High School vs College Essay

Upon attending college for a semester and a half, I have found that I enjoy being a college student more than being a high school student. In the time that i have been in college, I have seen that more freedom is allowed to students in college than in high school. Such choices as the note taking, the environment, or class selection are a few examples of how college is less restrictive than high school. Because of the educational freedom and having more control over my education, I find being a college student more enjoyable than being a high school student. In high school, the classes that students take appear to be easy. They seem easy because when a person is in high school, he/she can just brush effects off. For example, if someone does not pay attention and does not do anything for the entire class period, he/she can copy someone else’s notes and still learn the material because they have that class five days a week. Another reason high school classes give the impression of being easy is because a person can miss school/class, not get penalized, and most of the time the teacher will go over the material the student had missed. â€Å"High school is mandatory and free whereas college is voluntary and expensive. â€Å"(Information for High School Students) On the other hand in college, the classes appear to be hard. A college student cannot just brush a class off. Well, he/she can, but they will suffer from it in the long run. For instance, if someone does happen to attend class but has no intention of paying attention to the lecture, he/she is going to suffer from not being attentive and will wish he/she did pay attention because most of the time professors do not review any of the lectures or material before a test. Like high school, a college student can copy another student’s notes it may be slightly helpful, but not as much as if they had been in class and attentive. College classes are also hard because a person cannot really miss a class. In order to know what is going on and what assignments are going to be due, a student needs to attend every class if possible because he/she does not have the same class five days a week. In college, it is either two or three days a week and that is it. If someone does miss a class, it is very hard to catch up on what he/she missed. In high school, â€Å"teachers provide you with information you missed when you were absent but in college professors expect you to get from classmates any notes from classes you missed. † (The Differences High school vs College) In my opinion, missing one class in college is like missing a whole week in high school because that is how much material is covered in one class. Another topic to be compared and contrasted is note taking and teachers. in high school, the notes are given directly to the students by the teacher; spelled out and everything. Sometimes the teacher will tell the students what to write down in their notes from the textbooks that are given to them. The teacher will usually tell them what to study and wait until everyone is finished writing to continue. Similarily in college sometimes a student does get one of the professors which do tell them what to write down and do write notes on the board for them, but the notes are not as vague as in high school. On the other hand, when a professor lectures, the students have to listen carefully and write downideas that seem to be importnat to them. In college, abbreviations are a key aspect because people are not going to be able to write down the professor’s lecture word for word, so instead they take the main ideas and write them down. Teachers, both in high school and college, differ in his/her own class policies. For example, both in high school and in college, you can have one teacher that is extremely nice and will tell you what to write and study and you can also have a teacher who is not so nice and does not tell you anything and you have to kind of figure it out for yourself. The last topic in which i am going to compare and contrast is the atmosphere/environment. In highschool, a student does not really have much freedom, high school is kind of like a jail. A student has to be in class by a certain time, and if he/she is late, he/she can get in an enormous amount of trouble. For instance, if a high school walks into class five minutes late, and his/her teacher is not very nice, that student is most likely going to receive a referaal and a detention. A student in high school only has roughly two to three minutes between each class. However, in college the environment is not as strict. There is a good amount of freedom at college. There are breaks between classes anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours. During these breaks, a person does not have to stay at school. â€Å"Although there is freedom in college, likewise to high school eventhough a college student will not get a referral or detention the student’s professor does seem to get mad if a student is late consistentaly and will take a point or two off his/her participation and effort grade, if he/she happen to have one of those not so nice professor’s. â€Å"(Personal Interview) Overall, there are many similarities and differences between high school and college. I found there to be more differences in my search than similarities. I stated three subject matters but there are many more, such as, the tests, the people, the work, and so on. Being a college student now, if there was an opportunity for me to go back and relive my high school days i would, but this time i would pay much more attention because once someone gets to college it seems to be ten times harder!