Differences between high school and college education

¶ … High School and College

College is somewhat similar to high school in some ways and very different from high school in others. Academically, college provides much greater flexibility in choice of subject matter, but otherwise, the academic component of college education is not very different from high school. On the other hand, college is the first opportunity for many students to live independently from their families and to assume personal responsibility for their lives on an everyday level. In many ways, this aspect of higher education is as valuable as the primary (academic) focus of higher education.

Academic Differences:

Many graduating high school seniors and incoming college freshman express fears about being able to keep up with college-level academic work, because they assume it will be significantly harder than, and different from, high school academic assignments (Koshzow, 2007). In the sense that college represents a higher level of academic material, it is true that the first year of college is different from high school-level academic work. However, the difference between freshman college academic standards and high school senior-level academic standards is approximately the same as the difference between the academic level between successive high school years. The fear that college courses are necessarily much harder than senior-level high school courses is generally unfounded (TPR, 2007).

The primary academic difference between college and high school is that most high school curricula provide only minimal opportunity for student input and selection of courses of study. Generally, high school students all take the same courses for the first two years, with only limited variation by student choice in the last two years. In college, students may declare a major course of study of their choosing, limited only by the availability of academic areas of major focus, which is known to prospective students well in advance, because it is a specific criteria for selection of a college (Koshzow, 2007).

Once a choice of major is made by students, the specific academic department administrates the major course requirements, but unlike the situation in high school, most colleges allow for flexibility within the declared major, in terms of when particular elements must be satisfied. More often than not, those requirements pertain only to fulfilling a list of course within the major, and to establishing elementary courses as prerequisites for more advanced courses. Most colleges also maintain certain requirements for all students to fulfill a certain number of hours devoted to general studies or liberal arts education outside their areas of concentrated study. Whereas many high schools require courses like Art or Writing on a mandatory basis for four years, colleges that do maintain general studies and arts or writing studies generally allow for their fulfillment by a single course, either during the freshman year or at any time before graduation, by choice (Raskin, 2006).

Non-Academic Differences:

Probably the most substantial differences between high school life and college life is in the non-academic aspects of living independently fro parents and family. In fact, the differences are so great that sometimes, parents strongly encourage students to apply to colleges close enough to home to commute to school instead of living on campus. In extreme situations, parents may even refuse to help pay the expenses for remote colleges while offering to do so for a local college education.

For most college freshmen, their first year of higher education is the first time they have ever been responsible for their own personal affairs, such as food shopping, preparing meals, maintaining their living space, as well as for handling routine chores such as laundry and personal banking (Westheimer, 2000). Most colleges provide the option of pre-paid meal plans, which eliminates the responsibility of having to food shop and cook, but it can be an expensive prospect for some students.

At some colleges, freshmen are required to reside on campus, but upper classmen are allowed to live off-campus. Dormitory living is considered to be one of the most important elements of adapting to life on campus, and many colleges now make specific efforts to match incoming students with roommates with whom they are likely to be compatible (DeVillers, 2006).

Because there are no parental authority figures present on college campuses, most colleges arrange for some element of dormitory supervision, most often in the form of one or two upper class students who live on each dormitory floor or section. They are intended to provide a first-level of general assistance and safety, and to assist dormitory residents (especially freshmen) with acclimating themselves to college life and dormitory residency (Raskin, 2006).

For many students, college life is also significantly different from high school in the much greater degrees of personal privacy in some respects, and lesser degrees of personal privacy in other respects. On the one hand, college allows for much greater personal autonomy and freedom in the way students spend their free time. On the other hand, dormitory living usually provides a much smaller living space than students might be used to at home, along with the additional complication of sharing facilities with roommates and sharing common areas with everyone else living in the same dormitory.

The increased personal freedoms of life in college compared to high school often account for decreased academic performance, especially among freshman. In high school, many students have positive influences and the continual encouragement of their parents to keep up their academic focus. In college, students must, for the most part, organize their own schedules and develop time management skills on their own. Many freshmen students encounter difficulty, especially initially, and their freedom from definitive rules and parental oversight can undermine their academic efforts (Westheimer, 2000).