How to Transition Well From HS to College

[deleted421268]

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ATM I am a hs sophomore, and just wondering what I should do to make myself best prepared for college workload?? I double up on both my math and science classes and take honors in them, but those are the only ones I take them in. What else should I be doing to best prepare myself for college?

 

[nysegop]

Pace yourself semester one of college. Don't fill your schedule in the first semester. Take just a few classes to get a feel for what they're like. Then ramp things up a bit as you get used to it. As soon as you sign up for classes do a bit of research on the topics before the first day. Pay attention in class. Take the hardest level classes in high school, by senior year you should be in mostly AP and honors classes. Or IB.

 

[Seahawk]

ATM I am a hs sophomore, and just wondering what I should do to make myself best prepared for college workload?? I double up on both my math and science classes and take honors in them, but those are the only ones I take them in. What else should I be doing to best prepare myself for college?

Take as my college credit classes as you can.Will REALLY lighten up your load in college. This will let you focus more on the important stuff and take easier semesters.

No reason to burn yourself out "preparing" for college. I was a massive slacker in HS and now I have great grades.

 

[Green Grass]

Take as my college credit classes as you can.Will REALLY lighten up your load in college. This will let you focus more on the important stuff and take easier semesters.

No reason to burn yourself out "preparing" for college. I was a massive slacker in HS and now I have great grades.

Same here.

I think taking college credits during HS is a great idea. It will allow that extra time during college to do well in your classes.

I also agree with the start light idea. I would recommend only one science class your first semester. They can get quite overwhelming, especially when you mix in lab time. Take 2-3 classes that will allow you to get rid of some of the gen ed requirements, but won't be too much work for you.

Good luck!

 

[MarlboroSmooth]

Listen to the other guys in this thread, it's best to start off slow. If you can get some college credits in high school through dual-credit or AP programs, it's going to make life easier, either by lightening your gen ed workload, or your basic science workload. I took a great number of dual-credit and (nonscience) AP courses in high school, but none of those were science classes, and I ended up going through mild shock my first couple of semesters of college.

Even if you do poorly your first couple of semesters, don't lose focus. After two semesters, I got used to the general demands of college and my grades shot up.

 

[youmed]

Learn to manage your time. It will seriously help you get those As.

 

[MedMentor]

Meet with a college advisor and plan your semesters out so that you don't waste your time or take the wrong classes at the wrong time. Make your education efficient and streamlined. Set some goals and be prepared to study all day and treat it like a full time job.

 

[Hau5MD]

Practice good time management and study habits. Both will be essential when you take more classes.

 

[deleted421268]

Is it even possible to do well in college and yet not take any AP's or honors in high school. I was talking to my guidance counselor about this, and he said even he didn't take any honors or AP's in high school, but he did fine in college.

 

[corymartin2012]

Is it even possible to do well in college and yet not take any AP's or honors in high school. I was talking to my guidance counselor about this, and he said even he didn't take any honors or AP's in high school, but he did fine in college.

You don't need AP's or really honors for that matter to do well in college. They help, but not necessary at all.



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I would strongly suggest knocking out a few online courses from the community college before heading off. I took online HIST 1301/HIST 1302, ECON 2301, GOV 2301, and ENGL 1301/1302 during my junior and senior year.

It was a dual credit program.

It has to transfer and now I have 18 credit hours of free electives I can use. Its super beneficial! But dont slack off like I did and just think they were high school classes and didn't really count 😕 and come out with a 3.1666

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

You don't need AP's or really honors for that matter to do well in college. They help, but not necessary at all.



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I would strongly suggest knocking out a few online courses from the community college before heading off. I took online HIST 1301/HIST 1302, ECON 2301, GOV 2301, and ENGL 1301/1302 during my junior and senior year.

It was a dual credit program.

It has to transfer and now I have 18 credit hours of free electives I can use. Its super beneficial! But dont slack off like I did and just think they were high school classes and didn't really count 😕 and come out with a 3.1666

There's a bit of a problem with doing this. A lot of kids who do this dual enrollment thing get majorly screwed in the gpa department. I say take some intro classes at your community college the summer before you start college, like say calc 1.

 

[OCDOCDOCD]

Is it even possible to do well in college and yet not take any AP's or honors in high school. I was talking to my guidance counselor about this, and he said even he didn't take any honors or AP's in high school, but he did fine in college.

Oh yeah, it's more than possible. APs just help make hard classes easier when you take them again in college/AP out of them, and they also make you aware of the kind of commitments you'll need to make to college classes before you're actually in college and screwing up your college GPA while you figure out that you can't sleep through college classes and still get A's like you can in high school.

Don't worry too much about it, the difficulty of college is really overhyped. AP classes are actually harder than college classes in a lot of cases, at least until you hit upper division courses (I went to a top 20 school and that was my opinion as well as the opinion of a lot of other people I talked to).

 

[penguindoc2012]

Start with a lighter load. Get your feet wet and see what is required for success in a college class. Also, for that semester, focus on academics rather than doing what some do and partying all the time then realizing that college is tougher than they thought it would be.