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College and Stuff

Discussion in 'Chit Chat' started by twospiritlycan, Aug 6, 2014.

  1. How difficult can college be? I'm expecting it to be difficult since I heard a lot from my friend how much it sucks. Is it that bad?
     
  2. AwesomGaytheist

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    The thing I noticed was that I had it pent up in my mind to be some incredibly hard, exhausting, stressful 4 years. I found once I got there that it's not as hard as I thought it was, but it's still no cake walk either.
     
  3. patric

    patric Guest

    First year is most difficult because it is up to you (the student) to spend time at library etc. teaching oneself. It is a much different learning style than high school. That is the hard part. Once you get used to being self sufficient in researching and educating yourself (with guidance from prof) you will do well.

    Cheers
     
  4. Randy

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    If you had a good high school curriculum, you should be just fine. It's not like Legally Blonde (albeit, that was law school), but you still have to try. My high school prepared me well.
     
  5. Look, I've been in college a long time.

    It's not as bad as it looks. But, the other posters are right, it does sometimes take time to adjust from being relatively coddled in high school to being fully in charge of your own education at all times in college.

    Don't let that scare you though! If you make sure you do a couple of things you will be just fine:

    1. There's a lot going on when you're in college. Making friends, dating, parties, clubs, playing frisbee on the quad whatever. Definitely do that stuff if you want to, but make sure you spend enough time doing the independent work for your classes. If you're not studying outside of class, you're gonna get screwed. Maybe not today, maybe not next semester, but soon. As someone who never studied for anything in high school and got great grades anyway, I can tell you that this is true.

    2. Don't be afraid to ask for help. There are so many people to go to. There are study centers with tutors, there are other people in your classes, there are advisors and all kinds of offices to make sure students get everything they need.

    Most importantly, if you need something, do not be afraid to go to your professor's office hours. I am not kidding, they sit there in their offices waiting for students to come in and ask them all kinds of things. And especially new freshman don't do this even when it would help them to do so! If you need an extension for a reasonable reason, go ask. If you just don't understand something from the book or lecture, just go ask. If you're wondering if you should even be in this class, what your grade is, how you can do better in school or what it's like to major/have a career in whatever subject, just go ask them. For the most part, professors usually are not as scary as they can seem. They want to teach, they want to help you, they want to talk to you and be there for you.
     
  6. patric

    patric Guest

    Dream is 100% correct!

    A good tip is to find older exams that were given for the same courses. Sometimes these old exams are readily available. It is a very good study aid to find these - and test your abilities.

    Cheers
     
  7. Pax

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    I went to university in the UK, rather than college in the States, but I did no work and missed loads of my classes and still got a 2:1, which is the second highest classification. Generally the consensus over here is that university is not that hard, so long as you knuckle down when you have exams or important coursework coming up.

    I would suggest that it's probably wise to put in a little more effort than I did. But, I'd also suggest that you try not to worry about it too much. I'm sure you'll be fine. If you do need help, that's what the staff are there for. :slight_smile:
     
  8. confuseduser99

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    This pretty much sums it up. It really isn't that hard. Just try do to your readings (or at least skim through and find important info - that's what I do), and attend your lectures. You'll be fine! :slight_smile:
     
  9. Aspen

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    Professors who recycle tests are much less likely to do this, though. I've had a few professors who handed our tests back, let us look them over, and then required we hand them back in.

    College's difficulty is affected by two things: 1) How much work you put into it, and 2) Your major.

    Some majors have more work than others. I have one roommate majoring in biology and she's always stressed out about her work load. She has a lot of classes and many of them have accompanying labs. My other roommate is majoring in some form of exercise science (I'm not sure what it is exactly) and her workload tends to be lower.

    There's excellent advice here. Learn how to be organized, go to all your lectures, do the homework and the reading, don't leave large projects off to the last minute, get tutoring if you need it, talk to your professors, and remember to breathe. I hated high school but I love college. A lot.
     
  10. asdfghjk

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    I think it depends on how easily you get stressed about schoolwork; if high school was hard, college will be harder. If high school was manageable, college will be a bit harder but also manageable.

    The second you notice yourself falling behind in a class, GET HELP or drop it. Don't hesitate to get tutoring or go to tutoring labs or anything! Just don't ride it out thinking you can catch up especially if it's a hard science or math class.
     
  11. Young Blood

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    Just make sure you keep up with your work, go to class, and get the help if you need it! You do these, you'll be fine :slight_smile:
     
  12. RAdam

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    The onlything that can make college difficult if you're a procrastinator like me and yet I'm almost done... suprises me every day.
     
  13. biAnnika

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    Exactly this.

    Also, if you think it's gonna suck to learn things at a deep level, then don't go. College isn't about getting a degree - it's about education...*your* education...specifically about educating yourself.

    The biggest transition from HS to college is wrapping your head around the notion that instead of teachers feeling it's their job to somehow push knowledge into your head (while you more or less *have* to be there), your professors (most of them) will leave it up to you to be responsible for your education...their job is to evaluate how well you learned. If you don't care about learning, most of your grades will reflect this and your degree (should you complete it) won't have much value or meaning.
     
  14. mobrien1993

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    I thought it was extremely easy. I made better grades in college than when I was in high school. It kinda depends on what you're going for and if you actually try. Either way college is a great experience and I hope you enjoy it
     
  15. Mike92

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    College can be difficult, particularly near midterms and finals. But I don't think it's that hard, and I'm a pretty big procrastinator.

    Your major will also be a big factor in how difficult college is for you as well.

    ---------- Post added 8th Aug 2014 at 08:39 AM ----------

    Unless you have a professor like I had for five of my poli sci classes. He gave us everything that could be on the exam on the first day of the class. The catch?

    He had 43 terms and eight essay questions listed (86 terms 16 essays for both midterm and final), and he would randomly pick five terms out of those 43, and put the 8 questions into two groups, forcing you to know at least five of the essays. We had to write (by hand!) two pages for each term and if you didn't write at least four pages for each essay you were probably doing it wrong. Not to mention he was the biggest prick when it came to grading things.

    Brilliant and best professor I've ever had, though.
     
    #15 Mike92, Aug 8, 2014
    Last edited: Aug 8, 2014