<p>To those of you who have graduated HS, could you please share a bit about how college is different from HS, especailly in the first semester/year. Not just academics, but socially, too. Thanks</p>
<p>a lot more free time, freedom, activities, people, and responsibility</p>
<p>It's so much different. You will see how people really are since there is freedom and you can literally do whatever you want whenever you want. As mentioned there is a lot of freedom. People will be really desperate to meet people because they are insecure (yes, everyone), so people will be realll "friendly" during the first few months.</p>
<p>Why does everyone always say lots of free time? The month plus of college I have under my belt has been the most hectic time of my life. I have no free time..... :'( And high school doesn't prepare you for college, well at least mine didn't....</p>
<p>You grow up and learn what responsibilities growing up entails - that's basically what going to college boils down to.</p>
<p>In lieu of that, the main differences between high school and college are:
1. In college you are surrounded at all times by your friends and peers
2. You have much more time in college to pursue your wildest fancies =P
3. You have to learn to balance #2 with much more intensive schoolwork (especially if you're an engineer <em>tear</em>)
4. If you chose the right college (i.e. the one that fits you best), you will find that many, MANY people share the same interests that you do - friends are much easier to make and the bonds are much stronger.
5. You gotta learn how to live without Mommy, Daddy, and any siblings you may have.
6. In college, you have a nearly limitless supply of "activities" that you can pursue - make wise decisions and don't be too impulsive.</p>
<p>That's my 2 cents, at least.</p>
<p>I agree with Kenshinsan! Everyone always says free time and I see how that is possible but my time at college has been insanely busy. I always have so much to do between classes, clubs, seminars and hw.</p>
<p>people are more mature, at least some</p>
<p>You start to figure out who you really are, at least for me.</p>
<p>1) Everything is so new its crazy. You'll probably meet the most new people in the shortest amount of time than any other time in your life.
2) For most, there are many more parties. For me, it stayed pretty much the same.
3) You become more secure in your own body. Simple things like just walking back to your room from a shower involve passing countless strangers in a towel. Result - more confidence, more sex. (Alcohol helps too)</p>
<p>what everyone's said is pretty much true, except that there's a lot of free time. i'm prettyy busy during the week with classes, meetings, work, and other extracurricular stuff. i go out on the weekends, though, and don't really do homework then except sunday afternoons/evenings.</p>
<p>oh, one difference is that there are tons more people to hook up with. which may or may not be a good thing..</p>
<p>I'd say the "free time" thing is really dependent on what time one considers "free." For instance, I'm out of class by noon on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays and by 10am on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Then there's 8 hours a week of a campus job. Technically, other than that, I have no hard-and-fast obligations. Yet between homework, studying, floor activities, and clubs, I am always running off someplace. Life is hectic. It's not a bad thing, though; your friends can be on your floor or in your dorm and there's plenty of time to socialize if you're willing to skimp on the sleep!</p>
<p>Things that are newish:
-Classes are pretty fastpaced, but this is probably school-specific. We have a trimester and I am taking 3 writing/reading intensive courses, so I have well over 150 pages of reading a night.
-So, so, so many interesting, wonderful people. Who are much smarter than I am.
-The profusion of alcohol. You can get trashed every weekend. Wednesday nights, too, if you want. This is not advisable.
-The profusion of hook-up opportunities every weekend. Also not advisable.
-So many naked people. SO MANY. I love my school and its streaking.</p>
<p>That's about it, really. Don't stress out about the transition. Enjoy it!</p>
<p>One thing I really hate about highschool are the cliques...are they still as apparent in college?</p>
<p>^^^
They are far, far, far worse. Especially along racial lines, specifically the Asians. You might have many acquaintances in college that are of a different race, but to become close to a person of another race in college is much, much, harder.</p>
<p>Unless you are someone like me who makes a STRONG conscious effort to make close friends of a different race you will just end up in a racial clique, broken down into a smaller clique, and voila! Your social group and life for the next 4 years. You have to make the effort because usually another race won't. And then along racial lines there are nationality cliques, then cliques in those nationalities. College is ALOT more cliquey than highschool.</p>
<p>I have close friends from Korea, Taiwan, Japan, Nigeria, Cameroon, Canada, India, Pakistan, Italy, Mexico, and France. But I had to make the effort to become their friends, not them. And unless you feel comfortable being the only whatever(black in my case) in a bunch of koreans, or Indians you probably will end up in an all white clique (if your white), and then a clique broken down into your main interest, be it anime, lacrosse, or basketball.</p>
<p>But you'll have psuedofriends of different races and interests, but they won't be close and you prolly won't hang out that much. Most people won't care about hangin out and being close friends with someone of a different race (except maybe some asians), but they definitely won't make the effort.</p>
<p>That bothers me a lot in fact. In college a lot of people make friends just because they are the same race, and not necessarily because they like them at first or they have similar interests. It almost seems like its, </p>
