Life Now As a College Student and Life Before the College - Essay Example

1 Life Now As a College Compared To Life Before You Were a College Introduction Life as a college is a different ball game. It brings with it new meaning to old responsibilities and calls for sacrifices and readjustments to the old way of life. It may take a while to realize what a big difference this new way of life is, compared to the relatively carefree days of just a year ago. But the earlier you are able to make these adjustments, the better you will be able to cope with the changes that college life brings. After all, college is the next logical step towards a career. And probably it is the biggest step you take in life. Dreams and Reality Even as a child we all have hazy dreams of what we want to make of our life. Our own childish pet desire may not be the ideal thing for us. Because at that age we are as fascinated with notoriety as we are with fame. And that is the age when many parents keep making subtle suggestions trying to influence our career choice. And what they suggest is often based on their own unfulfilled dreams. Daddy may want you to become a Bill Gates or a Michael Dell. Mummy would rather you be a Condoleezza Rice or a Meg Whitman. Those parental aspirations may have been at a tangent with your own objectives. It’s quite likely that you had your own idol and modeling your life after that special icon was your priority. You may have even dreamed of becoming Spiderman. It didn’t matter much then, if this dream was a breakaway from reality and not in your best interest. But college throws reality in your face. For the first time you will be required to sift through the fluff, consider all the relevant factors and take serious career decisions. Fads and 2 fancies now take a backseat. You are required to weigh all the options and decide which road you want to take. Freedom and Responsibility Freedom and responsibility work best in tandem. Before college there wasn’t much of either. In college you have the freedom to come and go as you please. This newfound freedom can be as interesting as it can be intimidating. You have the freedom to make choices and the freedom to make decisions. However you have to realize that you alone will own those choices and decisions. In a new and unfamiliar environment and without the usual sources of support, this freedom can be intimidating. But the upside is that you are accepted as a mature young person capable of important decisions. Seizing this opportunity and coming out on top is the challenge of college. Free Time and Time Management On the face of it, it may appear that college is a piece of cake. It will appear that there is so much free time. You will begin to feel that even school was more rigorous. But when you look a little deeper, you will find that there are so many things to do in so little time. With so many things to do you actually have a time crunch. Managing time becomes a priority. There are the regular academics to take care of. Then there are the many college clubs. That’s where you are likely to find the friends you miss so much. You have to learn to juggle time and the different activities, in such a way that you are able to strike a balance and do justice to whatever you take up. A time planner certainly helps to manage time better. When you plan assignments well ahead it helps to a great extent. The worst thing to do is create a backlog of assignments. 3 Grades Grades have always been important. But they are more important now than ever before. Your career depends on them. Earlier there were times you had to choose between popularity and being a nerd. Popularity always trumped intellectual pursuits. Somehow your peers were less tolerant of nerds. But college is different. Magically maturity seems to have done some catch-up. In college it is alright to be a sort of nerd. People understand. But that is not to say there are no diversions that could keep you away from your books. You probably have to face more pressures now to make good grades. The amount of work professors expect a college student to turn out is far higher than you’ve ever experienced before. Loneliness can be Traumatic College life has its downsides. Life on campus can be quite lonesome to begin with. You probably spent the last decade forming a coterie of friends with whom you have a near-perfect understanding. There was not a lonesome moment. Now you suddenly find yourself alone. And it may be a long time before you are able to locate peers who share similar interests and values. “For many first-year students, the University may be their first experience living away from home for an extended period of time. It is a definite break from home. The individuals usual sources of support are no longer present to facilitate adjustment to the unfamiliar environment” (Students First). This period can be quite traumatizing. You will miss your school friend all the more. What can make things worse is that when you look around, you may find many of your classmates appear 4 quite indifferent to the changed environment and fairly confident of themselves. This can be deceiving. Fact is most people are as diffident as you. It is important to circulate. Meet as many people as you can. Not everyone shares your own interests and values. However learn to get along with others. Eventually you will find your coterie of friends. "The one thing we know about retention is that students who develop relationships have a greater chance of finding the college a warm, accepting place - and staying" (Family Education). College Brings New Financial Pressures A college education can mean added financial pressures. There is no doubt that the cost of college education is far higher than school education. College could probably mean added financial pressure for a lot of people. This could make working part-time a necessity. Consequently, the time available for all the other activities becomes less as the pressure to manage them becomes more. Learn to Cope Many young people find that there is a huge disconnect between what is expected of college life and what it actually turns out to be. This dissonance may sometimes be traumatic. Loneliness, disappointment, and the absence of the usual familial support can make some people react in unpredictable ways. It could heighten homesickness; make you give into numerous temptations or prompt you to just dropout. “National statistics tell us that less than half of all college students finish their four-year college degrees. Slightly more than half of those who dont finish leave school before the start of their second year” (Family Education). Colleges across the country are aware of this problem. And more and more colleges are focusing on helping students who are finding it difficult to make the change. 5 Just as different people adjust to a situation differently, so too is the case in college. You will find some classmates making the change faster and adjusting better. This is no reason to feel frustrated. You are new to handling situations independently (Banyard and Cantor 1). Giving yourself more time helps. Consulting on-campus counselors also makes a big difference. Focus on Strengths One sure way of coping with the changed situation is to take stock of your strengths and weaknesses. Make the most of your strengths. Focus on getting to know classmates and professors better. Avoid solitude. Till you are able to really settle down to the new environment look for company of some sort. Earlier, proximity to family and friends made it possible for you to immediately share your concerns. Conclusion Life before college was a piece of cake. College on the other hand is a challenge in many ways. It brings new expectations, new sacrifices and a whole new load of adjustments. It is the final frontier before we set out to face the world. But the upside of this is that this is an opportunity to be an adult; to take charge of a totally new situation and eventually come out on top. Works Cited Students First. Wednesday, 06 Jul-2005. 14 Apr 2006. . Family Education. Feb 2004. 14 Apr 2006. . Banyard, Victoria L., & Cantor, Elise N. “Adjustment to College Among Trauma Survivors: An Exploratory Study of Resilience” 1. Iowa: American College Personnel Association, Mar/Apr 2004. 14 Apr 2006. . Read More