Contrast Essay: High School vs.

College

B101020021 徐子群 Kaseeia

After two years in college, I found out some specific differences between

students’ lives in high school and lives in university.

In high school, the schedule of courses is basically arranged by the

administration of the school, so there will be less freedom, and also, less

opportunities for students to arrange their own life. Not to mention most of high

school students have to participate in cram schools after school, reluctantly, of

course. They barely have any free time to do things which would enrich their own

lives, or simply things they’re interested in. Secondly, students could either pick a

broad field of “science,” or “liberal arts” to study. Both of these fields emphasize

“generalization of a broad topic” instead of figuring out an insight toward any

specific, and professional fields. The third thing is, due to both of the reasons

above, high school students have less opportunities to learn to manage their own

time by themselves since their time is highly-restricted, and bonded with their

classes. Also, students in high school are always required to finish their homework,

or prepare for tests in one day, so the due of these tasks are actually static; however,

the skill of time-managing is crucial and unignorable for all people, including

students. And also, most high school students lack a goal for the future simply
because of that they don’t have enough time to discover what they truly love, or

what is meaningful to them.

But in college, students could select the courses which they are really

interested in, so they could actually arrange their own schedules by themselves.

Students can participate in a various kinds of activities such as club activities,

beach cleanup, and working out. Secondly, different from what we have studied in

high school, students in college could learn a lot more in their own fields—which

is more diverse and specific than the two fields students could choose in high

school, and students could even join laboratories to do researches in the fields that

they are specialized and gain hands-on experience through all the experiments

once they’re senior enough—or to be proven to be professional enough. Thirdly,

combining both of these points above altogether, college students have more

opportunities to cultivate their own professions, hobbies, and most importantly—

the ability of time-managing since most of the due for homework, presentations,

essay, or exams are longer than the one-day due people would see in high school.

So it’s actually really important for college students to learn, and to know the way

of balancing their own lives. They need to know how to work hard, and also play

hard at the same time.

In conclusion, I believe that all differences between students’ lives in high

school and life in college surround one topic called “time management.” The more

mature students are, the more responsibilities they will need to take themselves—

especially planning their own lives.