While high school and college may seem like similar experiences, college differs from high school in many ways. Most notably, college students are expected to take responsibility for their success and accept the consequences for their decisions concerning it.
Alma’s liberal arts experience allows students, just as they did in high school, to explore a range of disciplines while building a broad foundation. College differs in that it also prepares students to excel in a specific program, however.
Dance students put on a Student Choreographers’
Concert each January.
Their major is a concentration of courses that gives them a basic knowledge of a particular field of study while preparing them for the professional world or graduate work. Students can receive assistance selecting a major through guidance from their advisor or the Academic and Career Planning Office.
How they spend their time outside of the classroom—athletics, organizations or other activities—is up to them, but it’s important that students set priorities and make sure that they understand the material dictated by the class’s syllabus.
Instead of spending all day in classes, as they did in high school, college classes often only meet a few times a week for several hours. It is your student’s responsibility to ask for help concerning assignments or other questions.
A student studies in the library.
In college, exams, papers and projects often make up the majority of a student’s grade in a class, and extra credit work isn’t typically offered. In short: results matter.
Parents are not necessarily privy to these results, however. A federal law, the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) protects the privacy of student education records unless we have specific permission from your student to share details with you.
