<p>So I have often heard that some 4.0 students who were top of there class and took tough classes often struggle with the transition to a top college.(Not that anyone doesn't). As I recall from my experience when I was at a Carleton summer program, one of our mentors who was top of her class, etc, and got into other top schools struggled. She said she managed a 3.3gpa and felt like she was failing herself because she was top of her school and expected better from herself. Is this a common phenomena? Do top students let their high school achievements blind them from the difficulties of college?</p>
<p>I dont think high school achievements blind people from the difficulties of college, rather people either have too high of expectations or poor study habits. First off a 3.3 GPA is not considered bad by any means, its usually average or in most cases above average. But for the most part study habits are what do people in. High school is all about learning facts and putting them on paper, college teaches a concept and expects you to critical analyze those concepts whether it be through a paper or problem set or what have you. High school it was very easy to just memorize and ace a test, but in college this usually does not work very well. Additionally 75%-90% of the class is made up of either midterms, finals, or papers, homework which usually accounted for a large percentage of a grade in high school is nothing more than study aids in the majority of classes. </p>
<p>Like many things in life, college takes time to adjust, some people do it really well and quickly, others take a term or two to get acquainted to the whole college process.</p>
<p>I don’t think it’s being blind. Having worked in a variety of high schools I can tell you that being a top student at an average high school and being top at a hightly competitive one are very different things. Kids are not all equally prepared, so many will genuinely struggle at competitive colleges before they figure out how to compete on a new level.</p>
<p>sstewart,</p>
<p>It’s very important to remember that at a highly competitive, top-notch college, * all freshman students* were * tippy top high school students*, often without putting very much effort into their high school classes because everything came easy to them.</p>
<p>They can’t all become tippy-top college students at their highly competitive, top-notch college: 90% of the freshman class will NOT graduate in the top 10% of their college graduating class. That’s just the way the numbers have to work. </p>
<p>And yes, many, many of those 90% worry way too much about their college grades and often feel like failures because they didn’t magically rise to the top of their college class.</p>
<p>I do not think that struggling in college has anything to do with being a top student in high school. Now if you were so good in high school that you did not take classes seriously or study; then, there is a problem because you will be surprised that you have to work in college and will be largely unprepared though. Aside from that, I think the top high school students, who have built up good study habits, will actually have an easier time adjusting to college than others.</p>
<p>At my admitted students tour they told the students to raise their hands if they were at the top of their class, and then look around at everyone raising their hands because not everyone in the room could be at the top of the class at the university. It appeared to be an eye opener for some, there were gasps.</p>
<p>So has any one of you struggled at your university? What did you eventuallly realize?</p>
<p>Also, say you were a top-notch student at your high school, but had to work really really hard to get there. Consequently, you get into a good college. Does that mean you’ll probably be in the bottom half now since most people there didn’t try very hard in high school?</p>
<p>I would definitely not assume that most people at a good college didn’t try very hard in high school.</p>
<p>I was about to say the same thing as Emaheevul07’s post said, but then realized we each go to the same school.</p>
<p>Seadog, it’s unlikely that most students who go to whatever selective college you will go to is full of students who didn’t try in high school. There will be a few, but at all the top schools most students tried very hard in high school.</p>