Poll: Was high school or college easier for you?

I graduated high school last year and am completing my first year at a top 25 university.

Personally, I have found this year much more challenging than high school from an academic standpoint. I am pre-med and I started right away with higher level science so it has been pretty tough. However, I have way more free time now than I ever did in high school. I can sleep more and learn more efficiently without the hours of useless homework, etc.

I decided not to run in college despite a few opportunities and have been participating on a club team and so far it has been great. For the first time in my life, I can just focus on school and run for fun without any stress or pressure to perform.

Academically, HS was far, far easier. I hardly had to crack a book to get As and Bs but I had to work very, very hard to get the same studying EE in college.

Thanks for the responses. Very interesting.

It seems that most so far say that high school was tougher. Good to know. I see what my kids do in high school with AP classes and practice before and after school and dual meets during track season and then Saturday meets and staying up super late to get their work done and yet still having to get up early for practice. It's a lot. I have been thinking college would be easier for both of them, and it's good to see that there's a chance that could be true.

About the same. I was never a giant academically.

Okay here's MY story

HS,

Gr. 9, got reasonably good grades

Gr. 10, sucked, was at this horrendously strict private school, almost lost that yr. but for repeating a few failed courses in summer Sch., and retaking them in Gr. 11 & Gr. 12. Which went quite a bit better, I was at a normal public school where the teachers were at least approachable.....well, some of the private Sch., teachers were 1/2 decent.

University.

First yr. was lost, failed a few courses, did find I liked the social sciences.

Following yr., repeated most of 1st. Yr. courses and scraped by to advance to second yr.reg., found the upper yr. level courses interesting his grades improved.however disliked the format of having seminar classes!!! Struggled through those and graduated with a BA, Social sciences.

I would say ....IF you plan a university education, know what you want to do and work for it. Back n the hippy sixties, seventies I, we didn't. Have much idea where we wanted to go or what we wanted to be....just that a university Ed., would get all of us a high paying job......not true...universities aren't job mills.

So, to answer the question I'd say mush the same but easier in some respects and harder in other respects.

Previous poster, iPad back fills to a fault

For me, undergrad was easier than high school and grad was easier than undergrad, though my undergrad was at a decent but unexceptional liberal arts school and the grad was an MBA/MAcc combo, which is really more of a professional degree, not a real masters.

Classes were generally, though not always, at a higher level in college but there was a lot more time and not nearly as much annoying busywork. My GPA was slightly higher in high school than undergrad (but not grad), but that was due to extra points for AP/Honors classes; I was getting basically the same grades with less work in college.

High school had a much wider distribution of intellect, as you would expect. I was in the AP group, but probably at the bottom half - most of the people I was around were pretty sharp. The people at college were more at my level so I didn't feel like the class idiot anymore.

booboomagoo wrote:

How did they guarantee you would get a PhD in 3 years?

They didn't. The program was *intended* to get us a Ph.D. six years after starting undergrad.

Very few made it, though at least one guy actually had everything wrapped up after 5 1/2. And my roommate could have gotten the doctorate in six--he'd done everything required--but he didn't have a job lined up, so his department carried him for another year (dunno what he was doing--grading papers, maybe). During his seventh year a spot opened up at the Institute for Advanced Study, so he went there.

High school was a joke, including the so called honors and AP classes. College was more difficult but not horrendously so. Plenty of time for socializing in between hardcore study sessions and personal research projects. Graduated top five in high school and top 20 in college. My post graduate experience was more of a grind.

Flagpole wrote:

Thanks for the responses. Very interesting.

It seems that most so far say that high school was tougher. Good to know. I see what my kids do in high school with AP classes and practice before and after school and dual meets during track season and then Saturday meets and staying up super late to get their work done and yet still having to get up early for practice. It's a lot. I have been thinking college would be easier for both of them, and it's good to see that there's a chance that could be true.

All that matters is that they enjoy it more right? College was harder (many more late nights) but still more enjoyable. I'd rather be in college than high school. Do they have any idea where they'll go yet?

Which was easier?

That is a very complicated question with many layers. The academics were easier in high school yet my grades were not great. I was much much happier in college and I achieved at a much higher level. Life was easier and more fun in college. College was a great success. In grad school, with assistantship, the work load was much heavier but cognitively the courses were not any harder and in many cases easier than undergraduate.

Looking back, its amazing on how many different levels I underachieved in high school.

College was easier. No doubt.

College is so much more work. How many days were you ever working on homework until 11 in high school? That's a pretty average night in college for me, working from about noon until practice, then about 6 to 11... I went to a pretty good high school, but the work load was nothing like it is here.

I am a freshman in college, so far, college is less work, but not necessarily easier. I am really hoping that will change soon, I did not come to college to breeze through exams.

In my junior and senior years of high school I took a lot of APs, my junior year I had a lot of work and staying up until 10 or 11 doing homework was very common (more so my junior year). Right now I have way too much free time and just end up using it to browse these boards.

I am surprised by how many people have said that they had a lot of "busy work" in high school, I had graded homework for the first time in a long time once I started college. My high school teachers rarely had graded homework and only assigned readings that were going to be tested on.

Some college classes are significantly easier than high school classes I took, take math for example - In high school I had to work to get an A in differential/integral calculus, but in differential equations and vector calc, which are supposed to be a hard classes, I easily got 95% on every test.

I feel that college has been easy for me because I prepared myself well for it by taking advantage of the AP classes my HS offered.

HardLoper wrote:

All that matters is that they enjoy it more right? College was harder (many more late nights) but still more enjoyable. I'd rather be in college than high school. Do they have any idea where they'll go yet?

Son is a freshman, so no idea where he will go yet. Daughter will attend and run for an elite college beginning in the fall.

5 years to finish high school

7 years to finish college

That would make high school easier. I had the exact gpa at both. (3.56)

College was way harder. I went into college as a sophomore with 31 hours of straight As because I did so well in high school and was able to place out of many courses. I am now 35 years old, have not graduated college, and likely never will. I could make all the excuses and rationalizations in the world. But at the end of the day, college was just way too damn hard for me.

socially - high school was much more difficult trying to fit in and finding my own voice, although college wasn't perfect either. Went to a small college and we had a dysfunctional team, so had to make do with a lot of strife and back stabbing. Should have transferred out by half way through. Looking back I was better off socially coming out of high school than college. Weird. And it took a few years to wipe that ol' college stain away.

academically - not even close, college was much tougher. I coasted through high school with As and Bs mostly, and would only do work during free periods at school. And even then I'd spend half the time goofing off anyway. College was hard work 5-6 days a week (lots of reading and writing plus lab work/science), and then I'd blow it by drinking too much/staying out too late on the weekends.

It's going to depend on the high school, the college, and the program within the college. A computer science degree at CMU is going to be a lot harder than a communications degree from Dixie State.

You and I are about the same age and I also thought college was easier. The schedule was more user-friendly, as you mentioned, but I also liked the people there better than in HS. I also was able to get into classes that interested me instead of the standard regimen of HS. Having interest in what you are learning helps a ton.

I have no idea how it is for kids today, as I am an old fart.