Features Of The Freshmen's Life In Colleges - Essay Example

Features Of The Freshmen's Life In Colleges Although college life is fascinating, it is also riddled with challenges especially for a freshman. One of the main challenges of college life for a freshman is the different cultures and classes of people that are characteristic of every college. Also, freshman faces the challenges of coping with the demanding college work which demands full attention from the students. To cope up with the demanding college workload students have to manage their time prudently and to ensure that they do the right things at the right time. But although students in college are required to work hard so as to pass their exams, there are a lot of deviant behaviours in colleges, through which the students manage to score high grades without working hard for it. This paper looks at the general challenges faced by the freshmen in colleges. The information on the challenges faced by the freshmen in college is based on Reading My Freshman Year Chapter 6. The paper also includes answer to interview questions on college life. And finally, the paper concludes with a paragraph that synthesises the challenges of college life obtained from the Reading My Freshman Year Chapter 6, with the answers to the interview questions. In colleges, freshmen students indeed find themselves in new environment, with a lot of challenges, and the students have to adapt to the challenges of the college life if they are to survive in college life and come out successfully, having achieved their goals. As we have stated in the introduction, there are diverse cultures and classes of people in colleges; student join colleges from different cultures and social status. And when the student people from different cultural backgrounds and social status find themselves together, the students start to re-group based on one’s culture, social status, religion, believes or worldview. As it is clearly expressed in the Reading My Freshman Year chapter 6, “College Culture, like any culture, is neither singular nor monolithic”. One of the common cultures in USA colleges is the culture of students disrespecting their professors. This culture was developed by elite male students in the colleges who had a negative view towards education. One of the main challenges faced by freshmen student in colleges therefore is relating with their professors. Relating well with professors in college is very important because, as it is shown in the Reading My Freshman Year Chapter 6, the students who relate well with their professors in colleges are the ones who mostly succeed in their studies, and later in their carriers. Related with the culture of disrespecting professors by the students, is the culture of hedonism, this culture also has its origin in the elite students in colleges. The students who subscribe to this culture view studies as burdensome and waste of time, for them, all what matters in life is what will bring about pleasure. As a result of this negative attitude towards studies, the students who subscribe to this culture result to cheating in exams so as to pass in exams, as well as have enough free time to indulge in pleasures like sex and drug abuse. Freshmen students therefore find themselves immersed in a hedonistic culture where hard work is not valued. The freshmen student therefore ought to take their studies seriously and shun any college culture that encourages cheating in exams. This is one of the values that is highly emphasised during freshmen orientation. The freshmen students are encouraged to prudently utilize their time; prudent utilization of time includes attending classes, and reading all the recommended course material. Freshmen students therefore find it quite challenging to embrace the value of handwork in an environment where hard work is generally not valued. Personally, I feel that many American Students have a negative attitude against college education. This fact can be attributed to the hedonistic cultures in many American colleges. To overcome college life, students in American colleges should first of all value hard work and utilize their time in college prudently; the students in American college also ought to respect their professors and to heed their advice, the students also should shun hedonistic culture in colleges and desist from unethical means of passing their exams, i.e. cheating in exams. As institutions of higher learning, colleges teach professional courses and the students therefore ought to take their studies in colleges seriously, if they want to prosper in their chosen line of career. In colleges, students manage their experiences in various ways, for the impressionable freshmen students, they easily get absorbed in the general hedonistic and anti-hard work culture of colleges, thus compromising their studies. Other students, however, manage to successfully overcome the bad college cultures, and they concentrate on their studies. I normally spend ten hours per day studying, the ten hours includes the time that I use in class and the time that I use doing the recommended readings and assignments. The ten hours therefore are enough to enable me to perform well in my studies. As we have clearly seen in the Reading my Freshman Chapter 6, and also in the personal experience of college life in America, college life in America is full of challenges. For the freshmen students, college life is really challenging. Finding themselves in a new environment marked by many cultures, freshmen students finds it hard to cope with the challenges of college of life. For the freshmen students to cope up with the challenges of college life, they should adhere to the pieces of advice that they are given during the orientation period. During the orientation period, the freshmen students are given wide range of pieces of advice, ranging from how to manage their time well, to how to relate with their professors. Through adhering to these kinds of challenges, the students will be able to avoid the challenges posed by the wayward students who do not value work, and who fritter away their valuable study time seeking unethical pleasures. My personal experience in American colleges have taught me that may American students perform poorly in their college exams, not necessarily because they are poor in their studies, but because they don’t work hard in their studies. Many freshmen college students in America embrace the anti-hard work culture in college, and as a result they develop negative attitudes towards their professors and college studies in general. This in turn leads to cheating in exams because the students, although they don’t hard in their studies, they however keen to get good grades and to please their parents. The anti-study culture in many American colleges therefore is actually the main cause of deviant behaviour in many American colleges. To root out the behaviour in American colleges, the education expert in American therefore should look for ways and means of instilling love for work among the American college students. Again, the experts in education should try to root out the hedonistic culture in many American colleges. These two measures will help, a great deal in reducing deviant behaviour in American colleges. Work Cited “Reading My Freshman Year Chapter 6”. Web. Read More