School Life V. College Life: Is Any Better Than The Other?

Andy Richard

Our school lives are the most fun when we look back, primarily because it were the days of care-free attitude. Our parents would wake us up and prepare breakfast for us, then we would wait for the van to pick us up. We would stand in the line for assembly await recess and for that final bell that would sound our freedom

Then came college. We grew up to become teenagers. Sometimes worked part-time and the responsibilities just started to mount on us. The coursework burden increased. In school there was homework, in college there were assignments, practical, presentations, in addition to exams. Though exams were applicable under both phases. Heck, life is an exam, so to speak.

Which one’s better? That is a hard question to answer since school came with its own pluses and minuses while college had its own. But the key differences, if we were asked to compare the two, would be as follows:

In high school, we used to know everyone in our class. Our class was a big circle of friends but as we stepped into college we were treated as adults and as adults we had our separate identities and not to mention, egos. We wouldn’t want to sit with the ‘X’ someone for whatever reason because we were too cool or the other was too mainstream.
High school books were relatively cheaper and at the start of each session, we would rush to the nearest bookshop with our parents to buy those new books with fresh covers smelling like heaven. We would purchase new notebooks and mark the subjects we would be studying in school. Along came college, and we only had a couple of registers where we would pen down our entire semester’s notes. Books used to cost us a fortune and we knew we weren’t kids anymore.
At the time of school, you resided with your parents. In college, an on-campus life ensued. The people we became friends with on-campus, we would normally spend time with them. There was no more Mammy to wake us up. We became independent and it prepared us for our future life.
The school was always on time but that wasn’t the case with college. You went when you woke up. Likewise, you had to learn all subjects in school whereas, in college, you chose what you wanted to study.
In school, you had to be on premises from 9 to 4 which was mandatory, five days a week. In college, you were only there when your course/class was scheduled. You even didn’t have to be in college five days a week because sometimes the classes were scheduled over the weekend. No proper lunch breaks either. You ate when there used to be a break between lectures.
After Christmas holidays you had the same group of peers you were with before holiday season commenced, in school. During college, a semester ended before Christmas and the next one began after the holidays concluded. Therefore, you always had different people classmates every darn time. The way you etched friendships in school was nowhere to be found in college.
Another distinction is that when in school you had to study for the test/exam you did that comfortably sitting from the home. You had everything available in your notebooks and chapters marked in your course books to study from. In college, professors taught you but didn’t provide with any notes, it was you had to do note taking yourself. You didn’t have a textbook to follow rather a number of textbooks for reference from where the test/exam can happen which you were asked to consult on your own. You thereby spent countless hours in the library.
You thought homework was bad in school or was too much. Remember how if you sat one night, you could complete it? Could you achieve the same in college? Of course not! How could you, it was just too much to handle. In other words, a close to impossible task.
The time you spend in high school is governed by social levels. The age group where you lie, you would spend time with them. In college, however, there weren’t such restrictions. You spent time with whoeverbypassing any or all social hierarchical levels. It’s because you grew up!
High school commanded your presence. You had to be there because that’s the way of the world. College life is the complete opposite because it where you want to be out of your own accord. No one is forcing you to show up. Former has mandatory attendance policy while latter had apolicy where it was strongly recommended that you show up.

Above is a brief comparison presented for your understanding of key differences between school and college life.

Andy Richard is an instructor at one of the leading institutes in the UK. He loves to blog and often writes to inform his audience on topics dealing with curriculum, student development and educational policy-making domains. You can ask for write my assignment for me by getting in touch with him over his social media channels.

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