cause and effect essay: Does High School Really Prepare Students for College?

If you have ever been through high school, you probably know the feeling of the pressures of school weighing you down. As a junior in high school, I can honestly say that many students, like me, undergo extreme levels of stress and pressure just in hopes of being accepted into the college the student desires and in hopes that the student will be prepared for college. But for what? Is taking three AP classes and staying up until two in the morning scanning the words of a textbook through drowsy eyes really worth it? Will high school truly give high school students the experience and knowledge to succeed in college?
In high school they are many types of teens, however, many can categorize all the student into to categories. The first would be the hardworking, attentive, always gets good grades, “smart kid” and the second would be the lazy slacker, or the “dumb kid”. the sad thing about high school is the teachers don’t necessarily treat the two equally. In fact the “dumb kids” are typically the ones who need more attention, but the teachers always seem to pay more attention to the “smart kids” when it comes to schoolwork. In my opinion many teachers see it like this: if a child has no desire to learn it is not a teachers job to motivate them, it is the teachers job to teach the students with a desire to learn and go on to college and make something of themselves. Of course this does not apply to all teachers, but it seems to be a common occurrence.
The “smart kids” may be given more attention, which typically means teachers, as well as parents, expect a lot more form these students. The “smart kids” are expected to take honors courses and go to a fancy college, in many ways they are expected to be the “ideal student”. The ideal student works hard to achieve goals, is motivated and ready to learn, is always prepared, and receives good grades. I believe that teachers and parents often believe honors students are superhuman or something to that nature. Of course I do not literally mean that teachers think that honors students possess super powers or something, but teachers and parents put a lot of pressure on students and the students are still expected to succeed all the time. I know this from personal experience. Our teachers and parents have very high expectations for us “smart kids”, which puts a lot of pressure on us kids.
So is all this pressure worth it? Every high school student has the same requirements that they must reach, which means every student is expected to learn, for the most part, the same things. There are not enough classes provided by high schools that can really prepare everyone for college. For instance, it is obvious that not every student will go into college prepared because they may have not taken the classes to prepare them for their future major. Not every student is going to be a future author, scientist, or engineer. Maybe some kids desire to be artists, or pilots, marine biologists or pediatricians. Although students can benefit from what they have learned in high school, they are not truly prepared because they have no prior knowledge about their desired major or career.
Also, in high school students are not yet fully independent. The students are in one small classroom crammed with thirty five noisy teens, some socializing, others trying to learn. High school students have peers to refer to for help and share most of their classes with those peers. However in college, students are more independent. Many move out of their parents houses and go to separate colleges from their friends. In college one picks the times of their classes and has a variety of different people they’ve never seen before. Another thing is socializing in class and referring to your peers for help in class in not as common as in high school. In college students usually all have a desire to learn and are very attentive to their professors. This is much different form the life of high school.
Because of the many differences between high school and college it is unlikely that students will be one hundred percent prepared for life after high school. The basic classes all students are required don’t allow students to step outside boundaries and study for their future major. Students don’t always have access to the recourses or classes they need to get a head start for college. Also high school is a place where one is meant to find one’s independence. However many don’t find it un till they have reached college and realize they have become an adult and are forced to accept their independence. The events that take place in high school can have some amount of impact on the college life that fallows, but the effects is typically that the student is not fully prepared.