Did your child find college to be more academically challenging than high school?

[Anonymous]

When you answer, please give a sense of the high school they left and the college they went to. Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Heck yeah!

DS went from a private HS that was (in retrospect) insufficiently challenging to a highly selective science and engineering college, and he feels like he was thrown in the deep end. You mean schoolwork isn't supposed to be easy? I actually have to work hard? Oh noes!

[Anonymous]

Yes. Public high school to Stanford. Much more challenging, but much more fun.

[Anonymous]

Big 3 to top 3. Yes. Was well-prepared, but curriculum is more challenging and faster-paced. More responsibility for your own learning. And if seems like a majority of the college classmates are academically comparable (brains, effort) to the top 10-15% of HS class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Big 3 to top 3. Yes. Was well-prepared, but curriculum is more challenging and faster-paced. More responsibility for your own learning. And if seems like a majority of the college classmates are academically comparable (brains, effort) to the top 10-15% of HS class.

What is top 3? I would get top 4 as HYPS, but top 3?

[Anonymous]

No, Harvard was easier than high school. Much easier. From the top public school in the state where ~20-25% go to the Ivies/MIT/Stanford each year. Very competitive and stressful, which Harvard isn't.

[Anonymous]

My daughter went from a top private to UVA and had a much easier tune in college. If you learn to time manage, you can have s wonderful relatively easy college experience. I will say she doesn’t drink so that may be a factor. She had a family member die due to a drunk driver. She is 2 years in and hasn’t drank yet. I was a drunk in college so it was much harder for me. LOL

[Anonymous]

What does academically challenging mean to you?

My kids found HS hard because they felt they had to take the hardest versions of classes in subjects they didn't like in order to show rigor. This was no fun at all.

By college, they had covered all their distribution requirements with AP credits. They had both lighter loads and could focus on work they liked.

Both ended up spending lots of college in the lab doing projects that were actually hard but lots of fun.

[Anonymous]

Mine went to McLean HS and have found college to be easier. One is in engineering at Purdue and one is in math and science at Rensselaer. Both received credits to make them sophmore status when they started at each school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Big 3 to top 3. Yes. Was well-prepared, but curriculum is more challenging and faster-paced. More responsibility for your own learning. And if seems like a majority of the college classmates are academically comparable (brains, effort) to the top 10-15% of HS class.

Big3??top3??LOL,

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No, Harvard was easier than high school. Much easier. From the top public school in the state where ~20-25% go to the Ivies/MIT/Stanford each year. Very competitive and stressful, which Harvard isn't.

Okay, not to be that person, but what public sends 25% of their students to Ivies or MIT or Stanford?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No, Harvard was easier than high school. Much easier. From the top public school in the state where ~20-25% go to the Ivies/MIT/Stanford each year. Very competitive and stressful, which Harvard isn't.

Okay, not to be that person, but what public sends 25% of their students to Ivies or MIT or Stanford?

The one that’s in fantasyland.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No, Harvard was easier than high school. Much easier. From the top public school in the state where ~20-25% go to the Ivies/MIT/Stanford each year. Very competitive and stressful, which Harvard isn't.

Yeah, Harvard is not inherently demanding. It is what you make of it.

[Anonymous]

DD thought her top 3 LAC was a piece of cake compared to top private in DC. Even with a sport, she had way more time and was shocked at how poorly many of her classmates wrote, in particular.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Big 3 to top 3. Yes. Was well-prepared, but curriculum is more challenging and faster-paced. More responsibility for your own learning. And if seems like a majority of the college classmates are academically comparable (brains, effort) to the top 10-15% of HS class.

Parents whose DD attend only YP but not H or S always said' Oh my DD attends TOP 3.
I laugh.