Reasons that make university life more difficult than high school
Students in different levels of education face unique challenges. Most senior high school students eagerly look forward to joining university to experience the new learning environment which has complete demands and expectations. Some of the students believe that life in campus is more enjoyable than in high school because of freedom experienced in the adult learning environment. However, university students are prone to more challenges which go beyond freedom and may affect their life after campus. Life in university is more difficult than high school because the assignments are complex, the freedom experienced leads to negative behaviour and students are likely to perform poor due to minimal supervision in classes
In the first place, university assignments are more complex. Unlike high school assignments where learners only share their ideas on a certain topic question, university students are expected to carry out a research on the study topic, evaluate the ideas and relate the study topic to real-life situations. Depending on the course majors, university students spend more time reading books in the library and in group discussions to come up with a logical conclusion of their study. Also, campus learners are expected to write research papers before proceeding to the next semester. According to Arai et al., universities in the twenty-first century should carry out complex research which are applicable in real-life.
Secondly, university students have alot of freedom which negatively affect the behaviour of many students. Campus students enjoy the opportunity of associating with friends from different backgrounds and gender with minimum supervision. However, many students may start abusing drugs and get involved in sexual immolarity due to negative peer influence. According to Califano, the freedom in campus has promoted drug abuse and alcoholism. Also, university students are not restricted on their participation in social events and clubs. Therefore, most learners spend their money and time on social events and entertainment without parental control and are likely to develop poor self discipline.
Next, there is minimal monitoring of university students by their lecturers which result to poor performance. Campus students make personal decisions on whether to attend classes or not and whether to do assignments or not without close supervision by their tutors. Heffernan and Wallace observed that freshmen in campus posses risks of poor performance due to minimal supervision. in Hence, most of them develop poor habits of absenteeism, attending to classes late, disregarding assignment deadlines and cheating in exams. Unlike in high school where students must adhere to the classroom rules and regulations, most university students use their phones during the lectures and walk out of class earlier than the lesson period. Therefore, lack of close supervision leads to poor grades
To sum up, university life is more challenging than high school because of difficult assignments, negative behavioural effect of campus freedom and poor grades due to minimal supervision in the classroom. Students in the university have to study hard and face difficult assignments before sitting in for the final exam. The freedom of students in campus mainly results to drug abuse and sexual immorality. Also, university students are prone to poor performance caused by less monitoring in the classroom. Before joining the university, high school students should be well addressed on the challenges they are likely to experience in the colleges.
Arai KI, Cech T, Chameau JL, Horn P, Mattaj I, Potocnik J, Wiley J. The future of research universities. Is the model of research-intensive universities still valid at the beginning of the twenty-first century?. EMBO reports. 2007 Sep;8(9):804-10. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1973958/
Heffernan L, Wallace JB. For freshmen, campus life poses new risks. New York Times. 2016;8:17. Available from:
https://safesupportivelearning.ed.gov/news/freshmen-campus-life-poses-new-risks
Califano JA. Wasting the Best and the Brightest Alcohol and drug abuse on college campuses. AMERICA-NEW YORK-. 2007;196(19):16. Available from:
https://www.centeronaddiction.org/newsroom/op-eds/wasting-best-and-brightest-alcohol-and-drug-abuse-college-campuses