We all think after we get into college that life would be much simpler, we will do what we like to do, then colleges themselves will provide us the job but let me tell you as a senior student in college- getting into college is very easy but staying into college is the hardest. Let’s find out Why College Is So Hard?
College is just not so simple, at the start you start to get an inferiority complex, then you make yourself feel insecure and start being unproductive which makes colleges so hard to be in. To be honest, it’s just how a student sees his college.
Nobody can make us feel bad or insure unless and until we allow them- mindset is the biggest transformer here. College is like stepping into adult life wherein you try to maintain the balance between your needs of self and the environment around you. But maintaining that balance often gets messed up and that’s where college becomes hard.
Is College Life Harder Than School Life?
Yes, Colleges start to give you a reality check in your professional as well as your personal life. There are a lot of false expectations given during the admission process which hides the ugly truth about the institution, and which also is another factor that makes a student’s life in college hard.
College is so hard and stressful for students as they now trust in themselves for their own success. It is not like high school, where you would be called out for missing class, teachers checking your homework, making you sit extra hours because you performed poorly in your last exam, or where you had dedicated study hall hours and teachers around all the time.
But in colleges, it can often be totally the opposite, in this phase of your life, you oversee your own success, where you pull all nighters in the library taking out notes and taking accountability for your choices to make.
Why is College Harder Than School?
Much of the success of a first-year college student centers on his ability to make wise, adult-like decisions. Some students take too much advantage of this freedom that is allotted to them as they are far away from their homes and find themselves in the regular cycle of partying, sleeping in, missing classes, and struggling with schoolwork and tests.
Schools often have personal counselors and academic advisers who collectively can aid a student in learning to make sound, independent decisions. This often begins with a clear schedule focusing on schoolwork and requires the student to maintain discipline when social calls could get in the way.
College classes are tougher than high school classes as the topics are more complicated, learning is faster and expectations for self-learning are much higher. Schools’ curriculum was all spoon fed whereas the colleges’ work is different. Self-teaching is what colleges revolve around and strongly prioritize that method for students. This factor of self-teaching is a very new concept for freshers because in schools and high school teachers concentrated on giving notes.
Falling Behind Can Be Tricky
Falling behind, even marginally, in college, can be tricky to come back from. Students might feel the stress of the coursework if they are not keeping up, and this really does create the feeling of college being hard. And being behind in studies can make a student more anxious about it, making a poor impact on their mental as well as physical health.
College work and course materials are more specific and focused, and although you have the freedom to choose the courses and courses you want, the course material is more difficult than in high school. People in colleges are more social and goal-oriented but high schoolers had an aim in their mind that work makes it come true in colleges.
Friends and Relationships; Another Problem
Dealing with stress leading to substance abuse is not the main reason behind it. It’s just used as an excuse. College students often find several new social experiences and relationships during their first several weeks of school.
Romantic relationships can increase meaninglessness while increasing the potential for hurt feelings, excessive worry, and distress. Peer relationships can be a source of support for students. However, students should be careful about the types of close friends they encounter. They must start choosing the right company because if the person finds the right company to hang around it makes their growth in college stronger.
Befriending party-goers who indulge in alcohol or illegal drugs and have no school goals can lead students down a stressful path. Smoking, drinking, and taking different types of substances in the body mostly in every case normally starts with the crowd we hang out with and gradually turns into addiction if there is no self-control.
Or another possible reason yet is to be “cool” or to maintain a “social status” or even it could be “just to fit in”.
How To Find Right People To Make College Less Hard?
Trying to find the right crowd in colleges can help a college student a lot. If he/she is unavailable to do so, it can make those 3 years of life dull and unmotivated. They might fall into depression and go through their college days being unproductive.
Finding the right people is a game-changer because those people don’t only make college lectures bearable but also teach you so much about life through their ups and downs. Friends can make your struggle a little simple and helps you come out of the deep hole that you sometimes dug yourself into. Having a supportive mentor also plays a vital role.
Transition anxiety also plays a vital role in creating an obstacle for a student. Students initially face problems in their first year, ranging in ways they wish they had approached the transition differently.
Moreover, importantly there is an imbalance between socializing, studies, and sleep because it gives increased independence and the excitement of new friends and opportunities. A new college student would say about his college days that the anxiety they feel is mostly about “feeling inferior to classmates” and “not being smart enough to run the university” or “trying to be someone else who falls into the category.” The sharpest increase in anxiety occurs during the initial transition to college.
Research suggests that freshers in colleges are at an especially high risk for the onset or worsening of anxiety. That is why having a support system in college is necessary because transition anxiety is real. Hope in future generations before passing out of high school “transition anxiety” topic would be explained to students, so they didn’t think that it is what they are facing is very unusual or it is them only they are going through a hard time.
Conclusion
College can be an ideal prospect to take part in open as well as stereotypical topics established prejudice around issues of race, class, gender, sexual orientation, ability, and many other areas that may or may not have been talked about in schools and high school. These conversations can be messy and heated but are a necessary part of living in the community.
These conversations can be hard to talk about at the start but once you pass this stage of fear it gets a little easier because of community and cultural diversity. The diversity of different backgrounds brings you to make you bolder and makes this college life a lot easier. College is hard but being yourself will make you start loving and appreciating your college life. Going into this new phase of the environment with a healthy and positive mindset could help at many levels.
Having self-control in college is a must because they are always going through many distractions, and some may not be healthy like doing drugs or alcohol. As individuals, we should know the boundaries and limits of enjoyment, but we should never restrict adventures because those 3 or 4 years of college life would never come back again. After all, time is precious.
Make smart decisions, learn from tons of mistakes, look good in everything, keep your vision clear, and more importantly enjoy all these days because this phase is never going to come back again. Live in the moments you can’t relive only you can recall them. There is different magic in living in the moment than just imagining what it would feel like. College is never going to be easy, it is not meant to be easy, it builds tough to make us tougher in our thoughts and professional life.