<p>I don't know if I'm the only one who feels this way, but I'm tired of watching the "perfect college" on TV (I'm a huge Gilmore Girls fan, so ie the Rory Gilmore Yale experience) and I'm sure others are wondering: What is college really like?</p>
<p>How does it differ from HS in areas like:</p>
<p>-Social interaction (ie cliques, maturity etc.)
-What the classes are like/homework load
-What the teachers/professors are like</p>
<p>Or anything else you'd like to add :)</p>
<p>PS. I know a lot of this varies depending on the college, but I think it's good to hear from a variety of sources.</p>
<p>Social interactions: Whereas in high school, everyone wants to be friends with the 'popular' kids, this is rarely the case in college. People tend to mature and find their own friends. I have yet to see anyone really made fun of (unless that person was being a complete a$$, and even then, nothing was said to their face).</p>
<p>Classes/homework load: There are as hard as you let them be. If you want straight A's, then yeah, its gonna take hard work; if you want straight C's, its safe to say that you are gonna have a lot of free time. At most universities, the emphasis is placed mostly on tests (midterms and final) rather than homework. In general, you are free to make your own class schedule (unless the classes you want are full). Since a lot of classes in freshman year are in big lecture halls where no attendance is taken, it is tempting to skip class and sleep in. Don't make this a habit, though. In general, I felt that the whole deal with college classes being so much harder than high school classes was exaggerated; One was moderately difficult, and the other two were rather easy, so long as I kept up with the material. My GPA for the first quarter was a 3.23, and I would say that I 'glided' into it without giving 100% (P.S. I'm just a freshman, so maybe it gets harder...).</p>
<p>Teachers: this depends on the university. At my university, most of the teachers are very open and welcoming. Wherever you go, try to get to know your college professors; they are the ones who issue the grades, and the extra time that you spend talking to them might entice them to bump up that B+ to an A.</p>
<p>-Social interaction (ie cliques, maturity etc.)
i go to a big state school. people are more mature, yes, but there are still cliques, there are still the "cool kids," etc. just that not everyone is all up in each other's business.. so you might be a cool kid at the house party you frequent, but as far as your political science class is concerned, you're just any other guy. hopefully that gives you a better perspective! basically you have a million cliques going on at once, and while it's better than HS, the fact remains it's still there - it's human society at work.</p>
<p>-What the classes are like/homework load
Totally dependent on the major, college, and professor, as well as your HS (i really think my HS was harder than my introductory courses). in a big state university, though, the general rule is you will not be spoonfed. many kids have a bad first year/semester because they don't keep up with the work and fall behind quickly. less quizzes, tests, hw, and busywork make it very easy to not keep up.</p>
<p>-What the teachers/professors are like
ratemyprofessors.com! in a big state school where its their job to research, many are mediocre at teaching but are often involved with the latest research. it's also common to have foreign professors.</p>
<p>generally, most professors are more than happy to help you though if you ask them or want to talk about anything during their office hours, etc. </p>
<p>ratemyprofessors.com is great for scoping out good professors, but don't buy into the negative ones all the time; they're usually from bitter students who did poorly in the class.</p>
<p>I agree with ccguy quite a bit, although I don't think there are necessarily "cool kids" in college. There's still the preppy kids who were probably the "popular" kids in high school, that usually end up Greek, but independents usually don't give a crap about what the Greeks do unless it affects them too. Obviously everyone has their own group of friends they tend to hang out with, but that doesn't mean they're "clique-y". My definition of clique is a group that's hostile towards outsiders, and I don't think many friends groups in college are like that. I know several of my friends were friends with each other before they knew me but they still welcomed me in right off. I also hang out with more than one set of friends: I have friends from two different organizations I'm in and there's not much interaction between them. Then of course, there's the people who seem like they know pretty much everyone because they're involved in so much and/or they're just really friendly and outgoing. </p>
<p>Freshman classes (intro level) tend to be fairly easy. I don't think it's hard to get at least a B in most of them. Classes get harder the higher up in level you go. There is generally less busywork, and often only a couple tests and the final make up your grade. It also sort of depends on the class: like, for world literature, yeah it would make sense to have quizzes fairly often to make sure you're keeping up with the reading. I've had classes that the entire grade was two tests and the final, and I've had classes that the grade depended on homework, in-class participation, quizzes, papers and exams. </p>
<p>For professors, it depends on the individual one, honestly. Some just love teaching, some are only professors so they get research funds, and that reflects in the fact that they really don't like fooling with people who aren't also interested in their work. Some teachers might be graduate students on assistantships, but usually they are more than willing to help you out, sometimes more than an actual professor, since grad students tend to be young and know what it's like to be in your shoes.</p>