is it more fun or it sucks?
Both.
My kid has mentioned to me that he thinks college will be much better since >80% of his classes will be classes that he wants to take whereas maybe about 3-4 classes total in 4 years in HS that he enjoyed. Not sure if that translates to fun but at least hopefully his self-induced attention deficit will be drastically reduced. I don’t think he had much fun in HS at all so now that the pressure is off and he got into a good school, things go up from here hopefully.
That’s like asking whether chocolate is better than vanilla.
Your experiences will be uniquely yours. Whether they’re better or worse is a combination of dumb luck and the choices you make.
You are more responsible for your own fun in college. School rarely schedules it for you, your parents don’t schedule it for you. Your parents are no longer there to remind you to get enough sleep and eat properly.
If you can figure out what fun is for you and find a way to fit it into your schedule, and if you can get to a place where you’re eating and sleeping well enough to maintain your health, college can be a blast. If you screw up your health and sleep, you can wreck relationships and college can be a pit of drama and stress.
Life goes in waves. When you start HS, it’s fun. By Sr. year, it can’t be over soon enough. College is the same. Starts off as a blast – heck the whole first week is “welcome week.” Nothing but chilling out and having fun. But, again by Sr. year, it can’t finish soon enough. Then regular life starts. You’re in your early 20’s. It’s a blast, but eventually 30 can’t come soon enough. Rinse and repeat. Until you hit 50. Then you want to go backwards.
Depends on why you thought high school sucked. If you felt compelled to get top grades, participate in activities just for the sake of your CV and worry about your future at the expense of the present then you’ll have to honestly answer if you expect you’ll be taking a different approach in college. The answer lies more within you than anywhere else.
but the answer is yes!
op, like others have said, your college experience will simply come down to how you choose to make it.
If you’re at the right school, college should be a lot more fun than high school. You get to have adult freedoms without adult responsibilities (other than keeping your grades up)? That won’t happen again until you retire, 40 or 50 years from now.
is it more fun or it sucks?
I was much happier in college making my own decisions and moving towards a real goal/profession. So many more options available.
Definitely not easier work-wise. I worked and studied really hard but it was much more satisfying. My confidence in myself really grew.
Socially I found it much easier to find friends I really connected with–I didn’t like HS much and didn’t have a big friend group. But I now have college friends who are still around me 40 years later.
It’s more work than HS and in college the professors don’t coddle you. I’ve seen students just out of HS cry in front of professors over bad grades and that just didn’t fly because at the college level you are regarded as an adult. You have to do the work, and stay on schedule. Social wise, it might be a lot more fun because you get to meet more people from many different walks of life than you would normally meet in HS.
I saw one girl have a fit in front of a professor because he gave her a B on a history test. She said to him “what can I do, I don’t get B’s”. He looked at her, totally serious and said “study better”. I think she was expecting him to feel sorry for her, nope.
It all depends on your own personal experience:
- Did you enjoy high school at all?
- Do you enjoy the independence and freedom you have at college? (only if you live on or off campus)
- Academic levels: (Gen-Ed or AP classes): High school vs. College?
- Social aspect: (HS/College Football Games or HS/College Parties): HS vs. College?
- Are people generally nicer/more accepting at college?
- etc.
I enjoyed college much more than high school. I was the class nerd in high school but was able to attend an elite engineering school and, although I struggled with my classes at times, I really enjoyed it. I also blossomed socially. In high school I was a big strong kid who was quite un-coordinated. In college my body stopped growing and I found some coordination. I ended up playing on the varsity in 2 sports; rowing and ice hockey.