How Early Is Too Early to Learn About College?

College is a big step up in the world. I believe that college is very independent and will be time consuming. Elementary school is possibly a little early to start preparing and understanding what is coming after high school. I believe that late middle school grades should be starting to get an understanding of what college is expecting. Most middle schools prepare kids for high school but don’t prepare them for anything after. High school tries to prepare you for college but the 4 years of high school fly by so you can only get so much information before you are passed on to college.

What I learned in middle school was all the preparations for high school but was proven incorrect. I was planning for high school as a hard and independent school but in fact was not that difficult as I was told. I lacked the learning of college and future years after high school so once I was in high school then I was playing catch up trying to learn about college before these 4 years end and I graduate. I think the biggest thing I was lacking coming up to my graduation date was the financial aspect of college. I had 1 class that was only 1 semester and helped me learn a bit about the financial aspect but not enough to understand it. Middle school is a high enough age to start understanding the real world and understanding what is expected of you going into high school and college. Even if these kids didn’t understand it fully then at least they would have an idea when they are truly learning and touring colleges. I think that the independence of college is so much more than high school and middle school. High school isn’t as much babysitting as middle school but still can be too dependent on teachers helping than I believe it should be. Some classes are harder to learn and do need the help but some certain classes should be less helpful. If you don’t do your work and truly try in school then I believe you don’t get special treatment to help pass when you aren’t putting in the effort during class time. College professors do not take time out of their schedule to pass you, especially if you aren’t putting time in your work to finish it. College is something that is needed to have time management and effort for it to work out. Having a whole day planned out for school is not the same as picking classes for college times. A high school day is much more simple than a college day only because you can pick your classes time. On the other hand sometimes college could be more simple for classes because you pick the times and have less of a long day than in high school.

I believe that students have become too dependent on teachers and classmates throughout the years. Too many students have gotten too much help from teachers and classmates where they are now expecting and dependent on them to do their work for them. Teachers’ help is necessary but can be cut off at a point. In middle school, it was too easy for kids to pass even when they didn’t do work because of the teacher assistant that would help. Sometimes not even the actual teacher but just a helper would come in and work with the kids who didn’t do any work. I think that they shouldn’t get special treatment if they aren’t going to put in the time to do it like the rest of us. Sometimes the lack of independence makes it difficult for some kids to get ready for the college experience. Independence is a very key part of growing up because as you go to college and live on campus if that’s your choice then you will be on your own. You would be away from family and known teachers and go to a college not knowing many people and not knowing any professors. One of the hardest things to probably do in college is listen and learn all by yourself when you are there so I believe that middle school is a good age to start looking towards your future as a college student.

“college” by Sean MacEntee is marked with CC BY 2.0.