Students often hear a great many comparisons between high school and colleges. It is probably wise to take most stories with a grain of salt. The college experience differs from school to school and from student to student. Two students at the same college can have radically different experiences and come away with vastly different generalizations about the college experience.

Still, there are a few things which can be said about the relationship between college and high school. On the surface college and high school appear very similar. Students go to classes. Teachers stand in front of them and lecture. Students take tests. Eventually, after they've taken enough classes, they earn a degree (provided they remember to tell the College that they are ready to graduate).

Sometimes it seems the main difference is that high schools tend to be housed in a few buildings and colleges tend to be scattered in many different buildings all over a campus.

However, college can be a fundamentally different experience than high school, and the reason for that is a simple one -- students pay for the privilege of attending college.

Because they are paying for college, the underlying assumption of the institution is that students want to be there. If they don't want to be there, they can leave. There is no legal requirement that they be in college. The college is under no obligation to educate a student if the student is not interested. Students get a lot of freedom when they come to college. With that freedom comes the burden of responsibility.

In college, the responsibility shifts almost completely to the student.

In high school, at least until the age where a student can legally drop out, the school is guided by state laws which require that they educate that student, whether the student wants to be educated or not. Many of the rules and regulations of high school life are shaped by the fact that the school must educate a wide range of students--many of whom would just as soon not be there.

Generally speaking, only about 25% of all high school graduates go on to earn a college degree. By going on to college students have already become part of a self-selected group of people who wish to further their education badly enough to pay for the privilege.

College life is shaped by this fact. The college isn't going to hound students, unless it's about paying their bill. No one is going to be on a student's back to make sure they are on the right degree track. Often, no one is going to be checking to see if the student is going to class.

It isn't that college officials and professors don't care. They do. But they are busy people, and they aren't likely to take the time to chase down students who aren't acting responsibly.

On the other hand, most colleges go out of their way to provide help for students who request it. But students have to ask for help. It's their education. It's their responsibility to get it.