Justin's Experiences
High School vs. University

With about two and a half weeks into college, I thought that I would discuss some of the differences between college and high school, and there are some major differences! So let's get into the magic that is college.

Well, I guess to start would be at the teachers and the differences between them. In high school, a student has to ask to go to the bathroom, to get a drink of water, basically to leave the classroom at all. It has to be OK'd by the teacher and sometimes they say "no." This especially stinks when you have to go to the bathroom and are left waiting for the entire class period to go by. Where as in college, you don't have to ask to do anything! If you need to go to the bathroom, then you can just get up and head to the bathroom. If you're thirsty, you can go buy something to drink right in the middle of the teacher's lecture if you want.

Another big difference is that cell phones are not allowed in high school, but you can talk on them pretty much anywhere in college. Most college teachers do ask that you turn them off for class, which I agree with. However, if a cell phone accidentally went off in a high school class room, that student would often times find themselves without a cell phone for that class period or for the rest of the school day. But if your cell phone accidentally goes off in a college classroom, the teacher either calmly asks for you to turn it off or sometimes they don't say anything at all and just keep talking.

Other differences are that in high school teachers take at least the first five minutes of class doing attendance. In college, we start right in on the work, no attendance taken. Well, in most classes at least. The teachers don't really care if you're in class or not, either does the school for the most part. You already paid; you can do whatever you would like, including not showing up for class.

As far as everything else, my schedule now is a lot less school than it was. Three days a week I only go for two hours, but then again, the work load is greater. In high school, teachers often times assign "busy work." Most of the time high school teachers assigned this busy work when they were going to have a substitute teacher. I guess it was just to give the students a lot of work so we wouldn't bother the sub. Nevertheless, I hated high school busy work. In college, there is no busy work. It's all just work, and it's always new work.

In high school, if the class is not getting a particular section of a math or science book, the teacher will often spend extra time trying to get everyone up-to-speed. Not in college, if you don't understand what is going on in a particular section, it doesn't matter. The teacher is moving on with or without you. It's your job to get caught up on your own time or go see a tutor.

Another thing I've noticed was the food in college is a lot more expensive than it was in high school. In the high school cafeteria, you could get a full lunch for $2.50! In college, you can get a hamburger and fries for about $8. Or, if you're really hungry, or just didn't know the price, like me, jump for the buffet for only $10.50! They should keep in mind who they're catering to. I still feel like I was robbed!

When you go to high school you can park in the school parking lot for free, which I unfortunately took for granted because I never thought I would get to college and have to pay for a $80 parking pass just to park.

Another thing I found interesting is, when I first paid for college, I was getting the breakdown of everything I had to pay for. Now there is a whole long list, but there is a big group of items that I asked what they were and what I needed them for, and this was my answer, "The board of regents require that you have to pay for them." I still don't know what I paid for. I hope the board of regents does.

I'm going to wrap up this column with one last thing, those dang book prices. They cleared out my wallet. So, if anyone has some housework that needs to be done or computers to fix I'm available.

                             -Justin B.
                                 September 21st, 2004

[Editor's note: it has come to our attention that this article was not penned by the author specified above but rather by some random guy in Montana. Sorry for the confusinon.]

Pictures of Justin's Room at UT