<p>Making my own schedule. In high school, I woke up at a certain time went to school and had classes one after the other. I would go home do homework and then go to work/band practice/football game depending on the day. Weekends were for working and volunteering or band competitions. In college, I found myself having a lot of free time and not being able to manage it very well.</p>
<p>Sort of related, but I’m afraid of falling behind because of my poor work ethic. It’s absolutely terrible, and I’m really hoping that I’ll be able to change it for the better. I’m living at home for at least the first two years, so my issue will be my family driving me crazy. Also balancing school plus a job will be challenging because that’s something I have no experience with at all.</p>
<p>My biggest problem is gonna be studying and taking notes. I never studied substancially beyond a few cram sessions in high school, and I rarely took notes. The notes I did take were unorganized and illegible, so I feel like I’m in for quite an awakening. Socially, I feel like I won’t be academically stimulated by my peers because I’m going to a third/fourth tier public school (I’m going because quite a bit of my family went there and I have relatives in the the area… oh, and its free 'cause of a full ride). I guess really its the social scene I’m most afraid of because eventhough I’m a pretty nice guy, I can be awkward initially. Well, we’ll just have to see how it turns out. GO HOGS!!! (Texas A&M University- Kingsville)</p>
<p>failure is not an option for me so adjusting to the work load would be my challenge. Just wish i didnt take high school for granted … alot of work is to be done…</p>
<p>For me it’s going to be moving away from my family. I’m from Connecticut, but I’m heading off to USC for college, so right the other side of the country.</p>
<p>I know that, at first, I’m going to struggle with not seeing my dad as often.</p>
<p>However, at the same time, I’m absolutely doing the right thing and I know that will carry me through. USC is simply the best college for me, because it felt right when I visited, and at the end of the day, it’s not that far really!</p>
<p>Adjusting to Acadamics for sure.</p>
<p>adjusting to the new social world. You’re basically starting a new life, everybody that has mattered to you is some where else now.</p>
<p>The academics thing I feel isn’t going to bother me as much b/c of the amount of effort I put into high school. crazyyy</p>
<p>I think they need to add getting a girlfriend to the list.</p>
<p>I’d say adjusting to a very different social world because we’re all going to college with people at different ages. Everyone’s lifestyle and social world is different.</p>
<p>Being away from family because I live by myself off-campus, and it gets inconvenient to do everything by myself.</p>
<p>Speaking from experience, my greatest challenge was developing new study strategies for my courses. For the most part, doing well in high school classes requires less work and simply reviewing notes before exams. My first realization in college was that the quiz-and-recall studying strategy is essential to my academic success. Hope this helps.</p>
<p>Keeping my sleep schedule remotely as regular or suited to academics as I did in HS.</p>
<p>I think out of all of these finance is the hardest. By trying to fix it you cause problems with all the other problems listed in the poll. </p>
<p>You should be able to deal with and overcome an increased work load - be more organised and listen harder etc. You wouldn’t have been accepted if the uni didn’t think you were able. </p>
<p>It is also fairly easy (even if it requires a lot of courage) to meet new people. This is most especially true when everyone is feeling nervous and unsure about what is going on and is just happy to see a friendly face. </p>
<p>You can go home/call family/friends/lovers fairly regularly. And you can pick yourself up again if a breakup occurs. </p>
<p>It is unlikely that you will get into a life long feud with your room mate. You can request a change if need be or you could simply ask for some quiet time to your self. </p>
<p>Money however… Has been my constant worry throughout my studies. It really is difficult to manage your money with so little room to move (which the average student has). You don’t have enough money to budget for the unexpected. And once something like that comes up and you are down to your last 5c there isn’t much you can do but hope to pick up an extra shift at work or beg financial aid for a bursury or loan to keep you going. It’s scary. </p>
<p>Everything becomes harder to deal with once you start having to worry about money.</p>
<p>I think its making new friends. If you don’t move around a lot, you probably know the same group of friends from elementary school all the way to high school. In college, most people will have to start over and fit in.</p>
<p>I’m going to a university 16 hours away from home. I’m excited about all aspects of going off to college but I know that being so far from anyone I know will impact me hugely. I’m confident that I will be able to pull through but I know that the first two weeks or so might be brutal. I need this though and it will be good for me.</p>
<p>I picked increased work load. HS was hard enough, it took me 4 years to get adjusted to. I doubt the same strategy will work in college…</p>
<p>While different social environment / away from friends/family is a big change, I don’t think that will be a CHALLENGE to overcome for most people. Most everyone I know can’t wait to get away.</p>