<p>"Hey, I'm Korean/Chinese/etc.", </p>
<p>"Yeah so am I", </p>
<p>"Lets be friends", </p>
<p>"Great". Instead of, </p>
<p>"Hey, I like to play basketball, watch football, and I sky dive for fun", </p>
<p>"Hey so do I!",</p>
<p>"OK, Lets be friends", </p>
<p>"Great!"</p>
<p>The first will create strong racial cliques, while the later will create close friends that you can identify with on many levels, and that of are of different backgrounds, and races, because obviously no matter what your race everyone has different interests.</p>
<p>The only bad thing with not being in a clique is that you usually don't have a strong central group of friends to hang out with. You usually will go eat korean food at a restaurant with your korean friends, then go hang with your Indian friends, watch a movie with your white friends, and finally play basketball with your black friends. This might bother some, but I actually like it. Its fun hanging out with people of different races and interests.</p>
<p>But you will be an anomaly if you choose to do that though.</p>
<p>Kenshinsan:</p>
<p>I haven't found that to be true at all. If anything, I (a white person) am meeting and making friends with more diverse people than I have in the rest of my life... There are so many people from different backgrounds, but we're all thrown into this together... Whereas in high school, my group of friends used to look sort of like a children's TV show cast (overwhelmingly white, but with a token Asian, black, or hispanic person), now I find myself being the only white American in the room at times. Sure, the international students hang out, but they have the bond of transitioning to a new country, so it's very understandable.</p>
<p>It must vary by school.</p>
<p>its like living at high school except without any rules</p>
<p>OMG college is SO MUCH FUN!</p>
<p>actually...IT REALLY IS FUN!</p>
<p>ok now to the good stuff.</p>
<p>In college you better be outgoing or else you're gonna get a crappy social life.</p>
<p>If you like to play video games ALL THE TIME you shouldn't go to college. Just stay home and take online classes.</p>
<p>College is great because you start fresh and you learn who/what you can become. </p>
<p>Don't waste your time playing games..</p>
<p>Kenshinsan: I really do think thats the farthest from the truth. College is when all those predetermined walls usually come down.</p>
<p>I'm sorry you've had that experience.</p>
<p>there are some cliques...fraternity, sorority, athletes, foreign students with strong accents (mostly asians and hispanics tend to cluster), and blacks...but theres still a whole lot of mixing and i never expected it to be so diverse</p>
<p>There is a lot of free time? (well, maybe it's because I'm at MIT...)</p>
<p>One big thing is that there's really no one to yell at you anymore. You can stay up till 3, 5, 7, or not sleep in 3 days and no one will care. That said, no one will also care if you don't ever show up for your lectures or recitations - so you gotta take responsibility in structuring your schedule so you actually go to class and get an education.</p>
<p>But that said, the people and the activities at college are awesome. Everything is at a deeper scope than in high school, and there's so many things that high school never had. You see people from all around the world, and everyone has something unique to contribute - it's very hard to find this in high schools, where everyone is generally homogeneous and you are often perceived to be the "smartest guy in the class." In college, you really know how you compare against the people with similar abilities as you.</p>
<p>And you get to take interesting courses! yay! =D</p>
<p>You see severe racial mixing at every school. My school is no different than any others. Indians with Indian, Koreans with Koreans, Mexicans with Mexicans, its like that on every college campus.</p>
<p>Maybe its because I was so used to my high school, that I notice it more. My high school was very diverse with around 40%white, and the rest black, asian(mostly koreans), and hispanic. We were all friends since we were little and there were NO cliques in my high school.</p>
<p>College is just not the same. It doesn't matter what campus your on there is strong racial segregation. I guess it would feel more diverse to people that came from schools that weren't very diverse, but for me it isn't. I'm used to race not playing any part in whether your friends with someone or not.</p>
<p>In college it doesn't work that way.</p>
<p>What Kenshinsan says is definitely true, at least at my school.</p>
<p>Maybe you guys who said it's not true said so because you personally mingle with people of all races?</p>
<p>Anyway, I have to say that I am definitely impressed by your efforts kenshinsan! It annoys me to no end how there are so many races that just stick with each other... I am of Indian descent, but I'm not one of those that has just Indian/Pakistani friends... in fact I've got very few of those, I guess because so many of them just hang out with each other.</p>
<p>I've got white friends, Asian friends, Indian friends, black friends, too. I hate it when races self-segregate. One of my Pakistani friends said to me "wait til you make some more Desi friends, they're a lot more reliable and fun to be with!". No thanks, I will stick with making friends because I like their personality or we share common interests, not because they've got the same skin color as I do. As if skin color and personality are correlated... makes me irritable just thinking about it.</p>
<p>However, my high school was predominantly white (90+%), and I thought there would be a lot more diversity when I got to college. I was right, it's certainly not as white anymore, but there's a lot of racial self-segregation. I always admire the people that do not take part in this segregation.</p>