With graduating high school comes many more responsibilities, if you are attending college this is an even more difficult adjustment to make. Many of us have to juggle a full class schedule, studying, working, college related expenses and adjusting to a new life as a college student. This can be very unmanageable at times. Working to get good grades is the most stressful of it all along with learning to balance everything. Students wind up feeling lost and too stressed before the end of their first semester and many don’t earn the best grades.
Like most freshman my first semester was no piece of cake. However it was very manageable for me and I earned good grades. The difference is my high school luckily offered an Early College program through Citrus where high school students could earn college credit and high school credit simultaneously with actual college professors.
In the Early College program I was apart of, high school students earned 37 units and had taken 11 classes by the time of high school graduation. These classes included general education courses that fall into the UC transfer program at Citrus as well as prerequisites for Math and English.
This program I feel prepared me tremendously for the transition from high school to college because I had already taken college courses. I was prepared for the work before I had even stepped onto the campus. Without being a part of the Early College program I would have felt uncomfortable with the transition.
Many who attend Citrus or any college have never been exposed to what college is like at all. Many of these students also feel unprepared and test remedial for college courses. This is not fair to the students who want to be in college but weren’t prepared for college beforehand.
I feel that the responsibility falls on the high schools to better prepare students who want to succeed in college after graduation. The transition to college should be comfortable and fewer students should be in remedial placement.
All high schools should offer or even require a college preparation course because many students don’t know what to expect. What most graduating high school students are missing is the reality of college. The reality is that they will be studying for hours, that their schedule is not in six consecutive hours and that the courses are more challenging.
More students should get the opportunity to be a part of a program like the Early College program offered to some high schools. Increasing classes similar to this would give students who are new to college a better chance at success and completion.
