College Changes

When starting my senior year of high school at Tinora I was excited to be in the final stretch of thirteen long years of my grade school career.  When walking into my first class with Mrs. Brown my whole class received a rude awakening as the guidance counselor was already telling us about what we should have done for college. The rest of my senior year consisted of reminders everyday of what we need to be doing to stay on top of college applications, scholarships, and FAFSA information. I wasn't worried about the transition to college because I was planning on staying at home and commuting to Defiance College. When the first day of classes rushed upon me I got a little nervous. I got to thinking about the different environment, schedule, and professors that were going to appear before me. After a few weeks of classes I realized college was much different than high school.  My schedule and time management was very different. In high school I had the same schedule from 8 in the morning all the way until I went to bed, everyday.  In college I had to balance different classes each day, manage my clinical experience in the classroom for my major, my work schedule, and still leave time for homework. I had random places of extra time that I needed to use wisely. Another transition from high school to college is the class work and tests.  In high school I could pretty easily get a good grade on a test without studying, but in college I found out soon that I needed to study for exams. The classwork was worth more to the final grade in the class so full effort was needed in each assignment given. The last major transition from high school to college is the teachers and professors. In high school the teachers would come to the students that were struggling in their class and help them out.  In college the students need to contact the professors or other services when they are struggling and cannot expect any special treatment from the professors. College was definitely a new experience for me but I have been getting use to it more each day.