{"id":33,"date":"2017-11-09T21:04:44","date_gmt":"2017-11-09T21:04:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.usnh.edu\/blueprintgsc\/chapter\/evolution-to-college-becoming-a-college-student\/"},"modified":"2023-04-03T16:43:27","modified_gmt":"2023-04-03T16:43:27","slug":"evolution-to-college-becoming-a-college-student","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.usnh.edu\/blueprintforsuccess\/chapter\/evolution-to-college-becoming-a-college-student\/","title":{"raw":"Evolution To College: Becoming A College Student","rendered":"Evolution To College: Becoming A College Student"},"content":{"raw":"
\n\n\"The doors we open and close each day decide the lives we live.\"<\/em>\n\n-Flora Whittemore\n\n<\/div>\n

When you envision yourself as a college student, what do you see?<\/h3>\n

What will your daily life be like?<\/h3>\nCollege is constant change. Not just in terms of studying and learning new material, but also in terms of how it is structured. If the college is on the quarter system, a student\u2019s classes, teachers, and the hours a student needs to be on campus will change every 11-12 weeks, or 4 times a year.\n\nDividing up the academic year provides an opportunity for\u00a0varied learning and developing specialties, but it also means new faces in classes, unknown expectations from new teachers, and juggling a new schedule. It means you may have new routes to travel on campus as you make your way to a different building if your college has a large campus. If a student is working along with going to college, it may mean negotiating new work hours with a boss and coworkers. All of these changes can feel like chaos that comes in like a tidal wave. Every term can feel like starting over, especially for students who are not in a specific program yet. The beginning of a college experience can seem blurry to a new student trying to navigate the system.\n
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\n\n\"There\u2019s no blinking light to say, hey, look over here, this changed!\"<\/em>\n\n- <\/em>Amber McCoy, Lane Community College Student\n\n<\/div><\/blockquote>\nMany students come to college with at least some high school experience and expect college to be similar. After all, many classes have similar names: Biology, Algebra, Writing, Chemistry, and so on. However, the expectations that accompany those titles may be very different. College classes tend to cover course material at a faster pace and expect students to carry more of the burden of learning the material on their own outside of classroom activities.\n\nCompared to college, high school has a straightforward curriculum. High school is segmented and chronological. Students generally go to school at the same time each morning and finish at a similar time in the afternoon. Students are assigned counselors to guide them. High school students usually don\u2019t have to buy textbooks for their classes. There are clear deadlines and the teacher monitors progress and potentially shares progress with parents. The academic benchmarks of quizzes, tests, and projects are concrete indicators of progress. Teachers may monitor students' use of smart phones in class and help students maintain focus on classroom materials. The high school a student attends is picked for him or her, either by geographic location or their parents choice.\n\nCollege is about choice. Initially, the choice is where to go to school. The student has to find the right \u201cfit\u201d on his or her own and figure out the process of college admission. There are forms to fill out, submit, and process. Students may have to learn the steps for admission and enrollment for more than one college, and the process can vary from school to school. Students are expected to be able to complete the application process on their own. Students must determine if college placement tests are required and if so, when they must be taken.\n\nThe next choice for the student as part of the enrollment process is what to study in terms of declaring a major. The major a student declares may impact financial aid awards. If a student is unsure of what to study and doesn\u2019t choose a major, financial aid may not be given to the student.\n\nA student can choose to attend classes part-time or full-time. College class times try to accommodate a variety of student needs and may occur during the day, evening, online, or a combination of classroom and online (hybrid). Monitoring of time and its use will be student driven. Understanding the workload associated with a college schedule can be a surprise to the new college student. The first year of college can have a steep learning curve of time management and self-responsibility. For the first-time college student, starting college can feel like pushing a big rock up a steep hill all alone.\n

How much time do you have in your life for school?<\/h3>\n

What is Considered Half-time or Full-time Status?<\/h3>\nThe answer to these questions may vary from person to person and from college to college. Lane Community College\u2019s website uses the following definitions:\n