My first Week at Stockton

Throughout my first full week of college I have noticed many differences between the college and high school experiences. The first thing that became apparent immediately to me is the great amount of freedom I have at college. As a high school student I felt that my every movement was being monitored. I needed a hall-pass to leave the classroom and had to stay in the building from 7:20 in the morning until 2:12 in the afternoon. If I had accidentally left a notebook in my car, I needed to be escorted to the parking lot by a security guard. Here, going to class is my responsibility but not a requirement. Here, if I was absent from class, my professor would not make sure that I wasn't skipping class, make sure I received the notes from lecture that day, or even worry about my whereabouts. I feel that since college is not required, professor's think students are here because we want to be, not because it is required. Success is in the hands of each individual student. It is each student's responsibility to attend class, complete assignments, and make every effort to do well. There is much less coaching and encouragement here. It is up to me to prioritize and do what it takes in order to succeed.
The work at college is also very different from high school assignments. In high school, most assignments were completed during class time and completed for homework. At college, class time is used for lecture. The professor summarizes chapters and explains key concepts, while practice is done after class. If a student needs extra practice in order to understand a topic, they must find examples and and almost teach themselves the material in a way that they are better able to understand. At highschool, the teacher used class time to make sure each student understood the concepts. If someone didn't understand, the test would be moved to a later date and extra class time would be spent on practice problems. This, perhaps is the most important difference I have found thus far.
Another difference between high school and college is the syllabi. In high school, students were unaware of the each day's assignments until the class period of each subject each day. In college, every student is provided a copy of the class schedule. This way, if a student wants to complete an assignment in advance he is able to. Also, everyone is aware of the chapters that will be covered in class and are is therefore able to preread the chapter and better understand the lesson in class. I think that it is because of the differences between high school and college that I enjoy college much better.