Compare and Contrast Essay: High School vs. College

High school and college are similar but very far from the same with the difference of college and high school, with professors and teachers that teach school, and how students divide up their time. The majority of work students would do in college is very similar to high school. Time management in college versus high school is very different because students can be lazy and not take time to do the work. This can make or break someone who is going off to college. In high school, teachers are there to guide you through the thinking process while professors push students to think critically for themselves. In high school, students are told their responsibilities and are “called out” if their behavior is out of line. In college, students are responsible for their actions and their consequences. One of the many various changes occurring between High School and College is the image of how different High school and college really are. 

Students in high school have a very different type of school day than college students. Students in High School will have to wake up early every day to go to school while college students sometimes don’t even have classes in the morning but until the afternoon. “You spend on average 6 hours each day/30 hours a week in class, proceeding from one class to the next” (How Is College); just in one week, high school students have almost more than two times that amount of hours a college person goes to school and in classes and you are also forced to learn all subjects. “You spend 12 to 16 hours each week in class, usually with breaks in between ''(How Is College).

With these two quotes, you might think college is just super laid back and high school is very strict but in reality, with the amount of time in class in college, you spend more hours out of classes studying and finishing projects. Actually, college classes are mostly offered in the afternoon rather than the morning and with the class size, it could range from 20 to over 200 students. “Depending on the size of college you select, classes may range in size from twenty to hundreds of students” (How Is College). In my opinion, having a large class wouldn’t be too great, and I would personally like to have a small class. When shifting from high school to college, there will be a lot more people in the class and on campus. With that, it makes it harder to stand out because you become a small fish in a big pond. In college, you will discover that there is a lot more diversity and you sometimes even meet people that live on dirt roads and even no stop lights but in high school, the people from your school have similar life experiences so there is less diversity.  

Back towards the amount of free time in college, you’ll soon learn that nobody cares about what you do or how little you are monitored. That is what I think is the fun or dangerous part of college and it’s why time management in college is very important and I believe it could really help you with your grades and your productivity. Meanwhile in high school, “The way time is organized in high school means students don’t really need to think about using free time because there isn’t that much of it” (Peterson). Students in high school or even middle school knows they rarely have time to do stuff after school. I would probably think most students have after-school activities then they go home and they do it all again the next day which seems kinda boring to me because school is supposed to be fun and exciting but doing the same thing repetitively every day is dull. That’s why some might say that college is way better in every aspect than high school and having to plan your own classes in college is sometimes better for people because I would be under

the impression that college students don’t like to wake up early and I read that you wouldn’t want to be the last person picking classes for themselves as you might end up with some very early-hour classes. Just some things a college student or also a high school student could do, like for example, “Having a schedule where you can input your to-do list into specific time slots will be the easiest way to keep track of everything” (Friedman) and “Once you start managing your time, you will notice better grades, higher productivity, and ultimately a better mood” (Friedman). I hundred percent agree with these two quotes as they will drastically help you and assignments will start to become much faster to accomplish. I think we as people will get very easily distracted by what is happening around us and I believe the sooner you cut them off, you’ll become more productive. There is this one quote that says, “If you work on 2 things at once, it’s almost impossible to put your full effort into both” (Friedman), and I agree with this because it not only works in the classroom but in real life. To put your max effort into something takes a lot of yourself and dedication, that’s why some people give up what they are good at to do something they love and put all their focus towards that instead. And that about wraps it up for time management and onto my last topic; professors vs. teachers. 

The way teachers instruct can be similar in some ways but are rather very different from the professors. See professors are the highest level of education and I read that they take the classes that they teach very seriously and have no time for games. I really don’t know if that is the case or not because I haven’t been to college yet but this one quote says, “College professors have no patience for tardiness [and] they are super strict with directions” (Person). I do believe that professors are very important with what they do and why they are serious with students. High School is not as much as seriousness though. Sure it can be stressful but that comes with everything in life whether it’s something you like to do or not. School in high school is only a little part of a person’s life but that doesn’t mean to not do work. What I’m trying to say is that students only have four years of high school and those years go very fast so make it count. But back to teachers, they can play a powerful role in a student's life that could influence their lives for the good or bad things. 

After completing high school, some students believe that college could be a place where one is going to be able to get some rest; take classes that interest them. Enjoy their freedom of becoming a young adult, only to find out that college requires lots of self-discipline. While high school gives us more direction and is more lenient. College on the other hand requires us to try to do everything on our own and complete deadlines. Therefore, college life could be a whole new situation.