<p>My personal experience has been the exact opposite. </p>
<p>Went from graduating near the bottom of my graduating magnet high school class with C and B level grades and not having ever taking APs to graduating from an well-respected SLAC with an average around a 3.5 as a scholarship student despite an slow start first semester, taking heavy class loads, working part-time during the school year, and suffering a family tragedy in my senior year. </p>
<p>From observing classmates who were topflight high school students who then ended up floundering with Cs or worse, there were a few common factors. </p>
<p>One was that many of them were not used to suddenly being in an environment where they were expected to self-manage themselves to stay on track academically. Most Profs/TAs are not going to micromanage them to the same degree as their high school teachers and parents. From what I remembered, you got a syllabus on the first day of a given class and it served as your semester/year-long scheduling/grading/Office Hours guide for the course. Funny how this environmental change actually worked in my favor as it was far more compatible with my personality and work habits. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the case for most incoming first-years who then experience a jarring adjustment during their first year or even first semester. </p>
<p>Another factor I commonly observed was overconfidence bordering on hubris from college classmates and some acquaintances who were topflight “star” students all their lives up till the end of high school. These students assumed that because they attended the “better” well-off suburban public schools or private/boarding schools, had stellar grades/standardized test scores, and never had to really struggle for them that this will continue to be the case in college. Everyone I encountered who exhibited this cocky attitude had a rude awakening when their started to struggle in their courses and receiving their first Cs, or even failing grades as a result. Some even ended up on academic suspension or in egregious cases…invited to leave. </p>
<p>The third factor is lack of adequate academic preparation from their high schools…because of the wide variability in rigor and quality…even among schools offering AP/IB courses. From what I’ve heard from friends who teach high school in public and private schools across the US, courses labeled AP/IB in one school may not necessarily meet the minimal standards of a regular college prep/general high school course at another. Moreover, most college first-years arrive on campus with inadequate or even non-existent writing and basic math skills which compounds the problem for these students.</p>