<p>Take a look at the HS Life forum and you will see many students torturing themselves: straight A's, super busy with ECs, and all of this just to keep the dream of getting into a top college alive. Do you think these vast amounts of work pay off? Is college as great as you hoped it would be?</p>
<p>College is pretty awesome. Of course there are aspects of it that aren't so great, but honestly, when I think about high school, there is just no comparison. I wouldn't go back to high school for anything. :)</p>
<p>i know people that got into top schools without torturing themselves through high school</p>
<p>Umm...don't forget that the reason people want to go to good colleges is to be "successful" in the future. So chances are when you get to a good school, you'll continue to work hard, most likely harder than you did in high school because college (at top colleges anyway) is harder than high school. The thing that makes college great is all the freedom you have, living with your friends, and I guess all the opportunities you have.</p>
<p>So college isn't a breeze...but it feels way more legit than high school education.</p>
<p>People who waste time trying to get into top schools are wasting time. They are fools.</p>
<p>Just enjoy urself/.</p>
<p>College is what you make of it. I took the first semester pretty easy class wise and socialized but not as much as I should of. Next semester should be interesting.</p>
<p>If you just want to get in and party, college is always fun. If you want to get in and get out of it being very valuable to employers/society/yourself, you will keep torture yourself just like you've done in high school.</p>
<p>^I pretty much agree with that. College is still torturous academically like high school. Sure, there is fun there, but if you are trying to make it to professional/grad school, academics pretty much rule your life.</p>
<p>i have never been "tortured" by school...all of you must be a bunch of sissies...if you are in a difficult major thats your choice just like it was your choice to take difficult classes in high school and go to college...just put up and shut up</p>
<p>College is definitely all I expected it to be and more.
BUT: I am going to my safety school. From my experience going to a "top" college isn't neccessarily the point: any good university that is a GOOD FIT will make the experience. So I definitely think a lot of hs students overwork themselves towards the wrong goal.</p>
<p>College is hard for me because I still have to play the GPA-whoring game for law school, and in the shorter term, to get into a top litigation consulting firm.....ugh. And it's only because I'm trying to get into a top10 law school.</p>
<p>College is a lot more cliquey than high school.
(Heck, there's a social revolution going on in my dorm right now.)</p>
<p>Really? I've heard that college is less cliquey.</p>
<p>depends where you go. small schools are cliquey but big schools aren't</p>
<p>college is FUN!</p>
<p>I don't know if that's fair. I might say that college can be cliquey, but in a different way than many high schools. Before college, at least in my experience, "clique" tended to be a negative term, implying exclusivity. But in college (and I went to a very small school), it was more about "groups of friends." Same idea, but minus the exclusivity, cattiness, and emphasis on popularity. If you wanted to go meet a new group of people, then you could...it wasn't about "working your way up" or something. But in fairness, my HS wasn't like that either, so I've never fully believed that other people's were (though I'm sure I'm wrong).</p>
<p>College was great. Sure, you still work your butt off academically (odds are, if you're the type of person who did it in HS, you'll be the type of person to do it in college), but you get to focus on something that you enjoy, you get to take classes that are far more exciting than "English 9" or "Math 11," and in many cases, you really do get to interact with leaders in the fields. It's still school, yes, but you get to tailor the experience to your own interests more than in high school.</p>
<p>Having a dining hall a few steps away plus your friends permanently nearby doesn't hurt either. And while most students do participate in on-campus ECs, far more people really do it for pleasure than for resume-building.</p>
<p>College is pretty much everything I thought it would be, and more.</p>
<p>Which is to say, awesome.</p>
<p>
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i have never been "tortured" by school...all of you must be a bunch of sissies...if you are in a difficult major thats your choice just like it was your choice to take difficult classes in high school and go to college...just put up and shut up
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Just because you would let yourself get on the easy route doesn't give you the right the tell anyone to shut up. In fact, you should be the one to shut up since you have never put yourself to the limit. What a sissy you are, running away from challenges.</p>
<p>College is a disappointment for me thus far. I generally feel like people are very immature, cliquey, and ambitious but lazy. And I go to a very good school (like many). But maybe it's a little too arrogant to mark myself as being more mature than everyone else.. ah I don't know. </p>
<p>But I don't really like it. Hopefully it will improve soon :)</p>
<p>In response to chestergumbo...you don't know what route I have taken or what challenges I have faced...I shouldn't have used the word "sissy" but I am trying to say people bring it on themselves, so don't complain about being tortured by school because it is your choice to take difficult classes...I definitely didn't take the easy route in high school with 17 IB/AP classes...right now I am an engineering major (usually considered more difficult than average) and have no intention of switching out</p>
<p>note to all highschoolers, take more IB/APs, helps so much. period.</p>