College

I will not lie, college terrifies me sometimes. Literally. I will wake up in the middle of the night, panicking because I'm not ready to take on the responsibilities and challenges associated with college studies and life. Plus, I really don't like the idea of leaving my family and my room. I've lived there for going on 18 years, that's more than a bit of a connection...

College differs from high school in many ways, the most striking being living on your own. Yes, I know that college has a huge workload and a high academic level, but I think the first challenge the moment one steps onto campus is being completely and utterly alone. Though it is a terrifying experience (or I feel that it would be), it is necessary for a person to live on his or her own for purposes of maturation. Without that freedom to do either smart or stupid things, people would never grow out of their respective shells and would live as sheltered individuals for the rest of their lives. What a bore. 

High school still involves a babying state, where the teachers do a lot of hand-holding and check in with you constantly. Of couse, it depends which university or college you go to, but for the most part, the professors will not do that. Oh no, far from it. They will expect their students to act like mature adults and keep track of the due dates and their grasp on the information. A student afraid of asking a professor for help will flounder in college. And there won't be any easy points to boost a poor test grade.

I feel that most professors don't want to give those easy points that many high school teachers give. One of my favorite classes was chronically guilty of giving easy points to students because the subject matter was complicated and difficult for some students. I feel that in middle school that may be acceptable, but not high school, and definitely not college. If students rely on 5-10 point worksheets to offset poor tests, they will flounder in college for lack of trying on the tests. Even if they do try, if they can't talk to the teacher for help beforehand and manage their own homework and studying, they will not succeed. Two classes in high school that are the exceptions to the extra point conundrum are AP Calculus (either AB or BC) and Honors Biomed. These classes rely on tests/midterms, papers, and presentations for the grade. 10 point easy worksheets do not exist in these classes, and the students are quick to figure it out. I wish that more classes were like these so that people would be better prepared for college. It seems as though colleges want something different from what all our previous schooling teaches us. 

Ms. Morris taught us that colleges hate the five paragraph essay, and I don't blame them. Who wants to read over one hundred idendically formatted papers every assignment? However, I've always started introduction first and then built my paper off of that. Starting with a few body paragraphs and the conclusion before moving on to an intro paragraph seems really strange at first, but actually works in the long run and is apparently how college professors expect us to write cohesive college-level essays. How in the world are we supposed to know this unless teachers teach this to us in high school? Don't get me wrong, five paragraph essays are excellent for teaching basic essay concepts. However, no one can expect us to write five paragraph essays all our lives and it is important not just for college but for people functioning in the workforce that they learn how to write something a bit more complex than an intro, three body paragraphs, and a conclusion. Yawn.

I can't wait to go to college (that is, if I actually get accepted - I've been on a rather depressing denied/waitlisted trend over the weekend that has kept me relatively miserable), but I feel that I am not prepared academically or socially. Teachers don't teach in high school to the level expected in college, which is to be expected, but then professors in college seem to expect that students already know how to function to their standards without being told. It's all very contradictory and confusing and it'll be interesting to see what happens when I get there, wherever I go.