<p>I'm in HS and I'm always so stressed. I spend about 6 hours on hw and studying a day including weekends and I tell myself, "It will pay off and all be over when you go to college,'' but what if it won't. Or maybe it will be even worse. What are your levels of stress compared to hs?</p>
<p>In high school you go to class for about 35 hours a week and then do 6 hours of homework. In college you will go to class for about 12-15 hours a week. How you manage those extra hours make all the difference in stress level and grades.</p>
<p>Some colleges and some majors within particular colleges are known for a more competitive vibe. If you would rather be someplace known for a more collaborative approach, do a little research and find schools that match your desired level of workload and competitiveness. There are all kinds of schools out there, and you can certainly find one where you will feel challenged without negatively impacting other areas of your life.</p>
<p>It depends on the college you go to and more importantly, your major. You have classes 15 hours a week compared 35-40 for hs. A good portion of that time is spent studying free time but sometimes you can relax a little more.</p>
<p>The most stressful time is during exams, especially finals week. Unlike in hs, college is right down to buisness. No filler grades, projects, and what not to boost your grade. Exams are a significant portion of your grade so it is imperative to do well on them.</p>
<p>Going off what others said, most classes have no “free point” assignments so your grade will reflect the few exams and essays you do. </p>
<p>Otherwise, I only stress in college when it comes to think about graduating+finding a job and finances. If you have good time management skills, you should be good with your classes. Unlike high school, you are very “on your own” with the classes and assignments and exams.</p>
<p>I say it depends on what you make of it. I say it is WAYY more stressful, but at the same time I feel like you just somehow automatically learn hwo to deal with the stress better so it kinda balances itself out. Don’t be fooled though, it is still super stressful, but the constant educational environment full of other people who are going through the same. It just makes it more bareable.</p>
<p>It is way more stressful. But there is a lot of “good” stress that motivates you and keeps you happy. Then there is “final/midterm week” stress that’s not much fun.</p>
<p>High school was a complete joke for me (even taking most of the advanced classes offered), and it didn’t help that my high school isn’t the greatest. In contrast, I got to college and had to work for my grade way more even for my easiest classes than I ever had to do for all but a couple of my high school classes. Even for those harder classes, their work and stress level were on par with my easy, GPA booster classes now.</p>
<p>All that said, at any given time it generally feels like I’m less stressed out than in high school. Why? Because high school had a bunch of what-would-now-be-small stresses piled together at the same time without much free time. On the other hand, in college I find it much easier to handle the stress levels because I have a lot more free time to space things out and take breathers. Of course, this goes out the window during exam times, particularly if there are consecutive exams on any given day.</p>
<p>In short: I feel like it’s more stressful, but it’s easier to handle the stress.</p>
<p>So far it’s <em>less</em> stressful for me. I have more free time and I can pick almost all of my classes.</p>
<p>College directly reflects the kind of outlook and drive you acquired in high school. To repeat what others have said, you only have class about 12-15 hours a week and you have to learn more stuff on your own. And it definitely does depend on your major(s). </p>
<p>As an example, I’m double-majoring in Writing and Rhetoric and French. For my writing classes, I maybe spend 5 or 6 hours a week for classes that meet 2 and a half hours in class and are partially online. Obviously I put in more time for writing papers and doing research, but for the readings and assignments, 5 or 6 hours is sufficient. Sometimes less. It comes down to less than an hour a day. </p>
<p>For French, however, I spend between 1-3 hours every day studying. It usually comes out to around 15 hours a week, give or take a little. These classes meet 3 times a week for a total of about 3 1/2 hours, so that shows you the frequency and need to get stuff done. For my writing classes, I usually have from Wednesday to Monday to get readings done. For French, it’s MWF and so things need to get done in a tinier fashion. </p>
<p>Basically, it’s more stressful and that you need to figure out what works for you, which may take a long time. But once you get there, you’re solid because you know what you need to do.</p>
<p>I think it is less stressful - however you have to have much better time management skills - which for some would make it more stressful</p>
<p>If you are spending 6 hours a day (outside of class) 7 days a week studying then how to you have time for ECs?</p>
<p>It depends on the school and major. In college, at least with my experience, all grades are based on exams / finals, and those are all based on curves. So it’s not like my HS, where your grade is actually based on how much of the material you know. In college, it’s how much of the material you know relative to other people? It could be very challenging, or not. In high school, to me it was that if you studied for a test, you could do well on it. In college, if you studied for a test, you could still do relatively poor on it. But just work hard, don’t stress too much right now, and enjoy high school and time with your family and friends. Don’t worry so much ahead.</p>
