The realities of college as told by sophomores

Tom Petty said, “I’ve learned one thing, and that’s to quit worrying about stupid things. You have four years to be irresponsible here, relax. Work is for people with jobs. You’ll never remember class time, but you’ll remember the time you wasted hanging out with your friends. So stay out late. Go out with your friends on a Tuesday night when you have a paper due on Wednesday. Spend money you don’t have. Drink until sunrise. The work never ends, but college does.” Tom Petty wrote these words nearly sixty years ago and  they still resonate with college students today.

So, I asked a handful of sophomores what college has taught them and this is what they said about college so far for them.

I kind of get why people study now

General consensus at The Ohio State University is that, to most people, high school came easy (lucky them). No one studied until senior year, if that. Others did not take their backpacks’ out of their car more than a handful of times. These students are now taking Organic Chemistry and Mathematics for Engineers and struggling because studying is a foreign concept.

Oh, a party? No, you are going to fail all of your classes

What they say is true: when you go to college, you get to pick two/three of the following: sleep, a social life, school. Where one prospers, another hinders. So take Tom Petty’s advice, go out on a Tuesday when you have a midterm on Wednesday. But know that you will spend all of the nights prior to Tuesday cramming for that test and therefore losing a total of at least three days of sleep.

I study so much more to get such worse grades

Whether you study for that Gen. Chem. II midterm for five days or five hours, the best grade you have a chance of receiving is a 65%. . .with the curve.

Hint: our Chemistry Department has been on academic probation for the past seven years.

Everybody has heard of it, that means something

It’s basically a proven fact that you can go to any where in the world and yell O-H and someone is likely to respond I-O.

Napping is essential

Full nights of rest are few and far between, so your sleep schedule becomes one large series of naps.

College made me grow-up

I have to do my own laundry now? Believe it or not, this is a foreign concept to most college students.

Note: the Tide Pods do not go in the detergent section of the washer – you just toss it in.

It’s acceptable to cry at the dining hall and sleep at the gym

In high school, cliques are common. The jocks all sit at the same lunch table and the football players take the cheerleaders to homecoming. After twelve years of attending the same school with predominately the same peers, everyone knows everything about you whether you want them to or not. Here, it’s less of the fact that you get to “be whoever you want to be;” more importantly, you get to be yourself.

It is, in fact, socially acceptable to eat Easy Mac for breakfast @ 6:20AM on the way to Anatomy lab and a jar of peanut butter for dinner.

F-A-M-I-L-Y

Living in a dorm is encouraged. Of course that doesn’t sound glamorous or appealing in any way, but while living in a dorm you will meet some of your very best and truest friends. Everyone is experiencing the same awkward and uncomfortable situation. So all of those ridiculous ice breakers? Participate willingly, and laugh all the while.

HUMILITY

During orientation, President Drake took the stage and told us to “take a look around.” Then he said, “you are surrounded by the best and the brightest individuals. . .that’s right, you all are the smartest incoming class of freshman that this university has ever accepted. And you were selected from the toughest application pool our admissions has ever seen.”

The average GPA was a 3.97 and the average ACT score was a 29 composite.

In high school, most of the students at this university were 4.0+ students and their class valedictorian. However, being accepted to and attending this university is a humbling experience. Because here, everyone is of equal intelligence.

College isn’t what I expected

It’s fun, but it’s not. Disappointingly, High School Musical gave you the wrong impression of high school and Neighbors 2 gave you the wrong impression of college. As fun as college can be, it comes with a newfound sense of responsibility most of us have never had until we arrived.

Do not hold onto people from home as tightly as you think you need to

When you leave for college the summer after senior year, you make a promise to the friends you have known since you were in preschool that you will stay in touch with them and that your friendship will never waiver.

College tests the strengths of your friendships. True friendships will last a lifetime. The girl that you met in third grade that has dried your tears and made you laugh so hard your insides hurt for the past ten years will more than likely be your forever friend. But eventually you realize that you don’t have as much in common with some of the people you have shared everything with since childhood.