The Importance Of Transitioning To College

To many high school students, college seems like a far away land, a mysterious place where everyone wants to be yet not many know how to get there. As children, our parents tell us how much time we have to think about college, and that it is too far down the line to think about. The truth is it is never too early to think about your future. I, like many people, put little thought into my future career and now am lost in an unfortunate mix of indecision and anxiety. Not knowing where you want to be in the future is a hard burden to bear. Many of us tend to find out that we only know what we do not want, not what we actually do want. Do we want to be poor? Absolutely not. Do we want a boring job? Of course we don’t. We all want our

My high school years were not spectacular, nor were they terribly productive.I left high school without learning how to proficiently write an essay. However, CUNY's Borough of Manhattan Community College afforded me a desperately needed second chance. It was at BMCC that I sharpened many of the skills I should have mastered in high school. I was able to greatly improve my writing ability. I began college as a student who found writing a 2 page paper to be a terrifyingly daunting task, but due to practice and numerous resources offered by CUNY, I soon was able to compose papers consisting of 10-14 pages with confidence and efficiency.

The transition from high school to college is a dynamic time in one’s life that parallels the change from childhood to adulthood. Both of these changes are dramatic and, as a result, feelings are difficult to put down into words. A messy combination of emotions fills the heart, surfacing in strange ways. Confident high school seniors go right back to the bottom of the chain when entering college as freshmen. These students start all over, just like entering grade school or high school for the first time. The move up from high school to college signals the switch from dependence to self-sufficiency. From a personal point of view, going through the experience of graduating high school and transferring to a residential college campus at STLCOP, made me realize I was no longer a kid and capable of making my own decisions.

For the graduating high school senior each year there can be tough choices made about when and where to start college. Some have to decide if continuing their education even makes financial sense. There are many obstacles that a graduating senior must consider when making these decisions. Probably, the most difficult decision is where the funding for the continuing education will be coming from. For some, it does not make financial sense to even continue on with their education. Others face even more uncertain decisions about when to apply to a college and which college to attend. Once the decision to attend has been made, there are varying degrees of completion among the students who decide to attend. Student success depends on their support structure which can consist of family and friends to other outside resources. One can see that this time period, in a high school senior’s life, can be a perplexing and anxiety producing time.

Many high school students succeed with a little leniency through their four years. The transfer from high school to college becomes overwhelming and a struggle for some. For students do not comprehend the importance of changing more than their location during the transition. A student must be psychologically, physically, and emotionally mature to pursue college and not venture into a point of no return. Dropping out of college makes the outlook of the conversion difficult to acquire. Individuals should take their time on deciding which college and/or university is the best match for them. There are various reasons that cause persons not to prosper. Issues that individuals may come upon might leave a lifelong scar. Matters such as these

When thinking about the future, college is usually the first option on student’s mind. It is the place to go if someone wants to have a successful life, but there is more than one way to get to a destination and that applies to life after high school to. College is important, but careful considerations need to be put in on the debt that would have to be paid back, the other options that are available that could earn as much as a person with a degree, and the stigma of not going to college because there are many different roads that can lead to success.

For a year now I have worked as a waitress and a hostess at the independent living side of a retirement home. This has been a very large impact on my life financially, emotionally, and academically.

Transitioning to college certainly causes stress and anxiety for most incoming students. As an athlete, these students face additional hurdles with rigorous schedules lasting all day, full course loads and being away from friends and family. Until they settle into university life, life can be rather trying for any student--much less a student athlete.

“College is a balancing act” I have personally heard this quote numerous times; however, it did not forecast its complete meaning until I began college myself. High School counselors prepare you academically and allow the paperwork process to run smoothly when entering college as a freshman. Although most of these counselors work hard to help High School senior’s transition into college, I believe no amount of paperwork or aid prepares you for such change. According to this survey, career uncertainty leads to anxiety – I couldn’t agree more with the findings of this study and to me it is no surprise. It is evident that the change of majors and anxiety created by the pressure of future satisfaction of jobs remains evident present day. Personally,

Starting college, being in a new environment, and possibly not knowing anyone are the most nerve-wracking experiences you will encounter. Coming all the way from New York I was out of my comfort zone; in a completely new environment, not knowing a single person, and just being by myself. That is why we have Peer Leaders and the FYE courses. For student, like me, who need a sense of belonging and to have a successful transition. As a Peer Leader, it would be my responsibility to be a mentor and role model for first year students. If they have questions that they are afraid to ask the professor, I will be there to answer them personally. If they are having difficulties with the transition into college, I will try to help make the process easier

I believe that it is significantly harmful for parents to micromanage their children’s life throughout the college process. As young adults transition to college students, they are challenged to learn valuable skills such as responsibility, accountability, and time management. However, students miss out on these lessons when their parents are continuously reminding them of when their assignments are due and asking if they are completed yet. As Annie Murphy Paul (2013) points out in her blog post, college students who have had their parents controlling their lives up until that point when they are allowed slightly more freedom and independence are unable to cope with stressful, difficult situations. Then, as Nauert (2015) discusses, these students

Over the past couple of weeks I’ve improved at reading by spending more time on each text to be certain I have thorough understanding. I’ve learned the value of reading aloud to myself in order to know that I read every word carefully. As a writer, I’ve come to understand that putting serious effort into my work will improve the outcome. In high school, I did not acknowledge the negative effects of procrastination on my stress and anxiety levels, but during L&T I came to recognize the impact doing all my work makes on my wellbeing. Because there was little accountability during this course, I had to use self-motivation to complete my assignments

For many, after graduating high school the next big step is college. I never asked myself why or if I even wanted to. Yet, since I was not yet ready to join the work force, and didn’t want to disappoint my parents, I simply followed the path that I was supposed to take. For a while I had no direction, but through the loss of my high school English teacher and my dream of making my family proud, I discovered that college was the place I wanted and needed to be.

As the day of graduation creeps up on me, the future of college and life thereafter follows closely like a lion cub learning to hunt. In high school, the talk is always, “What are you doing after high school? Where do you want to go to college?” and all I can think of is what is for lunch! It’s difficult to plan ahead for the future when you want your future to be filled with opportunities that span across the whole career spectrum. There are not enough years in a lifetime, days in a year, hours in a day, or even minutes in an hour to achieve the titles I dream of. Choosing my future is anything but simple when I envision myself taking so many different paths.

The four years of high school have finally come to an end. The numerous hours and all-nighters we have spent studying excessively in order to get into the most advanced universities have finally paid off. It feels like only yesterday we were throwing our graduation caps in the air thinking “We finally made it through high school!” Here we are now leaving our homes, families and friends, carrying a huge responsibility and beginning a whole new, unusual chapter of our lives. Here we are, with our future before us, filled with countless adventures and surprises. Although there may be a few similarities between high school and college, the differences outnumber them.