The REAL difference between high school and university classes
Written by: Macey Whiteside, 2nd year FIMS
Photo by: Marvin Meyer, Unsplash
Before I started university, people often tried to scare me about how hard the classes would be and how much work I’d have to do. While it’s true that university is more challenging than high school, this isn’t the whole story. Yes, the classes are harder, but chances are you’re studying subjects you’re passionate about, making it easier to put in the effort to succeed. Further, there are several other differences from high school which make university classes unique.
Coming from a high school experience disrupted by COVID-19, I felt especially unprepared for the jump to university. Our high school classes were made easier with lenient marking, flexible deadlines, and the absence of exams. Because of this, the workload at university felt like a huge leap from what I was used to in high school, where homework was minimal. But while university classes are more challenging, I’ve found that the challenge is manageable—and even rewarding.
Beyond the workload, several key differences between high school and university classes are not regularly discussed, which caught me by surprise. Here are a few things that separate university and high school classes that you should expect coming to Western:
Schedule
The biggest change for me was the shift in class schedules. In high school, your day is a set routine of two to four classes, often the same every day. But in university, your schedule is much more varied. You’ll likely have fewer hours of class each day, and those classes might not be back-to-back. For instance, I am in Media, Information and Technoculture and in my first year, I only had classes three days a week, from Tuesday to Thursday, with my earliest class at 8:30 AM and my latest ending at 10:00 PM.
Classes often run just once or twice a week, meaning you won’t have the same course every day. This shift in routine takes some getting used to, but it also gives you more flexibility and control over your time. However, due to the classes being shorter, you will likely have many more hours of homework and independent work than you did in high school. You may only have class 12 hours a week but end up doing much more than that outside of class hours.
Personally, this is one of the reasons I prefer university classes over high school ones. I have found that I learn better with less class time and more independent work at my own pace. Although, this will be different for everyone.
Choosing classes
Selecting your classes at Western is done through the Student Center portal, which can be a bit more complicated than the straightforward process in high school. In high school, you were told which mandatory classes you would have to take from grades 9 through 12. At Western, the process of ensuring you are selecting the right courses gets a bit more complicated.
To graduate at Western, you must complete a certain number of 1000-level courses, 2000-level courses and 3000+ level courses. Also, you are required to take 1.0 essay credits and 1.0 credits from each class category of A, B, and C. Here is a basic PDF documenting what you may need to graduate for your bachelor's degree graduation requirements.
Ensuring you have fulfilled these requirements and gotten the grades needed to progress adequately in your degree is much more self-directed than in high school. There are PDFs and guidelines that exist online for each selected degree which lays out exactly what you must take each year to ensure you are on the right track. However, these documents can be hard to find and are often buried in pages and pages on Western's website.
What I suggest is booking an academic advising appointment with an academic advisor in your faculty to ensure you are selecting all the right courses. This can be found on your faculty's website.
On the plus side, university schedules offer much more freedom. If you want, you can choose classes based on times and days that suit you, which is great if you know you're not a morning person or if you prefer to have afternoons off.
However, some programs have much more freedom than others. MIT has significantly fewer mandatories than many of my STEM friends, meaning they were only able to customize their schedules within the bounds of tutorial times and a couple of electives.
Classwork
The adjustment in course load and difficulty will drastically change depending on what high school you attended and what your program is. Being in MIT I felt my classes were significantly more work than high school, but still very manageable. Exam season has always been the biggest struggle for me as I did not do exams after COVID-19. I find it hard to balance studying for five exams, especially when they are close together and take place right after I have my final projects due.
Additionally, MIT is a very essay-dominated program, one of the biggest changes I noticed is how different and difficult the essays were. They were much more abstract than what I was used to in high school English, and the traditional way we were taught to write essays did not work in university. Thankfully, a mandatory class in MIT is a first-year critical thinking and essay writing class as without it I don’t think I would be doing nearly as well as I am now.
Syllabus
One unique aspect of university classes is the variation in how each professor structures their course. Every professor creates their syllabus, outlining their expectations, class rules, and assignment deadlines. Policies on late submissions, AI usage, assignment extensions, and exams can differ widely. I’ve had professors who deduct 2% per day for late assignments, and others who give an automatic zero.
This means that professors also have different preferences for assignments, writing styles, exams, and forums. In a subject like MIT, which can be abstract and subjective, understanding what your professor is looking for can significantly impact your grades. I have learned that a good skill to have in these types of classes is to recognize what the teacher is looking for and what they consider to be successful. The good news is that many professors are clear about their expectations, and you can learn a lot from their feedback. Be sure to take advantage of their office hours!
Overall, I’ve found that syllabi are incredibly helpful tools that is certainly an improvement from high school. I love having the entire semester’s plan laid out, so I know exactly when assignments and tests are due. At the start of each semester, I put all my due dates into a calendar so I can see when my workload will be heaviest.
Independence
In university students are in charge of their learning, unlike in high school where a teacher may ensure you are keeping up with readings, assignments, etc. Profs expect you to do the work and keep up week to week. Teachers in university may remind students in the classes leading up to tests and assignments but that is as far as they will go. They will not independently email or talk to a student because they have missed an important deadline which was often the case in high school. This means that it is up to you to rigorously check deadlines and test dates.
Keeping up with your own deadlines and homework on top of cooking, cleaning and shopping for yourself can be a challenge to keep up with. I recommend using organizational tools such as Notion, Google Calendar, or a notebook to write your deadlines and to-dos. Speaking from experience, I also recommend that you double check you have written the deadlines down properly and not multiple days after its due.
Conclusion
In the end, the shift to university classes isn’t just about harder coursework, it’s a completely different learning environment. The independence, the varied schedules, and the more complex assignments are part of what makes university a unique experience. It takes some adjustment, but once you get the hang of it, you might find the structure and freedom more suited to your way of learning. Personally, I am doing better academically than I was in high school because I am truly passionate about what I am learning and find the structure of university to fall better in line with my learning style.
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