Just how hard is college???

<p>Ok, I'm in the max honors classes this year, but hate all of my class(Chemistry+not taking a history=sucks). I'm an overachiever, and I get pretty good grades. I a ****ty time manager though.</p>

<p>I know it kind of depends on major, but I'm thinking political science/business. I've heard business majors don't get much work at some schools, but I don't know about PoliSci. I know you get a lot of papers, read a lot, exams, etc...
But you guys probably like it because it is at least a field you are interested in(I tell myself I'll never have to study chemistry again, lol.)</p>

<p>How hard is it to balance? </p>

<p>Thanks</p>

<p>As hard as you make it.</p>

<p>well say I want to maintain a 3.5+? Probably depends on the school though.</p>

<p>it honestly depends on the school and what classes. Business and polysci are hard at my school, though I am not taking either. The disparity in difficulty really is so great that a 4.0 at one college may be a 2.7 at another. It really depends on your work ethic though.</p>

<p>ok, thanks</p>

<p>You won't necessarily have more work than in high school--it depends on your high school, your college and your courseload at each. But college work is pretty different from high school work--instead of lots of small homework assignments due the next day, you'll have weekly reading, assignments/problem sets, and papers and tests that are much bigger portions of your grade. More freedom to decide when you want to do the work, more opportunity to screw it up. </p>

<p>Honestly, without knowing your specific situation, no one can really tell you anything more helpful than that. If there are any students at the colleges you're interested in who graduated from your high school, they would be the people to talk to.</p>

<p>kingofqueens: that can be said of any major at any school. anyone that's amazing at any given subject will obviously score high. your statement seems to suggest that non-math/science majors have their grades inflated which may or may not be true but largely depends on the school one goes to.</p>

<p>anyways to the OP, it depends solely on how hard you want to make it. if you do your work like your supposed to it won't be very hard. if you don't do it, then it'll be more difficult than necessary. and you won't ace the class just because you do all your work all the time.</p>

<p>If you're a decent student, and not majoring in anything crazy like engineering, its pretty easy.</p>

<p>The thing about college that a lot of people struggle with is not really the material, its time management, and how motivated they are. A lot of the people I hang out with now got, by far, much better grades than I did when I was in HS, however it was only because their parents/teachers were pushing them. Now that I finally know what I want to do with my life (or have a good idea of it) I am much more motivated to do well, and get pretty good grades (although I'm looking to improve).</p>

<p>As S33D said, it is as hard as you make it. Work on being a better time manager.</p>

<p>Unfortunately, I made it hard... at least for now.</p>

<p>Time manage it :)</p>

<p>Even at the same college, grades can be heavily influenced by the professor. If there are multiple times with multiple professors for the same class, it might be a wise idea to do some research on the professors before deciding which one to sign up for. </p>

<p>In fact, grade disparities between professors can be quite large - a "B" for one professor might be equivalent to another professor's "A+" - which is exactly what happened to me; a friend took a math course early in the summer and got an A+...I took the same course later in the summer with a different professor and I only got a B. I later went over the tests for his class and they were so much easier! Oh well, good for him and his A+ haha =p</p>

<p>depends on the major also</p>

<p>Depends on your mind set and your major. Like someone who wants to become a doctor will have a lot more effort to put into their work, and a lot more classes, than a person who is attending an art college. Then there's the dilemma of different colleges giving you different amounts of classes/overall class time. However, if you're excellent at utilizing your time, or just naturally bright, and you extremely enjoy what you're doing, then it may not matter. Everyone's different. =)</p>

<p>First of all it depends on the courses you are taking.
If you plan your electives properly for your major, and you spread your workload evenly over the semesters you will be working hard most of the time, but not impossibly hard either. Some college students (esp. ones undecided about their majors) tend to have really tough Junior and Senior years because of this.
Secondly it depends on your extra curricular involvement. If you are in the Student Gov, join an athletic team, etc you will definitely be pushing it as far as your studies are concerned.
Last but not least it depends on you! I know kids in my college who play Football during the Fall semester, track team in the Spring semester yet still maintain a 3.8+ gpa.</p>

<p>Essentially YOU determine just how tough/ easy/pressurized/ fun your college experience is going to turn out. If you are one of those really overachieving overachievers a word of caution, one thing I can definitely say is college is NO walk in the park!
hope that helps :)</p>

<p>I was a horrible time manager in high school too. What I've learned since coming to college is that I am a great time manager, but only if I get a sheet of paper on the first day of classes with each homework assignment and the day it is due. I am very bad at managing my time if I get homework assigned one day and have it due 24 hours later.</p>

<p>College is all about time management with a little bit of natural skill thrown in. I'm quite sure if I put forth the effort I could be an engineering or math or physics major and do well, but I HATE that kind of stuff. I'm good at math, and I've gotten A's in the classes I've taken in that subject (not the math for non-math majors either: stats and pre-cal trig) but I really just don't like to study it at all. It's boring to me.
So I study something that really really interests me- social science. More specifically, anthropology. I really love it.
My philosophy is to study something you really like rather than something just because you think is impressive or will get you a job right off the bat, because you will enjoy your college time so much more when you aren't miserable while you are studying, and you will do better in your exams because you'll care about the topics more. That's not to say that you shouldn't pick a major that will get you a good job, but don't pick it SOLELY for that reason.
So, no, I don't think college is hard if you are studying something you really like. If you are studying something you don't like or don't have a talent for, you may just be completely miserable for 4 years. (I changed to my current major after 2 years in a major which I ended up being miserable in because I was bad at it.)</p>

<p>College in general is harder because its not that you have more work to do, but you have to KNOW the material better and DO the assignments better than you had to do in highschool. Even with honors classes or AP classes.</p>

<p>For me, the biggest differences between high school and college are the following: [ul]</p>

<p>[li]Depending on what classes you take, you might not get any mandatory weekly homework (the hard sciences seem to be the exception). </p>[/li]
<p>[li]In most cases, your grade for a class will mostly depend on how well you do on the 1-3 midterms, as well as the final.[/ul][/li]This means that you have to be self-motivated to study and keep up with the material on your own.</p>

<p>Also, a few myths unraveled:[ul]
[li]College courses are infinitely harder than high school courses. This depends entirely on the class (some professors post notes, examples, and practice tests all online, so use them), as well as your state of mind towards that class (remember: I think, therefore I am. This is coming from someone who failed, retook and aced physical chemistry).</p>[/li]
<p>[li]If you don't keep up with the reading, you will fail. Again, this depends on the particular class. For some classes, reading the notes will suffice. [/li]This fact is kind of a double-hedged sword, because oftentimes you don't really know which to study until after the first midterm.[/ul].</p>

<p>As said, it varies from professor to professor and school to school. Speaking as a community college student, I've found most of my classes quite easy(excluding math), mainly due to the clarity of the syllabus and the predictability. There are rarely random, unexpected handouts or HW assignments, and busy work is generally avoided. Most classes are pretty cut and dry: X amount of papers, X amount of exams, X amount of problem sets/HW, etc. </p>

<p>Most of my teachers have also been crystal clear about the content of exams, rarely pulling fast ones and putting trick questions on tests.</p>