Don't get me wrong, you could not pay me enough to go back to high school.
They were some of the worst years of my life and I wouldn't want to relive a second of that time. I like college, I do. But it is getting right up there with high school and becoming a hard pass for me.
1. Speeches and presentationsÂ
As if small little presentations in high school weren't bad enough, in college, you have straight-up speeches. I'm looking into how this semester is going to play out, and by the end of it all, I have a 30-minute speech. I want to cry already. Not only do you have all your peers (most of whom can actually talk to people and not freak out), but you also have your professor (who expects you to be a professional on day one).
2. Introducing yourself to the class
I am 21 years old and in class this year, I had to stand up and state my age, grade level, major(s), and what I like to do in my free time. NOBODY cares about that information. We didn't do it when we were in elementary school, so why the heck did I show up to my college lecture to do it? The world may never know.
3. "No Student Left Behind" is out the doorÂ
I get it, I do. Some people shouldn't pass a certain class, or even a certain grade, but at least teachers in high school cared (mainly because it reflected badly on them, but that's beside the point). They didn't want to see students fail. In college, I think the professors have a group that gets together to compare how many students they can make cry, change majors, or drop out. Don't get me wrong, there are some good professors, but the bad make up for that.
4. Group projects are a nightmareÂ
In high school, everyone pretty much had to work on a group project. Teachers were always there, making sure the work was being taken on evenly and it was all rainbows and unicorns. Not in college. Your professor will put you in a group with a student who has barely been there since day one and expects you to figure out how to work with them.
5. Professors cancel classes two minutes before they start
I know that in high school, everyone loved snow days, two-hour delays, etc. but in college, not so much. Yeah, if you get an email the day before (or even an hour before) class, that's fine. But professors don't always work that way. One semester, I had a Friday class and it was at 10:00 a.m. It had been snowing the night before and all my other professors had canceled... Not my 10 a.m. professor. So I got up and got ready, headed to class, just to get an email TWO MINUTES before class started saying that they couldn't make it and to have a good weekend. WHAT? So unprofessional.
6. The workload
It's college. We are working toward getting a degree and going out into the real world. Of course there will be a lot of work. But when it's week one and you're already running on two hours of sleep and ten espresso shots a day, you know that the professors are out to get you.
7. Every professor expects you to put their class first
When you are an upper-level student and only have one or two general studies to take, I get that you want to prioritize the classes that focus on your major. But when you're a lower-level student that's not sure what you want to do, or like me, a double-major in two time-consuming career paths, it's hard. You have your business professor telling you that you should study two weeks for your exam and your chemistry professor telling you to spend 20 hours in the lab outside of class and your piano professor expecting you to attend four concerts a week. It's hard and I sometimes think professors forget what it was like to be a student taking 18 credits a semester.
8. The price is OUTRAGEOUSÂ
College tuition is a given, as well as room and board. They tell you about that going into college. What they don't tell you is that you will spend HUNDREDS on books each semester. This semester alone, I had to fork out $1,400 on books and fees because I needed access codes, seven books for one class, and a book with an online companion site. I almost went into debt because of BOOKS.
Just a little word of advice: If you can rent your books, rent them. If you can find them cheaper on Amazon, get Prime and order them. If you can find a free PDF, by all things good and holy, use that PDF.