<p>I agree with money problems, but that’s going to stay with me pretty much the rest of my life, so …</p>
<p>I picked finance, because that will probably be the determining factor of how much I am able to “get” out of the experience. I’m actually hoping to be able to live OFF campus, because I’ll be a transfer student (technically a junior), and on-campus housing is required for underclass students, and first-come/first-serve for others; also, I really don’t think I’d be comfortable with any of my roommates, and nor would they be comfortable with me (because of how “prudish” I’ve been told I am). One of my biggest concerns is that no matter who my roommate is, there’s a chance that she might bring her “mate” (male or female), into the dorm room, and they’ll start…you know…and I’ll have an anxiety attack or be traumatized by seeing them “in flagrante delicto” and/or finding Trojans in the barrel where I throw away my bubble gum ;-)</p>
<p>Emerson’s unique, however, I think, in that its primary focus is liberal arts in a more creative context, and the school offers “Learning Communities” in the dorms, where students with similar interests are not only grouped together but can hang out in a specific section or wing of the campus. Writers’ Block (cute name, I know), is one I’d be very interested in, because like the name says, it’s a respite/haven for writers at the school (vs. film, theatre, dance, etc., who would probably be rehearsing for “Stomp” while I’m trying to concentrate on writing my best-seller 
).</p>
<p>That said, I almost wish I wasn’t a “bookworm,” just to survive, although I am, and there’s probably not much that can be done about how shy and anxious I get in certain situations that maybe for someone else, wouldn’t be as much of a problem. I mean, all campuses have a no-drug policy, I know, but because I’m creative, and the school “attracts those of a more ‘bohemian’ lifestyle” (who? Freddie Mercury?), my family is warning me strongly that there will most likely be pot smokers and other “eccentrics” in the dorms – and so what do you do if your roommate is a fast-times Hendrix “High” brownie scout, and you’re still of a mindset where you’re wearing pigtails and drinking lemonade with Mom’s homemade cookies? Oh, and speaking of Queen, the issue of it being a very GLBT-friendly school, is a BIG sticking point – and I mean “sticks in their craw” for the “sticks in the mud” – because they don’t really even want me to associate with those they call “bohemians” or “sinners” on campus. I can have gay friends but it doesn’t mean I’m going to “catch the bug,” like they say – not AIDS (which I know isn’t just a “gay disease”) but “guilt by association.” (Another poster said how glad he/she was to have the family off his/her back – I will be too, if only to get away from the spewing conservative hatred in this fascist realm of Glenn Beck-istan. But I digress.)</p>
<p>Emerson does have also what’s called the “quiet wing” (that’d be perfect, I’m thinking, where I’d be able to do just that – think – without foot-stomping or purple haze getting in the way). But still, I’d probably do much better if I could live off-campus, and in a studio apt. by myself. It sounds reclusive and avoidant, I know (but writers usually are, right?), and one of the main reasons I’d be going there instead of a state school or even a private school that’s more “academics”-focused is the multitude of opportunity that exists for extracurricular activity (not the 4/20 Club, mind you), and the potential expansion of “professional” networking (although I still adamantly refuse to open a “social networking” account, primarily because of the irony of the term). And yes, I did say that I am 24, technically “Generation Net,” but don’t have a Facebook and don’t want one either; my younger brother (who’s 17 and does have one), has ridiculed me to no end at home (actually, he’s been very loud and verbally abusive), because “99% of the kids at Emerson probably have Facebook, Twitter, and an iPhone – and you want a G–d— Jitterbug because you f------ hate text messaging?!?” (Again, I digress.)</p>
<p>Nonconformity is pretty difficult, especially when it’s “your generation” (a la the song) that’s supposedly “leading the future” and you’re (well, I am) more in line with the parents’ aversion to technology, drugs, parties, and so forth (but not so quick to condemn people who don’t share my views or opinions). That’s another issue, but there again, with housing, is the financial issue of not only paying for school itself, but paying for an off-campus apartment (which people have said works out to be somewhat cheaper); still, as I wrote in another post, if the 'rents won’t pay the rent, I might be SOL when it comes to going to a school that might guide me in a direction of writing the next…“Rent”!</p>
<p>Mork workloads ahead in college! :(</p>
<p>Going to college means that you have to begin a new life. Being away from my family, friends. But i can make new friends anyway.</p>
<p>None of these were extremely difficult for me, but I chose social life because I didn’t have much problems with the others. The academic workload is only difficult if you procrastinate or get distracted easily. I actually took five AP classes in my senior year and I never had any schedule since then was as busy as that one. I get an adequate amount of sleep most days in college, even with taking the standard amount of units per quarter.</p>