[nabs-l] Five reasons why college is better than high school!

Chris Nusbaum cnusbaumnfb at gmail.com
Mon Aug 10 14:58:31 UTC 2015


Arielle:

This is awesome! Thank you so much for posting these thoughts. As a rising
senior who is working toward deciding which college I will attend, I think
these words of encouragement will really help.

In my opinion, some high school teachers, parents of high school students,
and others do a disservice to us when they emphasize the "on-your-own"
nature of college as a negative without reminding us of the positives as you
have. My former TVI, for example, always loved to point out that in college
I will have no TVI, no full-time Braille transcriber, no IEP, and no support
team. While this is true, the way she and other adults sometimes framed it
gave me the impression that I would be simply thrown to the wolves, left to
sink or swim based on my own survival skills. OK, maybe I'm exaggerating a
bit, but that's how I thought of it. Honestly, though I have always known
college is an essential step toward my career goal, the idea of college has
been very scary to me. For this reason, I can totally identify with Kayla's
sentiments as expressed in her original post.

As I continue on the college search journey and learn more about college
life from students and faculty alike, however, I am finding that the
prospect is no longer scary. While I won't have the support I had in high
school, neither will I be thrown to the wolves. My professors, the DSS
office, and fellow students will be able to give me the support I need when
I need it. In high school, in fact, I have already begun to take the
necessary steps to prepare for college--downloading my own electronic
textbooks, communicating directly with teachers, self-advocacy, etc. Though
I won't be "babysat" (as some adults put it) as I have been in high school,
neither will I be as restricted in my schedule and classwork. Overall, I'm
learning, college won't be such a big deal. So thank you once again for
instilling some confidence in this college-bound high school student.

Chris

-----Original Message-----
From: nabs-l [mailto:nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Arielle
Silverman via nabs-l
Sent: Thursday, August 06, 2015 11:01 PM
To: nabs-l at nfbnet.org
Cc: Arielle Silverman
Subject: [nabs-l] Five reasons why college is better than high school!

Hi all. For those of you who will be transitioning from high school to
college this fall, or seniors getting ready to apply to college, I wanted to
send along this hopefully-encouraging post regarding why, in my experience,
college was far better and easier than high school.
Disclaimer: This post is mostly opinion (though some of it will probably
apply to most college students). Some of you may disagree with some of what
I say, and if you do, feel free to join the discussion.

1. You have much more free time in college. Typically, high school involves
five or six hour-long class periods five days a week, plus lunch. That adds
up to 30 plus hours on campus every week. In college, most students take
12-15 hours of classes per week. Most college classes (except for language
classes) don't meet every day. So you will have lots of extra time to spend
as you want.
2. You get to make your own schedule. Are you a night owl? Sign up for night
classes, or at least don't sign up for any classes before 10 a.m. Want to
take Fridays off? Set your schedule so your classes are all Monday-Wednesday
or Tuesday-Thursday. OK, sometimes that's not a possibility, but you have
far more flexibility when setting your schedule in college, since most
classes are taught multiple times during the week. Many universities also
have online course offerings, giving you even more schedule flexibility.
3. Less homework! That's right! Yes, you do need to keep up with the
assigned readings, papers and at least look over your notes before each
test. But if your high school experience was anything like mine, there were
probably a lot of "busy work" worksheets and study guides you had to fill
out for a grade (which often weren't available in Braille on time). In
college, they don't care so much how you learn the material as long as you
understand it well enough to pass the exams and/or write coherent papers.
Math classes will have regular homework, but for most other classes there
will only be a few assignments. Plus, professors are required to give you a
schedule of when everything is due at the beginning of the semester (a
"syllabus") so you can plan ahead. While papers can be a bit overwhelming at
first, the long time you get to complete them means that you can easily
enlist help from tutors and the professor. (see next point).
4. Your teachers are experts in their subject who set up regular times to
help students. Most university professors have to have a doctorate in their
subject in order to teach. That means they've voluntarily spent 4-7 years
studying the subject in depth and then wrote a short book (dissertation)
about that subject. Trust me, nobody would go through the dissertation
process and finish it if they didn't really really love that subject! Even
lower-level instructors (which you may get for intro classes or community
college classes) typically have to have a master's degree which involves at
least 2 years of intense studies in that subject. While I can't promise that
all professors are good teachers, they will usually be far more
knowledgeable than your high school teachers are about the specific subjects
they teach.
Furthermore, college teachers are usually required to hold office hours, the
sole purpose of which is to help students with their classes on request.
Office hours were most likely not available to you when you were in high
school, but in college, it's a wonderful opportunity to get clarification on
something in the lesson, or feedback on a draft of a paper. In addition to
this, most colleges have other free resources for students like tutoring and
writing assistance.
5. College is a chance for you and your classmates to grow up! One of the
first things I noticed was that in college, I no longer had to deal with
kids crowding me in the halls, jumping on or over my cane, grabbing me or
making rude comments. I enjoyed the freedom of being treated like an adult
by both teachers and peers. Of course, growing up is bittersweet, but with
the myriad of options for social clubs, communal living, and diversity that
you will find on a college campus, you will find that almost anyone can
identify a place where they fit or a class or extracurricular activity that
they love. As you move through college, you will learn a lot of exciting
things about yourself, what you enjoy and what you want to do in the next
phase of your life.
Best, Arielle

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