College can be many things to many people....Jun 15 '01 Write an essay on this topic.
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The Bottom Line College can be the best time of your time, but expect to find the road to be rough and difficult.
"What is College Really Like?" To several individuals, college exemplifies the beginning of a grand adventure in their lives. To others, college is nothing but a burden forced upon them by others who deny the wishes of the unfortunate. College is seen as a second chance at life, a second chance at success, or a final chance of redeeming one's failures. There are others who even see college as a haven for wild orgies and tasty debauchery. After four eye-opening years of college, the things I've experienced and the small insight I've gained taught me that college is everything I've listed above, and much much more.... ACADEMICS On the surface, the most obvious realization of college is this: an institute of education. This is a simple, yet apt, description. A majority of students enter college with only one main objective: to earn a college degree in in order to find a career to sustain them in life. The process to securing the classes needed to graduate is not as easy as students think. We try to receive decent registration dates in order to register for classes that have only a potential of 200-300 seats open, then to compete for those seats with a thousand other students. Then if you are unsuccessful in trying to register for that class, your final attempt to put this class on your schedule is to "first-day add," meaning to add the class the first day of the semester by entering unannounced. Unfortunately, you will find yourself in a group of more than 100 students, all hoping to be given a meager 2-3 open slots in the class (that is, if there are any open slots at all or if the professor even wants to add anyone to his/her class). Now, suppose you have successfully registered and/or added that class to your schedule; then you will need to put up with your classmates themselves. Although you may make friends among your peers, also expect to find pathetic butt-kissing "brown nosers" who waste precious class time by asking useless questions during lecture, and/or attempting to make small talk with your professor hoping to score some brownie points. And the competitive nature of a college classroom is very stifling. A common fact: A majority of your classmates graduated high school with over a 3.5 grade point average. Several of these students will try to maintain that level of academic excellence by cheating on their tests, quizzes, and school work. These students, with their undeserving high marks, unknowingly throw off the total class average, which has the potential to give you a lower letter grade than what you honestly earned. LIVING ON CAMPUS Living on your "own," away from home and the life you lived in high school; to live in a college dorm is such an interesting experience....I cannot put in into words (but I'll try). You will meet and live with people from all walks of life. Ranging from people with different races and creeds to people with different sexual orientations, living on campus embodies the variety that life can offer. You are with these same people day after day as your school year goes by. You will live with these people, build close relationships with them, eat your meals with them, to go class with them; forming a soft of impromptu family. You will learn the concept of self-reliance, and the value of decision making for yourself. The education taught in a college dorm in unique to that in the classroom. Unfortunately, dormitory life can also be very distracting. Do you remember the drama of high school life? Well, expect the dorm environment to have the stability and maturity level seen in your average, yet cheesy, soap opera. As The College World Turns, the amount of gossip, doubledealing, petty jealousy, and backstabbing between "friends" can distract you from studying. This is a situation I have a first-hand account of. EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES Sometimes we need release from the daily studying we go through on a daily basis, or we need a change from the after hours at our college dorm. If not, you will risk burn out and possible insanity. There are things to do in order to unwind at college. Join the numerous clubs on campus and meet people with similar interests. Pledge a fraternity or sorority if that's your preference (it's not mine; read my Greek Life review and see why). Go party hopping if there are parties going off on the weekends. And if you have the enough spare time, I would recommend a part-time job on campus so your time is managed well and you'll have a few dollars in your pocket. Personally, I spent my spare time partying a little too much. Frats and clubs were not for me. In closing, I'd like to say that my intention was not to scare anyone from going to college; in fact, I hope this review helps others into deciding that college is an excellent choice. I will not, however, give an unbalanced account of my experiences for people to read and deliberate on. People deserve to know both sides of the whole argument in order to make an accurate choice. College is really like a scary roller coaster ride, full of ups and downs (like everything else we experience). It's how we choose to deal with everything that comes our way and how we use our wisdom to see our way to success that will allow you to see what college really is: The greatest time of your life. Thank you for reading, and feel free to comment on any aspect of this review.  |
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