College isn't High School by Erin

College isn't High School by Erin - August 2014 Scholarship Essay

Everyone in high school calls electives “blow-off” classes. The elective courses in college can be considered the same. In both cases, the motto is “show up, do the work, and you’ll earn a decent grade”. The big difference between the two is that in college, the professor will not give additional time to the student. No second chance and no grade in for one of the few projects that contribute to the final grade. And like most college freshman, it was hard for me to adjust from the leniency atmosphere of high school to the high expectations in college.

The wake-up call came when I had to drop a humanities course my second semester of college due to not completing either of the necessary projects for the class. I was not completely focused yet in what I wanted to major in and started the semester still feeling like I was just taking classes for the sake of continuing my education. Over the course of the semester, I had the mindset that if I am “not feeling well”, i.e. did not have an assignment completed, I will not go to class, and upon returning to class I would talk to professor, get an extension, and etc.

However, this professor treated my classmates and I like who we all are. Adults. She would not give out extensions, saying that “Our future bosses will not tolerate late projects.”

I did not listen to her "no extensions" lecture after not turning in the first class assignment. I repeated my actions for the second project and was informed that my behavior that semester was unacceptable. The professor asked me to fill out the withdraw form and was kind enough to sign the form. I am completely unhappy with myself that I didn’t rise to the expectations for that one class and instead, I had slacked off. I learned the lesson that college is different from high school the hard way. I also learned that time management is important and, while a weakness of mine, I have been working on my time management skills since that semester. I had to earn those humanities credits a year later, during a semester when my academic schedule was busier than my second semester of higher education. My mindset has changed as I have found what I would like to major in. Going forward into the future, I am more mindful of due dates and know the importance of making it to every class period.