Compare and Contrast Essay - Lexi Hall

Lexi Hall

Jamie Larkin

Composition I

ENG 1003

September 9, 2018

Comparing Different Aspects of High School and College

It’s hard to make adjustments after you become accustomed to something like high school. We’ve been doing it nine months out of the year for six years. After high school, students either enter the workforce, or attend college and further their education. The students who go to college say it’s like a foreign culture to them (Nelson). It’s typically not the way students are used to attending school or learning. There are many differences and similarities between being a student in high school and being a student at an university.

In college the intensity of classes begin to increase opposed to high school. Not only academically but socially. In most high schools everyone knows everyone or majority of students do, but in college it’s not that way in most classes.

My cousin attends college at Arkansas State University and so does my sister. They started to school on a Monday and were getting to know how college classes worked and who was in their classes. Friday rolls around with their first week of classes ending and my cousin spots my sister in the same lecture class. She walked up to her and asked her where she had been at. My sister said that she had been in class each day, and neither of them had seen each other in this particular class until Friday. This is one example of how many students are in one class for someone to not recognize someone they know.

On average in a lecture class there is around one-hundred and fifty to three hundred students in the class at once (Wcccd.edu.). At the high school I attend, the largest class I have has twenty-six students in it. I know everyone in my classes by name, but in college there’s no way to do that with the number of students in most classes. Also, in these types of classes they don’t really talk to other classmates unless they need help with something. This can also come with its advantages though. Having so many different students in each class, gives many opportunities to make new friends. In high school we have attended K-12 with majority of the same classmates. By the time we get to high school we have the same six or seven close friends that we’ve always had. After high school some of us split apart and attend different colleges. College and high school are  similar because they bring friends together. Most friends that people have were made in high school or college. It brings people from all types of backgrounds and places together, which can lead to lifelong friendships. College gives us the opportunity to make new friendships. Social interaction is just one way that college is very different and similar to high school.

Academics is everything we’re going for, whether in college or in high school. One makes it much harder than the other though. According to the article “How Do College Freshmen View The Academic Differences Between High School And College”, students said that college classes are much harder and much more in depth compared to high school classes (How Do College Freshmen View The Academic Differences Between High School And College?). While in high school some students don’t have to study for any tests or exams they may have. Others, on the other hand really have to take the time and study hard. In college almost everyone needs to study diligently. Another student from the same article, said that in highschool when we were given reading to do at home no one really had to read it. In college you have to read everything you’re given (How Do College Freshmen View The Academic Differences Between High School And College?). You can’t be unfocused in college like in high school because you will miss something that you need to know.

Also, when we apply for college we have to get scholarships, loans, grants, or some way to pay for college. Majority of scholarships given out have a GPA requirement for students. That means passing classes is important because you’re held to a certain standard to be able to keep the scholarship. Studying needs to be done in college, not only because classes are harder than they were in high school, but you have to be able to pass classes with acceptable grades. Studying and class work aren’t the only thing harder about college classes.

Professors aren’t as helpful as teachers are in high school. Teachers tend to remind you of upcoming deadlines and assignments, whereas professors don’t. They don’t really care if students turn their work in on time, or if they’re passing their classes with good grades.  Most teachers on the other hand, do care about all of these things. They are trying to get students grades up, and they are also giving reminders throughout the week of upcoming deadlines. College needs to be more difficult for obvious reasons. People are getting prepared to be surgeons, doctors, accountants, teachers, or whatever they’re going to college to be. Therefore, these professors must expect a lot out of students. No one wants a surgeon who doesn’t know what utensil to use to open their heart with. We trust surgeons and doctors because they went through an intense amount of schooling to get their degree. There are reasons behind the work getting more difficult as you go. It’s even like that in high school, eleventh grade is harder than tenth grade and twelfth grade is harder than eleventh grade. It gets harder as we go along to better prepare us. Teachers allow students to drop in any time of the day for help. Professors have certain hours that they allow students to drop by, which means they must make their schedule work around the professors. College is more complicated in many aspects, but one that is for sure more difficult is academics.

High school is more simple than college in more ways than one. Athletics is a major one that is easier. Now, I’m not saying each game played in high school is an easy win because it’s not. The competition in high school is still difficult as in college but it increases in college.

When you play sports in high school coaches have to play with whoever tries out on the team, and there really are no academic benefits to playing sports in high school. College offers so much to student athletes. When students in high school are exceptional players, college coaches offer them scholarships to come to their university and play while their academics is getting paid for. That’s one positive to playing sports in college. Students who accept to go play at an university, shows they’re able to compete at the next level. Coaches in college get to pick who they want on their team, which means they get the best players from all around the world. Just like all sports teams, they’re competing against so many schools to see if they’re better than the next school. You have all the best players competing against each other making the level of competition go up by a lot. Competition isn’t the only difference that makes college sports divergent from high school. On the basketball court the three point line gets farther away from the goal, coaches get harder on their players, players get stronger, and all of these differ from high school.

In high school most programs don’t prepare athletes for college sports but others do. Even when coaches are preparing their athletes for college or not free time is there. High school sports aren’t as consuming as college sports. In college free time is limited from all the training, practicing, and team building that goes into it. According to Jaimie Duffek, head recruiting softball coach at Drake University,  she says “When you’re a freshman in college, you’re training on the same program as 21 and 22-year-olds and they push you. Every practice is like an All-Star game.” (Jaimie Duffek). Athletics change majorly from high school to college. People don’t realize all the rules that change for every sport along with the intensity. The whole environment changes from high school sports to the next level of college sports. College athletics can make the enjoyment of the sport increase because the competition is more intense.

Enjoy the simplicity that high school offers because everything seems to get  harder once students attend college. The social aspects of college increase with more people and the extra  opportunities to interact with new people. Athletes experience greater competition than they did in high school sports. Academics get harder and require more studying than teachers required/expected in high school. In many ways things grow more difficult in college, but there are many pros to college that are cons in high school and vice versa. Both college and high school have their very own differences and similarities. Each are times in our lives that we will never get back, so enjoy everything that each have to offer to their students.  

Works Cited

1. "How Do College Freshmen View The Academic Differences Between High School And College?." http://www.apa.org. N. p., 2018. Web. 22 Sept. 2018.

2. Jaimie Duffek, NCSA Head Recruiting Coach et al. "Five Major Differences Between High School And College Sports." USA TODAY High School Sports. N. p., 2017. Web. 22 Sept. 2018.

3. Wcccd.edu. N. p., 2018. Web. 27 Sept. 2018.

4. Nelson, Vicki. "The Culture Shock Of Adjusting To College." College Parent Central. N. p., 2014. Web. 2 Oct. 2018.