There’s a well-known myth surrounding the idea that university is harder than college. While that may be true for some people, I think that the experience is heavily dependent on the program of study.
As someone who has experienced both university and college while studying journalism in the past four years, I can attest to the fact that university and college are on the same level of difficulty, however they differ in the way they’re executed.
One of the most obvious differences has been class sizes. Normal university class sizes range anywhere from 50 to 300 students, whereas my current college classes are capped off at about 40.
Teaching styles were also significantly different. My university professors were lecturers. They focused more on teaching ideas as opposed to teaching skills, like in college. They were also less concerned with your attendance and whether or not you handed in your assignments.
One of the biggest changes I had to adapt to when I came to college after several years of university was the difference in workload; not the fact that the work was more challenging, but the frequency of assignments.
In university, I’d only have about five assignments per class, and three of those would be midterms and the final exam. College is a whole different ball game. I’m usually simultaneously working on five different assignments a week.
Although both of my experiences have been different, they’ve both been valuable life lessons. My biggest takeaway in university was learning independence and organization, while college has taught me responsibility and time management – all useful for the workforce.
The message here is not to judge the quality of a lesson based on its level of difficulty, but more so on the quality of what you take away from it.