Education is an important part of everyone’s lives. From early age until death people go to school to learn. Even though it may seem like all schools and students are the same, there are many differences. As a recent graduated student from high school, I have observed notable differences between high school and college students. First of all, high school students differ greatly in age, styles, and interests. In high school, all students are teenagers between the ages fourteen and eighteen, while in college there is a noticeable age difference.
For example, in my math class in college some are in their late teens, some range from young married people in their twenties and thirties, to people of my grandparents age. High school students are very much alike. Their so-called “uniform” consists of jeans, a T-shirt, and tennis shoes. They use the same popular slang, talk about same movies and TV shows, and know the same music artists.
College students are much more diverse. Generally, their clothing is more formal because some are dressed for a workplace and not for a typical classroom. Many of the women wear skirts or dresses; the men often wear dress shirts or sweaters. Since the students are much older, they are more comfortable talking about their work schedules, world news or child care rather than what was on TV last night.
College and high school students have very different responsibilities. For high school students, school is the major responsibility. They don’t have a choice of going to school. Parents make them go to school.
High school students live at home with their parents so they don’t have to worry about anything. Some choose to work part-time at a fast food place to have some spending money. But school is the only major responsibility. However, college students lead much more complicated lives. As soon as the teens turn eighteen they want to be independent and take care of themselves so they move out from their parent’s house.
Therefore, they have responsibilities of paying rent, bills, and working full-time. In addition to school and work adults have to take care of their families and raise children. High school and college students definitely have different attitudes towards school. College students are a lot mature because by the time they enter college they have more experience. They take education more seriously for they understand that the more education they have the better their pay will be at a job. They also pay for their college education so they don’t want to just throw those extra couple hundred of dollars by not passing the class.
On the other hand, high school students often seem more interested in the view out the window or the cute classmate in the next row than in what the instructor is saying. They doze, draw cartoons, look at the watch, whisper, or write notes instead of paying attention to the instructor. College students sit up straight, listen hard, and ask the instructor questions. They obviously are there to learn, and they don’t want their time to be wasted. College students have more homework than high school students do. Instead of doing the work in a two-hour class like in high school, all of the work and studying is done at home.
For every hour in class, you have two hours of studying to do on your own time, which of course is limited because of family responsibilities and jobs. College students have the privilege to enjoy the freedom of walking into a class any time they wish without going through the process of getting a pass at the office. It is also nice to be able to walk out without explaining to a teacher where you ” re going and when you ” ll be back. Despite the differences, both types of students have similar goals that they are striving for.
Both need to complete their courses, get a diploma, graduate and move on with their life. We all have a freedom to choose what classes we want depending on our major and interests. Joining a club or playing a sport is also choice students can make. Every school has a set of rules for everyone to follow. If a rule is broken, there are certain consequences or punishment a student faces.
Homework is another similarity for both college and high school students. There is also a teacher in every class for all students to listen to and to respect. College and high school students have lots of differences and few similarities. They are different in the way they dress, talk, interests, amount of homework and responsibilities.
College is harder but I prefer college over high school. Even though it may be harder, I know it is worth it.