College Search: College: It's Different
In college you are likely to hear fellow students say, “I don’t know what that prof wants, and she won’t tell me.” “I wrote about three papers in high school, and now they want one every week.” Though these students may be exaggerating a bit, college is different, both in the quality and the amount of work expected. Sometimes in high school the basic concepts of a course are reduced to a set of facts on a study sheet, handed to students to be reviewed and learned for a test.
In college, it is the concepts and ideas that are most important. These can only be grasped through a real understanding of the facts as they interrelate and form larger patterns. Writing papers and answering essay questions on tests can demonstrate a genuine understanding of the concepts, and this is why they are so important to college instructors. Learning to deal with ideas in this way can be a long-term asset, developing your independence, intellectual interests, and self-awareness.
Don’t be discouraged; you are not alone. Most of your fellow students are having equally difficult times adjusting to a new learning method. Persist, and you will improve, leading to a lifetime habit of critical thinking and problem solving that can benefit you in many important ways.
College is also different outside of classes.
Now that you have the freedom to choose how to spend time and what types of relationships to make, you have a bewildering number of possibilities.