I graduated in 2005 and hated school. Refused to take my SATs because I said "I will NEVER go to college," turns out it's God's will for my life and I've enrolled at my local community college. I have been out of school for 5 years and needless to say I am nervous.
I'm nervous about the school work, and about the student body. From my visits to the campus I've run into many immature, loud kind of guys and I'm not looking forward to the "hey, baby"s that are going to come my way. I've been in the working world with adults for the past 5 years, I've grown unaccustomed to teenage shenanigans.
What was your freshman year of college like? What can I expect both socially and academically?
Lol. It's like I'm reading about myself.
I did the exact same thing, thelords.
I said I would never go to college; I refused to take the SAT; and I took about 4 or 5 years to come around.
Its perfectly normal to be nervous about ruturning, so I'll try to hit on all of your points.
1. school work: For me, college is actually much much easier than high school. I am not exaggerating at all. I have yet to receive a C for any class-- and I have taken all of my "weak" subjects already to get them out of the way. (I suggest you also do this. It lifts the burden.) The workload in and of itself is generally very light compared to high school. Basically you'll have about 4 tests per course plus a final exam. Some courses don't really have home work. The ones that do generally utilize online applications in which tutor if you get something wrong and allow for 3 or more attempts to correct it. Its an easy spike to your final grade. A lot of courses are writing heavy though. But it is nothing too terrible. In my opinion it is much easier than high school, but then again I really didn't try in high school.
As far as student body goes, I'm sure experiences will vary. The vast majority of "kids" I had to cohabitate with either conceal their immaturity, or are starting to shed it. Occasionally you will get the loud complainer attention seeker or whatever, but by in large the teachers rule the class room. They know that if they cut up, they will be removed. This isn't high school. The teachers don't care if you are taken out. In fact, MOST teachers where I am have this lame personal policy where if a student misses over 3 days a semester, that teacher reserves the right to remove the kid from the course --even if they have an A. It is not a problem for me, because I don't skip classes, but I still think that is harsh. If you got any "Hey baby's" visiting the campus, then your experience at your campus trumps mine at mine; but chances are it was an isolated event. Chances are some clown(s) was trying to show out in front of his friends. I bet it won't happen in a class room. Academia take that PC crap to the seventh heaven and love to have it so. If it happens once you are enrolled, just let those kids know you won't put up with it. The faculty will back you. You are not paying good money to be hazed.
Other than that, the college experience varies from high school population in that everything seems much more distant. In high school, everyone knows everyone. IN college not really. In college class rooms you'll most likely find one or two single serving friends. The knowledge of that person terminates after the course ends. I don't think I have ever had any classmate in more than one of my classes except one person -- a friend from high school and that was done intentionally.
Here, do yourself a favor and use this each time you register for new classes:
Rate My Professors - Find and rate your professor, campus and more - RateMyProfessors.com
You should be able to make your own class schedule and that includes choosing the teacher when available. I never register without consulting this site. It is student reviews of different teachers from pretty much every accredited university and McCollege. So far it has never failed me. No sense in complicating your life with a terror for a math teacher when you can have a great one.
). One of the New Testament Greek professors at Beeson Divinity School was nice enough at the beginning of last summer to let me just sit in his class and learn (not for credit, because it is a graduate school only and I was just an undergrad) because he said that if I wanted to learn Greek that much he would be glad for me to just sit in and listen! I loved it. I could only stay for the first few weeks before my other classes at my university got too demanding, but I sure learned alot in the short time I spent there!
