Tuesday, May 20, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

R-JENERATION: Taking the Next Step

New high-school graduates can expect big changes academically, socially in the move to college

Angela LaVan concentrates on her schoolwork as Spanish teacher Susan Oswald takes roll at the Las Vegas Academy of International Studies, Visual and Performing Arts. In college, more studying is done outside the classroom. Photo by PETER NEWMAN/R-JENERATION Sheila Ocasio, a student at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, studies for a final while her friend Chris Hatcher searches for a movie. Managing time is an important skill in college where students have more freedom than they had in high school. Photo by PETER NEWMAN/R-JENERATION

The caps, the gowns, the graduation parties. Since kindergarten, students have been prepping for this big day.

High-school graduation is a steppingstone in one's life. Many new high-school graduates see college as their way out of sorting through the myriad options open to them, but they may be in for a surprise. College is for the big people. Are students really ready?

College offers many more opportunities than high school. Students are given more time and space to breathe, while still having set courses and homework.

"The first difference I noticed when I got to college was that everyone there had been valedictorian, class president, homecoming queen, a varsity athlete, etc.," said Erin O'Connor, a graduate of Green Valley High School who is completing her junior year at Pepperdine University in California. "No longer does anyone stand out like they did in high school. It definitely becomes more challenging to set yourself apart from the rest."

In college, the responsibility for a student's education shifts almost completely to the individual. Not only are Mom and Dad not around when students leave home to attend college, teachers don't have to check to see if a student is tardy or even absent from class, in many cases.

However, most universities offer help to students who need that extra push or guidance.

"The professors at CCSN are fairly easy to talk to and not too formal," said Michael Espinoza, a Green Valley graduate now attending his first year at the Community College of Southern Nevada. "The main difference I see between college teaching and high school teaching is that in college the students are treated as adults, being trusted to do the work themselves."

Keely Chevallier, a Green Valley graduate who is a freshman at the University of California, Berkeley, said: "Professors are still just people and talking to them is no different than talking to your teachers in high school. However, the professors are far less involved and they just lecture all day."

Students who are used to the 30-, 40-seat limit per class in high school may be intimidated to find a class of 200 in a lecture hall at larger universities.

In college, there is less in-class time and much more homework than in high school. Professors expect students to review, read and write papers on their own time.

"I took all honors and (advanced placement) classes in high school and I can honestly say that the only high-school class that remotely compared to a college course was AP U.S. government," O'Connor said. "In college, you will likely have to read 50 or so pages every night for each class you have."

If students slack off in high school, they may be in trouble when they go to college. Grades are based primarily on essays, projects and tests in college. There are no participation, homework grades or other ways to raise that C to an A.

"I do a lot of studying but most of my work doesn't even seem like work anymore because I love to do it," said Green Valley graduate Ryann Ferguson, a junior at Rice University in Texas. "I study Japanese every day and read novels and write stories for my English major. Some of my professors even come to parties and eat lunch with us."

More brainpower is required in college. Thinking is done more subjectively instead of objectively. Understanding and discussing the significance of information is more important than the usual memorization of names, events and formulas.

"Everyone I know had to tweak their study habits somehow in order to do well in college," O'Connor said.

Not only are classes in college more demanding, so is a college student's social life.

"There are a million distractions of your time in college," Ferguson said. "The social life is awesome, though. You never have to call to find anybody to do something because there is always something going on. You just have to find where."

The size of the school can make a difference in how students feel about their college experience, both academically and socially.

"Rice University is a very small school (about half the size of Green Valley) and we are much like a family community," Ferguson said. "We don't have fraternities or sororities. Instead, our co-ed dorms serve as our surrogate family, fraternity/sorority, and sports teams all in one. And that's probably the best part about Rice."

Students still in high school can develop good habits that will help when the time comes to move up.

"It's really hard to plan for college and it can become really stressful but I definitely think I'm on the road to success," said Green Valley junior Debbie Allen. "I think my high-school years have prepared me educationally. It's really taught me how important it is to concentrate on school."this info doesn't pertain to this story since it's about going to college rather than being accepted to one:

Many public college systems, like the University of California systems, have very low admittance rates. For example, UCLA this year received more than 45,000 freshman applications from California residents for a class of 4,400 new freshmen. They had to deny more than 34,000 applicants. That's less than a 10 percent admittance rate without including out-of-state applications.