College and high school

COMMON: both learning institutions

Both have students and teachers

Goals to achieve

CONTRAST: college is more independent—teachers don’t hold your hand, follow you

College always costs money, even a public college.

Teachers are meaner and give you more work, don’t care if you have other classes.

Teachers set high expectations and don’t treat you like a child.

More control over your schedule, more control over what you study in college.

What you study in college is more focused.

College is more flexible about timing

Grade-based vs. Class- based

Students are more childish in high school

In high school, books are free. In college, you have to pay for books.

First two years of high school, obligated by law to go. College is optional.

Free lunch is available in high school

Students tend to take college more seriously than high school—you’re paying for it, you’re more
independent. Depend on counselors to tell you what classes to take. In college you’re on your own.
Advisers—you have to seek them out, they won’t come find you. In high school—lots of second and
third chances; in college, one chance.

In college, you care about your grades more than in high school.
When I was in high school, I often handed in projects and homework late. Teachers would give me up to
four chances to get my work in, and I still passed. Now that I’m in college, I don’t even get second
chances. If I hand something in late, I lose a tremendous amount of points or I fail. College and high
school are both learning institutions; they both have teachers and students, with goals that need to be
met. However, college and high school are different in many ways: college comes with more
responsibility. College students are more mature than high school students and are expected to
behave more like adults than high school students.

I. High school students are more naïve and childish than college students.
a.
II. Students tend to take college more seriously than high school—you’re paying for it, you’re
more independent.
a. When you’re paying for it, you care about your grades more
b. Your mentality becomes more serious
c. Don’t want to pay for no reason
d. After college, the real world—closer to the real world. You can get a better job if you do
well in college or get a college degree.
When I was in high school, I often handed in projects and homework late. Teachers would give me up to
four chances to get my work in, and I still passed. Now that I’m in college, I don’t even get second
chances. If I hand something in late, I lose a tremendous amount of points or I fail. College and high
school are both learning institutions; they both have teachers and students, with goals that need to be
met. However, college and high school are different in many ways: college comes with more
responsibility. College students are more mature than high school students. Because college students
pay for their own classes, they tend to behave more like adults than high school students.

I. There’s more work required in college than in high school

a. Amount of work assigned in high school
b. Amount of work assigned in college
c. How many classes you take in college vs. high school.
II. College students are more mature than high school students because they have more
serious work.
a. To get into the nursing school, you have to get As in all your classes
b. In high school, it was easy to pass a class.
c. 2-3 page essay in high school compared to a 10-page essay in college.
III. College students have to pay for school, whereas public high schools are free; When
you’re paying for it, you care about your grades more.
a. Talk to individual students about how often they attended class in high school versus
college.
b. Personal experience about work ethic in high school and college.
c. Don’t want to pay for no reason.
d. Your mentality becomes more serious

e. After college, the real world—closer to the real world. You can get a better job if you do
well in college or get a college degree.
f.