Pros and challenges in college

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As graduation comes nearer as the days go by, I am trying to get some college preparation. What are the challenges you college students have to face while you are in college? And what are the good things that college has that high school doesn't have? Any kind of college advice is fine.

I suppose I'll speak from an aspie's perspective since that's what I'm most versed in. In general, college has just WAY more stuff than high school, both academically and life experience. This is especially true of larger schools, but also for small and liberal arts schools. That being said, I suppose since the stereotypical aspie is somewhat restricted in what they do, but at the same time there will be aspie friendly things wherever you go, you may have to do some searching. I guess one thing I struggled with was social connections. In college unless you off campus, you'll be around people nearly all the time. While most areas on campus are going to be just like in public, i.e. you are more or less anonymous, in a dorm setting things can be a little more intitmate, perhaps uncomfortable for some.

That's it for now, but I'll post more if you or anyone else has any specific questions. May I ask you where you are thinking of applying/attending?

Either Wright State University or Ohio State University. I'm going to study engineering but I don't know what kind.

By the way, I graduate June 2015. I am in 12th grade.

Accelerated Learning: You will be expected to read at least a dozen books for each class; more, if your major is English or Philosophy.

Challenges to Beliefs: Every opinion you've ever held will be held up to ridicule. Then again, so will everybody else's opinions, as well.

Crowds & Noise: More people, everywhere. Thus, more noise, and more opportunities to screw up while dealing with others.

Sensory Assault: In addition to the noise, every breeze, every doorway, and every person walking by will assault your sense of smell. Also, there will be people in motion all around you, so visual distractions will abound ... especially in warmer weather, when students (and some teachers) are more inclined to wear less clothing.

You're No Longer 'Special': Your ability to handle complex maths in your head will likely be matched or exceeded by several others in your maths classes. Your ability to render the most minute detail in a drawing, painting or sculpture will also likely be matched or exceeded by several others. In other words, for the first time in your life, you will actually have to compete with others within the context of your Special Interest.


An abundance of dating opportunities - Yes, you're there to learn, but opportunities for one-on-one relationships will present themselves. Relax, smile, listen a lot, and don't drink anything if you suspect that it may have been tampered with.

Your first taste of independence - you finally get to prove to yourself and others that you can take care of yourself and handle the stress of a new social / educational environment.

Lots of places to hide - While there will be times that the stress seems overwhelming, there are also many places on campus where you can hunker down without anyone around. My favorite was a crawl space underneath the west stairwell of the admin building. My second favorite was the top of the clock tower, in the room where the clockwork gears are. The library is also a good choice.

Finally, college offers certification that you know something about how things work - a college diploma. While that piece of paper from your high school meant that you endured four years of public education without dropping out, a college degree means that you have a real education in a specialized field of study - Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths are preferred, but most any college degree means that you know a lot more on a particular subject than the average pimply-faced kid serving fries at some fast-food drive-through.

That is true no doubt, but I'm going to turn it on its head and say guard yourself hard against people who are facing up to that and can't themselves handle it like adults.

I got cold buried in a class because a dude was CONVINCED he knew the answer to a problem that was presented to the class, it was in a group setting and all I said was "I don't really care, I disagree because I see it [this way] but go with it bro, I may be wrong no biggie". I ended up being right, and that dude pulled every string imaginable to screw me over, within the class and up the ladder to the professor, on some vendetta s**t just because of my passive (correct) questioning of him on one single occasion.

At one point he convinced the professor that I deserved zero credit whatsoever for a major group project, how he did it I'll never know because it was known within the group that I'd done exactly what everyone else did to contribute. Nice life dogg, feel good about lowering my grade from an A to a B. I can live with that. But that's how it goes down sometimes.

I should qualify this by specifying that I went to a very large, relatively renowned public university, and this occurred in an upper-level genetics course (it wasn't some 101 BS material, despite the horrid classroom politics).

I was most pissed because it was right before I graduated and I was in cruise control just taking whatever random classes I could get into that sounded interesting and challenging. I didn't really care about the grade but I was very sour that my experience in what was otherwise an amazing class was undercut by some grade school garbage.

I guess the point is, if you ever have the slightest inkling that something like that is going down, you need to jump on it and square it away immediately. Don't get me wrong, college was an awesome experience for me, but there are people there that would submarine your entire future just to validate themselves.

I suppose some of these apply more generally just to life in general. Unless you live in a very exclusive community, the cast of characters and situations you encounter wil lbe mostly the same, at least the ones you list here.

OP: So I'll just reiterate everything Fnord is saying. You really have to give it your best. Not just to do well in your courses, but in order to actually learn things. It appears that of the two THE Ohio State University has the better reputation in terms of engineering, although that doesn't mean that WSU is any bad.

i majored in biology. i usually bought one book for each class, rarely opened one, and graduated magna cum laude. i read books for my english, sociology, and religion courses, but that was fun. mostly i just took good class notes and studied them before the test. i did the problems in calculus and physics. always turned in the homework. i scored at the 99th percentile on the biology GRE and the 85th percentile on the MCAT. if you major in poli sci or history, you may need a different style.

i was poor at writing papers. if i had it to do over, i would get more help early on in the writing cycle about choosing topics and getting organized.

i couldn't keep a roommate. i was messy (still am), but it wasn't horrible cuz i didn't have tons of stuff. i wouldn't go for a private room right away, though, because learning to live with people other than my family was good. i'm still friends (on facebook) with an old roommate.

Hmmm. . . . I see. Another question, which is easier, living in dorms in the campus or living with family off of campus? My dad says that living off campus is easier and cheaper and I have more freedom but my mom wants me to live on campus to get a full college experience.

pro to living in dorm freshman year: everyone is new and open to making new friends. con: adjusting to college studies at the same time as you're adjusting to dorm life might be hard. if you're a good student with good study habits, i'd try the dorm thing as a freshman. if you think college studies might be very challenging, save the dorm experience for later.

If you can afford it, I'd suggest living in an apartment with a roommate or two. (A lot of apartments in college towns will even offer reduced rates to students.) That way you can still have some independence from your parents without the rowdy, overstimulating environment that often exists in college dorms. That's what I did in college, and it was ideal for me. And if it's a small enough town/campus, you might even be able to find an apartment manager who's willing to match you up with a roommate according to your personalities.

I did residence in my first and second years for the sheer convenience of it. I have trouble understanding commute time sometimes and tend to be late places; I wanted to be mostly on time for my classes. Also, I liked how you would have a meal plan (a fixed amount of money for food for the year) in residence so you wouldn't have to waste time planning and preparing your own food.

I didn't make friends in residence and mostly just stayed in my room and focused on my studies, although I would sometimes invite my other friends over to sleep over or to hang out during the day. I found the more I socialized, the worse I did academically, and I didn't even socialize that much relative to the other students on my floor.