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Career Advice - Heads up on how Uni is different to high school

Posted: Mon 31st August 2009 | Author: Madeline Williams | Comments: [3]

Looking forward to getting out of high school? Six years is a long time to have survived in one place, and the final couple of years seem to drag with the pressure of achieving a high tertiary entrance score. But if you want to continue your studies at university, it’s worth the wait.

It’s so different from high school, you won’t feel as if you’re ‘back at school again’ for a moment. Here are some tips on things to look out for to help you settle in:

  • Mature-aged students. No longer will you be surrounded by students your own age. Instead, classes are a mixture of 17 year olds to 70 year olds, filling the room with a range of attitudes and broad knowledge. It will give you a feeling of maturity to be treated as equal to all other age groups as a student. 
  • Class structure. You may have a 2 hour lecture on Friday’s, 7 hours straight on a Monday, but then nothing on Tuesday’s. The class timetable is all over the place, so you’ll completely lose concept of a 9:00 – 3:30 school day.
  • Casual clothes, casual attitude. Getting rid of a school uniform for casual clothes makes a huge difference in terms of atmosphere. Where high school is a slightly oppressive due to of all of the enforced rules, university is open, you’re free to come and go when you choose, there’s no detention, people are happy socialising, and there are $2 beers at the campus pub.
  • New people. In high school, you will eventually have come to know most, if not all, of the people in your school, at least by sight. At university, it’s unlikely that you will ever know or recognise more than a few percent. You constantly have the opportunity to meet new people.
  • Self-motivation. There are no teachers breathing down your neck to get homework in, no disappointed lectures about your grades, and no marked attendance (unless attendance is a portion of your overall grade). Whether you pass, fail or get a distinction is entirely up to you.

Are there any other differences you’re looking forward to at university? Feel free to share on the forum!

Published in: Tips & Tricks

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Latest comments

Strapping Sapling

July 27th, 2009, 10:23 AM

I drink my morning coffee in class, never could do that in high school. Oh - and like, the live bands and stuff that play sometimes. I accidentally missed a class cos I was too busy watching once!

Paul

July 23rd, 2009, 08:16 AM

I loved the freedom, whether I went to the beach, the pub, the library and basked in the sun on the lawn with my shirt off. You control your own destiny

TheLo-AmAllstar

July 22nd, 2009, 05:45 PM

The biggest difference to me is still that lecturers and tutors treat you like human beings instead of another species

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