academic stress paper

Transitioning into the Real Academic World

Most people want the opportunity to be able to say they had the opportunity to experience the college experience, but they usually don’t mean the academic experience. They only see the parties and freedom that comes with college, however they do not see the struggle and academic pressure they are receiving as well. In high school, the only stress that appeared was making sure by the end of your senior year you had enough credits to graduate. In college come many new factors; longer classes and increased workload and having an online class, to making sure you chose the best major for yourself, and finally attendance. College is filled with so many new and exciting opportunities that most students forget the main reason why they are in college; to create a better future for themselves through their studies. Many college students, myself included, do not fully understand how important the transition from high school and college is key for success, from there the pressures of academic stress is created.
Students should be able to be aware of all the assignments they are given so they can plan and make sure they do not miss key dates. In high school we are constantly reminded of due dates for an assignment by making sure we write it down in our agendas. In college professors will make an announcement once and then it is your responsibility to remember or to check the syllabus. This is seen as academic responsibility because you must make sure you understand dates for assignments since no one is going to remind you when a certain assignment is due. Many students are affected by this because they are familiar with having their teacher remind them instead of them remembering for themselves. In high school, if you are absent the teacher will give you the information you missed and help you through if you have any questions, while in college it is your responsibility to either talk to the professor or a classmate for the notes.
I, myself had a huge problem with this topic ever since high school. When I was a junior in high school, my sister was a freshman at UC Santa Cruz and she tried to tell me how it was and I would just ignore her. In high school we are given planners so we can write down our assignments and homework. She asked me to get her a planner because she knew that after her first month she was going to need it in college. I asked her again the importance of a planner in college and she said “The reason why I asked you to get me a planner from school (Fremont) was because within the first few days, my professors gave me a bunch of assignments. When I didn’t have a planner I would write it down on my notebook and even though I would look at my notebook a lot, I didn’t really pay attention to what I wrote on the sides because I was focused on my notes. With the planner I at least knew I had all my assignments in one place so when I would look for one class I would see all my classes together and it made it easier for me to remember”. My sister helped me realize that having a planner like I did in high school was a very important key factor in me being successful in college.
The main source of academic stress comes from the fact that high school did not prepare us for what college had in store for us. In high school we have the same class every other day and a bunch of handout and worksheets to complete, college is the complete opposite since everything you do is from a textbook you must purchase. According to Student Guide to First-Year Composition by SFSU, it states that the difference between high school and college is “[In high school] you may study outside as little as 0 to 2 hours a week, and this may be mostly last minute test preparation” opposed to “[In college] you need to study at least 2 to 3 hours outside of class for each hour in class”. The workload increase that we see from high school to college is insane, right off the bat we are given a plethora of assignments due within the next class. Students do not think about the difference and therefore enter and treat their classes as high school and fall tremendously behind.
Entering college I wasn’t sure what to really expect about the atmosphere for classwork since in the movies I’ve only seen them partying and enjoying the freedom. After going to classes for the first few weeks I started to realize that I have absolute control on what I do for my classwork. Many times I have had friends try and convince me to go out on a school night to the clubs or just explore San Francisco and that the class work wasn’t a big chunk of my grade (even though this may be true for some professors, not all). If I did not turn in an assignment, I couldn’t talk to my professor and promise them I would turn it in next class as I would have in high school, they would laugh at me and think I am not college ready. Having no adult guidance to make sure you completed your work on time or to make sure you didn’t go out and party, has a huge effect on not only your grade but adds more stress.
In college, most students are introduced to having an online classroom. This to me was a very huge part of the academic stress factors to me. This is very confusing for incoming freshman because it is touching base with a new system of grading that they were never introduced to in high school and are seeing it for the first time. Having an online class for taking quizzes and some exams really causes stress since they are so used to having to take them in class and they are reminded not like online. We are given a website to log into and from there we are to do some simple instructions; watch a few videos and complete assignments or quizzes from those videos. Even though it seems to be a luxury because we can do these from the comforts our own homes, there are multiple reasons why it causes stress. Since it is online, we have limited to no interaction with the professor, and if you do need to talk to the professor setting up meetings with them can sometimes be a pain because they are barely even on campus. If the website is not set up to where everything flows nicely, it makes it difficult to find any motivation to do the work, which leads to bad grades and more unwanted stress.
The final and most important factor in academic stress is our majors. In high school we are given all of the same classes required for graduation and for the state requirements. There are over 50 majors to choose from and being able to find the right one is important. In college we are given an opportunity to choose a set course of classes that we have interest in studying in further detail. This seems good at first because you chose it when you entered but then more problems arise. After taking a few courses in that major, many students start to either love it or hate what they chose. Of course changing your major is fine but since you started taking classes already in a different major, it puts you back a little more and that scares people because they might have to do an extra semester because they chose the wrong major in the beginning. Another factor is at first you like your major and as you started moving up in the path, you realize that maybe it wasn’t everything you imagined and you start to lose interest in it and lack motivation to do the work. This is a very big source of academic stress because we have to be confident in the major we chose it is the field we are going to be working in for the rest of our college years and it is the field of our future careers.
College is a time for students to be able to experience life in a whole new point of view. It gives students the opportunity to be able to live out what our parents always wanted and dreamed for us. College is the gateway for introducing us to the aspects of the real world and what is really out there. Entering college everyone is introduced to academic stress because it comes in so many forms that from high school we are not familiar with, but with a few tips and pointers it can easily be found. Being able to graduate from college is a very big and beneficial asset to have under your belt, but the biggest key to success is being to face academic stress in college and conquer it.