We Made it!

Hola beautiful blog readers! 

I hope all of you are enjoying our almost one month of daily blogging at UTSC PULSE! This is Moiz (PLUG: follow me at @Moizmaq) coming at you once again on this wonderful Thursday. I really had no idea what I was going to blog about until two days ago. So make sure you guys tweet/comment me ANYTHING you’d like me to write about… ANYTHING! Today’s post is for my fellow first year students and maybe even students that are still in High School right now! Being at University for almost two months made me realize how different High School and University really are. So I decided to write a blog post about it! :D

 

The biggest change is definitely the freedom we get in University. I mean this in an academic way and also in a social/personal way. Academically, freedom means that there isn’t anyone hunting you down for not handing in assignments, doing homework, keeping up with the lectures or even coming to class! In High School, most people were forced by others to go to class. In University, nobody cares if you go to class or not. So in a way, you have to force yourself to go to class!

It doesn’t end there, when you get to class the problem becomes paying attention. How many times has this happened to you; One second you swear that you’re paying attention to the prof, and the next second you’re magically on Facebook creeping your newsfeed!? I’m guilty of this myself but it’s not even my fault, I swear my computer automatically puts on Facebook when I’m not looking! In High School, the teacher is always picking on you to pay attention and not fall asleep or text so that was never a problem. Personally, it annoyed me when teachers did that in High School but now I feel like I took it for granted. I think I need someone to constantly make me pay attention in class now (I know you ALL can relate)! 

In a more personal way, freedom comes from being away from your parents and family. Most people choose to live on res when they go off to University. This means even more responsibility for a student! You have to cook, clean, manage your time, etc. A big thing about University is that you HAVE to be self-motivated. NOBODY really cares if you get your work done or not, you have to choose to do it yourself! Also, a lot of people think University is all about studying and doing well in all your classes. Although that is a big part of being at University, your social/extracurricular life is what will keep you sane! My advice to you first year students is to go out and get involved in any way you can.

photo credit- Ken Jones

Another change in University is the sizes of the classes and lectures! Most of my first year courses have classes of close to 500 people each! That’s a big change from High School where most classes had 30 people and even that was considered a lot! Another difference is that your final grade is usually based on 3 or 4 grades (midterms and finals) instead of about 20 grades (assignments, tests, quizzes, etc.). 

And finally, everyone’s favourite change… YOU HAVE TO PAY FOR UNIVERSITY! This is probably the change your parent’s will feel the most. This change doesn’t have to be negative though. It does benefit you in terms of motivation, if you feel like you don’t have enough motivation to work hard in school just think of all the money you put into your education and I’m sure you’ll be motivated in no time!

I feel like I got the major differences between High School and University down. If you guys feel like I forgot something, or if you have any changes you’d like to add, feel free to do so in the comments section below! And make sure you let me know if you have any blog post ideas you want me to write about! Until next week.

Peace and love.