How college is different form High School

Being a First-Year Student/Orientation

Being a first-year student is fun! Unlike high school, where your first year is usually filled with anxiety and the occasional wrong-classroom mishap, colleges prepare first-year students with an orientation that builds a strong bond among class members. Many colleges offer additional early orientation programs to foster relationships before the school year even begins. Attend as many orientations options as possible. It will make your college transition easier if you already have bonds with your classmates. Once orientation is over and the upper-class students are back on campus, you will find that they are excited to meet the first-year students, and you become very comfortable in the college setting very quickly. 

The Learning Environment 

You are no longer a passive learner who just sits and listens to a teacher, occasionally writes a paper, and takes a test in which you are expected to simply reiterate what you have learned or been told by the teacher. You will not be provided with notes; rather, you are expected to figure out on your own what’s important. (Professors are available during their office hours for help if what’s important is ever unclear.) In college your professors are expecting you to voice your thoughts, and disagreeing with the professor’s opinion is considered an interesting debate, not deviant behaviour. Class participation and providing your own perspective and analysis are key to success in the college learning environment.  
Culture 

If you are from anywhere other than a big city, most of your friends are probably a lot like you. You may not all share the same personality, but the things you consider “normal” are probably the same. Your parents are probably a lot like your friends’ parents. They probably even share the same tax bracket. You go to the same type of restaurants as your friends. You and your friends probably share similar ideas of what is fun to do on a Friday night. Until you get to college, it rarely occurs to you that life could be any different — until you find yourself surrounded by hundreds of students just like you, with very different stories. You quickly learn that “normal” simply doesn’t exist. One of the best things about going to college is the opportunity to interact with a wide variety of cultures.