and my phone of course. One friend, said 'my need is to give good education to my children', another, 'I want to have my own children'. I was so freaked out.
There is nothing wrong with their needs, it's just that they are sooooooo complex than mine. So I am telling you, you have to, it's a MUST, expect friends of different ages. Sometimes all your friends will be so similar to you, but you could never say.
8. YOU REALLY HAVE TO STUDY.
I ended my school life, earning 3 A's. With the MINIMUM effort to study. I won't lie. I did study. But not much. I had lots of free time.
I studied and I enjoyed life. Enjoying both at the same time was the wonder of school life.
But once I started college I had to spend lots of time studying. Real time. To take down proper notes. To read those big books. To make short notes. And everything else required real commitment.
Expect spending most of your time to study.
9. IT'S A WHOLE DIFFERENT ENVIRONMENT.
It will take some time for you to adapt to the new college life. But after you do, it will be the best period in your life. But there are many college drop-out's just because they could not adapt to their new lives.
As they say, "After a storm comes a rainbow". Expect to spend about one whole stormy semester before having fun with the rainbow :)
10. YOU ARE GOING TO FACE LOT'S OF DIFFERENT PEOPLE, WHO HAS MANY QUALITIES THAT YOU HATE.
I know school was the same. But college? It's WORSE! Believe me. Get ready to face many many people with so many different qualities.
These are the most challenging facts that troubled me in the start of my college life.
Hope you enjoyed my post. What about you? What troubled you when starting your college life? Or what are your greatest fears about going to college?
Comment below. Share with all of us :) I'd love to make your fears go away!
XOXO
