When people hear you’re going to college, they immediately begin to give you pieces of advice and things to watch out for. “Get involved!” “Wear shower shoes!” “Good luck with 8 ams!” “Watch out for the freshmen 15.” People love to pass on their own bits of wisdom from their college years. Most of them are great and truly helpful (though they tend to get repetitive) and we find ourselves actually listening to and experiencing what they had to say. However, there are also some aspects of college that weren’t talked about and that none of us were prepared for. They make you ask yourself, “Out of all the advice I was given, why did no one include this?” These are just four of those challenging and/or annoying parts of college life that no one told you about.
1) Professors not budgeting their time right
There has to have been at least one course for everyone in which this has happened. First day of class the prof hands you a beautifully organized syllabus declaring what each week will look like. You know what you have to do and when you have to do it by and you say to yourself this semester I’ll be organized. Unfortunately, sometimes it’s hard for your prof to stay organized. At the bottom of the syllabus there is always that disclaimer saying “Syllabus is subject to change upon extenuating circumstances.” There is a 50/50 chance that this works out in your favor. What often happens is that you’re in the second to last week of classes and you still have 3 1/2 more weeks of scheduled work. This means your prof, feeling a need for scholarly integrity and wanting to fit it all in, over-schedules course work leaving you with twice the reading, an outline and a paper, on top of the term paper and group presentation you already have which are 40% of your grade. Oh, and this information will be on the final.
2) Group Projects
High school had group projects too, so everyone had a little background information on them, and thought they knew what they were. However, the college group project proves to be a different kind of animal. Collegiate group projects are the worst. They are typically three to five people and there are three main roles: The Leader, The Slacker, and The Follower. The Leader (which I typically find myself being) is the one who puts everyone into gear and delegates. This person can either be really awesome or a pain in the butt, but you know they’re going to get it done. Oftentimes, they are finishing up the work that The Slacker didn’t complete at midnight the night before. The Slacker oftentimes doesn’t care about his/her grades as much as the other group members and either doesn’t complete their portion of the work, or doesn’t complete it up to the standards of the group and/or Leader. Don’t be The Slacker. The Followers are the remaining group members who do get their portion of the work done and quietly sympathize with The Leader about The Slacker. No one told you about how awful group projects were going to be (unless you had an older sibling). If Dante had an Inferno: College Version, group projects would be one of his Nine Circles of Hell.
3) The location of your college/university becomes your home
This is a positive part of college that no one tells you about. Wherever you go to school, that surrounding environment becomes a part of you as your new home. You spend more time at college than at your true home, so I guess it should have been expected. By the end of your first year, and definitely by your second year, you know the shortcuts to get places, the weekly discounts at local restaurants (Monday $2 Beef and Chicken Tacos at El Gato), the best place to stop for coffee, and have developed a favorite place to eat, hike, relax, and have fun. That location has become part of how you identify and you find yourself shocked by how attached you are to Athens Diner and the Sterling Pond hike. College transcends attending classes and partying to a place where you build your life.
4) How difficult registering for classes is
Going to college my first year, this was not even on my radar for things I would run into. I mean the sole reason colleges and universities exist is for the taking of classes, so why should it be an issue? I have this argument every single time class registration rolls around. Registering for courses ends up being a 6:50 alarm waking you up to be ready to press the button, hope that you’ll get the courses you wanted, despair as your Internet freezes from everyone pressing that ONE button at the same time, and so much extra time wasted either worrying, running around with petition forms, meetings with your advisors, or complaining about the system. And it doesn’t get that much easier. You often find yourself registered with only two of the four classes you picked, frantically trying to find other courses to enroll in so at least you’ll get 16 credits. All of this in the hopes of graduating on time with a decent GPA and a solid list of extracurriculars so your future employer will pick you.