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About
"College-Level" Coursework...
Many college freshmen approach university coursework with
too much unnecessary anxiety. The pre-college high school
curriculum is all too often geared towards an approach
which leads students to believe that
"college-level" coursework is going to be
extremely difficult when compared with its lower-level
predecessors. And while college coursework certainly isn't
a proverbial "breeze," CollegeFreshmen.Net
is here to dispel the myth that university-level
academics are so much more agonizingly difficult than high
school academics. In reality, many first year college
students find higher education to be more enjoyable AND
even easier than high school!
Consider the differences: In high
school, you had very little say in your class schedule. In
college, you get to choose which classes you will take...
which days..and at which times you will take them. In
high school, you were confined to one small area or
building from roughly 8 AM to 3PM each day. In college,
even a full course load often entails only an average of 4
actual class days; often with only a few hours per day
actually spent inside of a classroom. And if you hated waking up just
after the crack of dawn to catch the yellow bus to high
school, college enables you to select classes that don't begin
until 2pm each day. This more "relaxed,"
self-made schedule system makes it possible for many
students to dramatically change their views
on learning and even improves their ability to retain information
given out in college courses! Indeed, college lets students make
decisions they couldn't make in high school. You pick what
you want to learn and when you want to learn it. You choose
when to eat and you decide when to sleep. But if you're
not responsible enough, all of those "rules"
that used to be set for you are going to begin to
make more and more sense in the worst way. If you're not
sleeping, eating, and balancing your time intelligently,
college life will catch up with you very, very quickly. In
order to maintain that feeling of "wow! this isn't
that hard after all..." which most students experience
during their first week of college classes, make it a
point to follow at least some of the rules and
restrictions that used to be set for you in high school.
It's really up to YOU to set them now and you might just
realize that even a few of the ones you always
loathed...were really beneficial. College professors aren't going to phone home and wont
even discuss your grades with any family member who
doesn't have written authorization from YOU. But if
you're not careful, this "freedom" will almost
definitely be your undoing...as the rest of the class will
leap chapters ahead of you, your outlook will become
negative, and your GPA will slip below passing
level--ultimately making you into another "didn't
make it through the first year" statistic. And hiding
a letter of dismissal from your parents isn't as easy as
covering up the fact that you simply haven't been doing
any homework! Indeed,
what so many students find to be harder about college... is that
it's so much easier. The sort of freedom it provides can
be either a blessing or a curse--depending on whether you
use it... or abuse it. Read over your syllabus on the
first day of each class, make a plan...and stick to it. Friends
calling during your allotted study time? Just think: You wont have to worry about partying anyway.. when you're
kicked out!
Recommended Reading :
The Detroit News posts an interesting article on-line
which offers advice on working, saving, and preparing for
that first year of college. CLICK
HERE to read it!
