High School Goes to College Part One

If you are currently a high school student who is considering taking college courses before you graduate there are a couple of factors basic to College Academic Life you need to be aware of.

One is a term present in all of education but critical in Higher Education you need to become very, very  aware of -  Transcript. From the time of your first college course enrollment your transcript, the record of the courses in which you have enrolled, will follow you. College transcripts are a permanent record. Permanent. That means forever, always, for good, continuing.  They follow you from campus to campus if you transfer and even after you graduate your transcripts never go away.

     The second basic fact of College Academic Life is this. Since you have either little or no experience with the customs and procedures of higher education it is in your best interest to carefully consider for yourself just exactly which course or courses you intend to enroll in and how you expect to get a passing grade.

     High school students, particularly those who are accustomed to getting good grades, frequently fail to realize that the standard for grading a typical college course is very different than the high school standard. Even courses with exactly the same name, Calculus or Creative Writing, World History or Statistics, for examples, will not at all resemble what you are used to in a high school class room. This is because the content for a college course is more densely concentrated and the pace of the course is usually brisk. One additional condition which exists in most college courses can be particularly devastating for students who ' always get straight A's' , the students for whom any grade less than an A can be initially devastating.  This condition is that typically the course instructor does not care at all that a student ' always gets A's'.  The instructor is there to present the course, evaluate the student's work, grade the assignments and issue the appropriate final grade.

     Therefore it is important for  inexperienced students to understand that the grade they achieve, whatever it may be, will be preserved on their higher education Transcript, no matter what school has awarded it.

     Planet College therefore counsels all high school students to thoughtfully review any college level course they may be considering before enrolling.  Be Aware: as we are emphasizing, the grade you receive will follow your higher education career permanently.