First and foremost, the number one "preparation" skill high school teaches us is how to write an essay. To break it to you lightly, most college essays never use MLA formatting.
Throughout my entire college experience thus far, the only medium I've used that uses MLA format is this platform, the Odyssey Online. Other than that, I've stumbled across APA for my school newspaper as well as Chicago Style for my History assignments. I hear from time to time that some professors allow MLA formatting, but this is when it depends on the artistic liberty of the student. Otherwise, MLA is typically avoided.
We've all heard at least once that MLA is a scam.
There are many more problems that arise when we reflect on our high school experience. In most ways, the financial aspect of paying for college, especially in retrospect to public high school payment options, does not prepare rookies and their parents to pay for the expenses of college. A new aspect is class fines. When you add a class, you pay a certain amount of money and when you drop it you do not get reimbursed after a certain amount of time. In public education, taxes or other funds pay for the education. In college, you're on your own. A class fee that used to cost less than $100 now multiplies tenfold as each class in college has major fees.
University housing is a whole other ballgame. Not only does the cost range in the thousands, living on your own is an intense milestone itself. We have to suddenly cook for ourselves, clean up after ourselves, and figure everything else out on our own. Parents can provide advice, but in no way can they do the work for you. Off-campus housing is harder to handle because you have to start a monthly rent cycle, and for most undergraduate students, this will be a first.
Sick days do not exist. If you were sick in high school, you got to take a few days off and return a brand new healthy person.
In college, it's different. If you're sick, you can try to schedule an appointment with university health services (if there are available immediate time slots) and unless your lecture and section do not require attendance as part of your final grade then you're probably screwed. Either you go to class and get everyone else sick, or you skip class and take the fall. There's no easy way out.
All in all, there are difficult aspects of college for which we are not prepared after high school.
