<p>You basically get to experience whatever the regular students at the college experience, and that varies depending on where you go. I’m a senior and this year I’ve been taking university classes full time through a similar program in Ohio, called PSEOP, and I can tell you about that.</p>
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Daily, no. Most of my classes have had graded homework of some kind, though…it’s definitely not true that there’s no assigned homework in college, in case you’ve ever heard that. All of your assignments other than tests and oral presentations will be completed outside of class, because class time is reserved for lectures (unless you take a science class with a lab, in which case the lab will be scheduled separately from the lecture part of the class). </p>
<p>Each of your professors will give you a syllabus for their class. This will tell you everything you need to know about homework, attendance policies, extra credit, and whether or not attendance is required for credit. As a PSEOP student, I’ve been subject to the same attendance policies as the regular college students…I’m not required to go to class just because I’m in high school, but I’m not sure if this holds true everywhere or not.</p>
<p>Humanities and social science classes usually have required textbooks or other readings, and you’ll be assigned a certain number of pages to read each week or before each lecture. The lecture will help you make sense of the readings, but the professor probably won’t get to everything in class, so a lot of what you learn will come from the readings alone. I think that’s the main difference between college and high school. </p>
<p>In my creative writing class, we’re expected to keep a writing journal with different in-class exercises we do, but it’s not graded. Our assignments consist of rough/final drafts of stuff we’ve written. </p>
<p>I’ve taken two philosophy classes. In the first class, our assignments consisted of a one-page weekly reflection on the readings as well as three five-page papers throughout the semester. In the second class, we have eight or ten three-page papers throughout the semester and two in-class exams consisting of multiple-choice and extended-response questions. </p>
<p>All of my math classes have had homework assignments due every few weeks or so, except for my multivariable calculus class, where the grade is based on tests and quizzes alone. Usually tests are worth a lot more than other assignments. </p>
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In terms of content and difficulty, yes (assuming you’re taking a course with an AP/Honors equivalent). In structure, probably not. You don’t have homework due every day, tests are infrequent and count a lot toward your grade, and attendance isn’t usually required. As I said before, class time will be devoted to lectures, and if you want extra help you’ll have to either see your professor after class or go to their office hours. </p>
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This depends a lot on the size of the school. You’ll either be in a giant lecture hall with a couple hundred people (I don’t think this is as common at community colleges as it is at universities, though) or in a smaller classroom with desks or tables. All of my classes have had fewer than forty people, and the classrooms were somewhat similar to high school classrooms, but more sparse, with no art supplies or posters on the walls. Professors lecture either by referring to a PowerPoint or by writing on the board (and for the most part we still have actual chalkboards, not dry erase boards 
). </p>
<p>Obviously, professors don’t use the same classroom all the time like high school teachers do, and the same classroom can be used by multiple professors each day. I go to a college with a lot of commuter students and older adults, so the kind of discussions you end up having aren’t the same as what you’d get if there were only high school students around. </p>
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Pros
- Wide variety of classes to choose from in subjects not commonly taught in high schools.
- Opportunity to earn college credit.
- Exposure to a diverse student body.
- Opportunity to participate in college student organizations (depending on where you go and what their rules are).
- High school students who have never been to college are likely to idealize it and harbor this delusion that it’s way better than it actually is, but you’ll end up with a realistic idea of what college is like.
- You’re not in class 35 hours a week, and you can schedule your classes during times you like. For example, on Tuesdays and Thursdays I don’t go to school until four in the afternoon.
- College classes only last one semester (or quarter), while one-credit high school classes last a full year unless your school has block scheduling. If you don’t like a college class, you only have to suffer through it for a couple months.</p>
<p>Cons
- Possible transportation issues.
- Possible issues with meeting high school graduation requirements. Where I go to school, a four-credit-hour university class is only worth 0.8 high school credits, so you have to take two classes in a given subject to meet the graduation requirement. This is why I finished all my graduation requirements before taking college classes. I took nine classes this year and I’m earning 7.2 high school credits, whereas someone taking eight (easier!) regular high school classes would earn eight high school credits. You have to find out how this works at your individual high school, though.
- You might have trouble transferring your credits out-of-state or to private colleges, but I wouldn’t worry too much about this if your college classes are free. You’re not losing anything if they don’t transfer.
- If you’re gone for most of the day you’ll lose some of your high school social life, if that’s something you care a lot about.
- AP classes are considered more rigorous for college admissions than dual-enrollment classes when an AP equivalent to a class is available, because AP is standardized across the country and college classes aren’t.
- Possible restrictions on what you’re allowed to take. Undergraduates will have priority scheduling over you, and you might not get the classes you want. And they might not want to let you take upper-level classes (if they’re offered at all), but I was able to get around this pretty easily.
- It can hurt your class rank if your school calculates class rank based on weighted GPA and doesn’t weight the college classes you’re taking, but I still think it’s worth it and college admissions people will understand.</p>