<p>For me HS was way better, school work wasn’t too much would just do it during classes or lunch time. Same friends were with me throughout all 4 years so would be always joking around and having fun. All I had to worry about was school was not working at that time so it was a pretty stress free environment.</p>
<p>However college was a different story. You make friends then the next semester you have to make new friends. Work load during college was serious and it took time you actually had to study and spend alot of time on HW. I was also working at that time so to come home tired and spend 2 to 3 hours doing hw would wear me out completely.</p>
<p>College should be LESS stressful than high school. Think about that… at high school, you are always worried about getting into college. When you get into college, you’re free! Relax man… Your college life should be a memorable experience in a good way. :)</p>
<p>^ Haha, but in college, you begin to worry about getting into grad school. Or worse, real life.</p>
<p>Overall, though, college > high school. I took APs and Honors and it really helped because the courseload of my AP and Honors classes were harder than the majority of my college classes. Even my high-leveled law class I am taking with massive amounts of reading was less stressful than AP anything.</p>
<p>Okay so I’m seeing two different opinions. It seems as it’s less stressful because of the freedom you have but at the same time that means more responsibility on your part which can be stressful…am i correct? Also aren’t your classes mostly related to your major so aren’t you studying what you love doing? For example, right now I’m taking AP English and AP Calculus…i can’t stand AP english but I get a lot more work for AP calculus. The thing is I stress out more over AP english because I look forward to studying calculus since I love math. So I guess my question is wouldn’t it be less stressful since you’re studying what you have a passion for?</p>
<p>@keepingitlight: I find time during lunch, study hall, between classes, in the morning, when I get done with work early in classes, etc. to work on hw. I still volunteer and participate in clubs:)</p>
<p>^^ That’s not necessarily true. Not everybody picks a major they are completely in love with and/or have a passion for. And if they do, not every class within the major is fun. For example, my major is journalism but I need to take a law class on free speech. My class is essentially a law/government class.</p>
<p>I think in college, your stress is different. Unlike high school, you generally have a class 1-3 times a week (depending on school). I found high school to be stressful because I had 8 classes in a day, and then I had homework for 6 classes due the next and maybe a quiz or a test.</p>
<p>In college, you only have average 4-6 classes and they are generally split (ie; Mon/Wed; Tues/Thur). You have more time to study and do homework since there’s less busy work. The assignments are usually important (ie; big essays) or are completely eliminated (some classes have ONLY quizzes, tests, and finals to calculate your grade). It’s stressful because in these classes, doing average or bad on one test can significantly bring your grade down and make it a struggle to get an A. </p>
<p>Not to mention, a lot of people begin working or interning in college which takes up study time. So, if you manage your time right, I don’t see a problem at all with balancing all your classes, studying/homework time, work/internship, and EC’s.</p>
<p>I’d say you begin to really worry about getting a job and that itself is pretty stressful, especially if you majored in something that’s not really known to net you a good job and you’ve saddled yourself with student loans. </p>
<p>The standards are more rigorous (depending on where you go). General education classes can sometimes feel like a repeat of high school in that you don’t really learn much or retain any of it afterwards. The thing about college is that you get to focus on an area that you like and really pursue it. It can be tough but also incredibly satisfying. But I’d say from what I’ve experienced so far that yes, it is harder than high school. There are less idiots around in STEM majors. If you’re not smart enough, you will be weeded out accordingly. If you’re just barely hanging on, your GPA will suck and contain a lot of mediocre upper-division grades. There’s a point where it’s less about putting the time in and more about innate talent (math major). You have to be pretty smart and hardworking to get through a STEM degree. You either know it or you don’t. Sink or swim. No one is going to hold your hand anymore.</p>
<p>AP classes you learn to take a test…the stressful part about high school is trying to get into college and dealing with growing up at the same time.</p>
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<p>That’s the truth. AP classes weren’t bad at all compared to college courses. You can ace the test simply by studying the material. Only study the material (notes, HW, etc) in college? Won’t necessarily give you an A, since usually they make the exams much harder than the HW so that not everyone gets a high score and they are able to curve it. Like in many STEM courses, the average for exams can be around the 50%-60% mark. But even in business classes, there is a flat curve for the whole class, like 30% get As, 30% Bs, 40% Cs, etc. That makes the students more competitive with each other for the grades. High school’s not that competitive (even though college shouldn’t be that competitive, should just be a place to learn what you want to do, but it’s how it sometimes is I guess)</p>