Chapter 1 Blog

While i was in high school i had a lot of expectations as to what my college experience would be like. To be honest I wasn't exactly to thrilled about moving on to college. I thought that college would be more academically challenging than high school was. I pictured myself having a crammed schedule, dealing with tons of homework, and late nights spent studying for tests. I felt unsure about the transition from high school to college; wondering if the education I received would be enough preparation for the next four years. Truthfully I was really hoping that college would be the alcohol driven, hormone infested party scene like in such movies as Dead Man On Campus and Van Wilder.
My first college experience was when I attended Sacramento City College the fall semester after I graduated. I realized quickly that college was neither the academic roadblock or the non stop party that I believed it to be. Classes did seem to be a bit more structured than they were in high school but I believe that my high school experience helped my transition to college courses. The workload seems to be more crammed in college; trying to fit all of the information we students need in a sixteen week semester seems to accelerate the learning process.
As I became more adjusted to going to city college I came to the discouraging realization that college is a lot like high school. Some of the students I see walking around campus seem slightly uninterested in being there at all. Although I have the freedom to pick my own schedule the classes I have to chose from are not as broad as I thought they would be. The party scene is defiantly a part of the college experience but you don't see students walking around with a 40 in their hands and a joint in the other. The teachers in college seem to be more available than my teachers that I had in high school. College teachers seem more passionate about their jobs which is a pleasant surprise.
The thoughts that I had of college in high school seemed to be the two extremes; academic overload and one big party. In reality I found that college seems to be a mixture of these two stereotypical expectations.