Difference between high school and college

[Anonymous]

Meaning the kind of workload. For example, in high school there are tests, quizzes, exams, worksheets, short and long-term projects and papers, and of course math homework. In college there are exams and papers, from what I can remember. Anything else? Is there homework, other than maybe the readings and preparation to discuss in class?
I am trying to figure out how my HS senior son with ADHD is going to be able to function in a college setting with all the distractions. He despises "busy-work", which is what he considers HS course work to be.

[Anonymous]

Um, you DO realize that different colleges do things differently AND that professors have a TON more autonomy in college settings than teachers in high school settings, right?

This is a ridiculous question. You need to back off and let your SON do his research. If he despises busy work this is a great project for him. Let HIM figure out how to get the answer to whether his college choices are known for busy work within the major he wants to study. Good grief. Land that 'copter.

[Anonymous]

I have a couple of good friends who are now college professors (one history, one geography) and they both assign homework. It often involves logging in to the class discussion board to post about the assigned readings, or to find current events stories tied to what they're currently studying.

I definitely had regular assignments in my math and science classes, but that was 20 years ago so things may have changed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Um, you DO realize that different colleges do things differently AND that professors have a TON more autonomy in college settings than teachers in high school settings, right?

This is a ridiculous question. You need to back off and let your SON do his research. If he despises busy work this is a great project for him. Let HIM figure out how to get the answer to whether his college choices are known for busy work within the major he wants to study. Good grief. Land that 'copter.

It is not a ridiculous question, oh self-righteous one. OP's son has ADHD and might need some direction if easily distracted. Ignore this person, OP. This poster is quick to label you and your son and doesn't know jack crap about him. Forget him or her and do what YOU think is best for your son.

[Anonymous]

It depends on the school, the class, the major, and the professor. Typically in college your grade is based more on exams and papers, but some classes may assign homework (frequently long problem sets for science/math classes) or the occasional project. My experience at a SLAC was wildly different from the experience the students I had when I TAed at a large public research institution--the work at the SLAC was more in depth, harder, and less "busywork"(lots of readings; long, challenging problem sets that took me all weekend to do and were not repetitive, but really made me think and took my professor forever to write) whereas it seemed like there was more busywork at the larger school that was less in depth (for example, participation points for showing up and using your clicker in large lectures; more "cookie cutter" type problem sets from a bank of questions; more points for posting responses on blackboard type discussion forums).

[Anonymous]

Lower-ranked colleges often have more formal homework and more graded assignments, and more rigorous grading. Higher-end colleges are typically easier and impose less busy-work. But for engineering and hard-science, all bets are off and it's tough anywhere decent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Lower-ranked colleges often have more formal homework and more graded assignments, and more rigorous grading. Higher-end colleges are typically easier and impose less busy-work. But for engineering and hard-science, all bets are off and it's tough anywhere decent.

There is not a study ever done or shred of evidence ever collected to document such a ridiculous generalization. Where do people come up with these goofy claims?

[Anonymous]

I teach at a community college and I find that I have to give my students lots of homework to ensure they study regularly. I would prefer to give them a couple of papers and a couple of exams and ask them to study and do practice questions and problems from the textbook on their own. A few would but most won't and so I end up assigning and having to grade weekly homework assignments. It may seem like 'busy work' but in a lot of subjects (math, biology, economics, physics) you have to memorize and practice repeatedly in order to better understand and more importantly, use what you learn in class.

[Anonymous]

Depends on the class. Some classes had worksheets to bring in to class (class was either 2 or 3 days a week) to make sure we did hw. Others had a weekly quiz to make sure we were doing our reading. Some only had 4 tests, midterm, and final, some just had short and long essays, some required discussion in each class that relied on you reading and understanding the material.

Unfortunately, if he feels that high school is busy work, he may find some college classes are like that as well.

[Anonymous]

You should look for syllabuses of a college he wants to attend.

The biggest adjustment is you have to be more of a self-starter in college, and master time management better. Unlike HS where you are in class from 8 to 3 or so every day, you may not have classes on some days, etc.

I imagine for a kid with ADD, having a daily schedule would be critical.

[Anonymous]

Wouldn't this depend on the subject?

I studied a social science undergrad, and I remember mostly papers, tests, and exams. But my friends who studied math and science had plenty of problem sets, which are pretty much like worksheets except you copy them out of the book themselves. And when I studied education as a grad student they were big on individual and group projects and presentations.

[Anonymous]

Lower-ranked colleges often have more formal homework and more graded assignments, and more rigorous grading. Higher-end colleges are typically easier and impose less busy-work. But for engineering and hard-science, all bets are off and it's tough anywhere decent.

I don't think this is necessarily true at all. I do think there is some truth that lower ranked universities in certain subjects may assign more homework and grade it more carefully, but only because they expect a lower level of independence from the students. At my SLAC, I had a couple of classes where homework was optional--we were assigned it for practice, but it was our responsibility to learn the material. I also had several classes that didn't assign homework, but had extremely difficult exams, and if I didn't put the work into it, then failing was the consequence. At places with a less independent and motivated student body, sometimes you need to collect and grade homework to force kids to study/practice.

[Anonymous]

Watch the HBO special that Robert Redford's son made on dyslexia and ADHD. The number of kids who did well in college was very interesting. The increased amount of time available to the typical college kid was a major factor.

[Anonymous]

It often seems that with ADD, having more time in the day doesn't help.

[Anonymous]

From my DS who is an Ivy league humanities major: tons of reading, 1 mid-term, 1 final, 1 10 page paper in every single class. Almost no exceptions to this rule (seminars usually have no finals but a 25 page paper)