Adjusting to College Life

... Major Differences between College and High School

	College	High School
Teacher/Student Contact	Faculty are available during office hours (only a few hours a week) and by appointment to address students’ concerns.	Contact closer and more frequent (5 days a week)
Competition/Grades	Academic competition is much stronger; minimum effort may produce poor grades.	Academic competition is not as strong; good grades can often be obtained with minimum effort.
Status	Students can build their status as they wish; high school status can be repeated or changed.	Students establish a personal status in academic and social activities based on family and community factors.
Counseling/ Dependence	Students rely on themselves; they see the results of making their own decisions. It is their responsibility to seek advice as needed. Students set their own restrictions.	Students can rely on parents, teachers, and counselors to help make decisions and give advice. Students must abide by parents’ boundaries and restrictions.
Motivation	Students apply their own motivation to their work and activities as they wish.	Students get stimulation to achieve or participate from parents, teachers, and counselors.
Freedom	Students have much more freedom. Students must accept responsibility for their own actions.	Students’ freedom is limited. Parents will often help students out of a crisis should one arise.
Distractions	The opportunity for more distractions exists. Time management to students will become more important.	There are distractions from school, but these are partially controlled by school and home.
Value Judgments	Students have the opportunity to see the world through their own eyes and develop their own opinions and values.	Students often make value judgments based on parental values; thus, many of their value judgments are made for them.

Hatch, Cathie and Richard H. Mullendore. Helping Your First-Year College Student Succeed: A Guide for Parents. National Orientation Directors Association, 2000.

Home | Contact Us | TritonLink | Calendar Events | Search