Was university harder, or easier than what you expected?

[Lana_]

When you first started? (In undergrad). State school, and program as well... if you want...

 

Just curious...

[Apixaban85]

I was told it would be MUCH harder than it actually was in my opinion. It was very exaggerated when teachers said 'the professors don't care about you!' etc. Really wasn't the case for me at all

 

University of Toronto Scarborough

Human Biology

[imperfection]

Harder. I think I was used to being 'smart' in high school and I wasn't prepared for the intense work load that comes with university.. and also being with a class of over 300 people where a large majority of the class is there to actually LEARN.

[cnb88]

Harder. In high school I could study the night before an exam and pull off an easy 90+. In high school you have more than two things that decide your entire mark. Even provincial exams (diploma exams in AB) are a joke compared to university. The night before my Biology 30 diploma I went to a concert and didn't get home until 2am. Had to wake up at 7am to write the exam worth 50% of my entire grade at 9am. Pulled off a 99%. If I would have tried something like that in university I would have pulled of an F. lol.

 

Whether someone finds university easier or harder also depends on the program they're in and system of marking. For example, if your classes are graded on a curve at university, imagine competing for marks with 300 other people, almost all of which most likely got 80%+ in high school. That alone makes it a little tougher to pull off As and A+s. Distractions are greater in university too. It all really comes down to how well you're able to focus and deal with everything and how well you taught yourself to study in high school.

[Starling]

Definitely harder, despite doing IB in high school.

[Rext]

School: UTSG

Program: Life Science

Verdict: F()$@ing HARD

 

Coming from a gifted program in high school, I kind of expected university to be comparable in difficulty. I now look back on that naive little grade 12 kid and LOL.

Firstly, you're in a completely different environment where no one expects you to do anything. Don't wanna come to class? Fine, no one cares. Homework? Thats for your benefit, no one checks. This is probably the biggest pitful for people in that they're expected to take inititative and be proactive about their learning.

In addition, the huge class sizes really throw you off. This is especially apparent at UTSG with 1st year bio having ~1200 students in the class. Although one adapts really fast (not be choice mind you, by necessity), the first few lectures are quite intimidating.

Lastly, the difficulty of the exams are the equivalent of MIND RAPEAGE. Yes, I mean that quite literally. UTSG is notorious for having low entrance requirements- but its also notorious for attracting the best and brightest students from across the globe. Now, for the entering class in Life Science, I would hazard a guess that around 60% of the class had high school averages of around 80-90 and about 35% in the 90's (most universities probably have this entrance distribution). The entrance average for the entire student body usually hovers at around 85-90. Now, take that average and make it a ~65, which is what happens after mark adjustments for your courses. You can appreciate why they make those exams as beastly as they do.

The bottom line is that transition to uni is hard for everyone regardless of where you go. Just keep up with your work and don't fall behind. Don't be afraid to ask questions (in tutorial/via email mind you, please don't try to ask a question in a lecture with 1000 other people). Good luck

[shannn]

snip

 

Haha, I love your sig

[Leon]

Dramatically harder than expected. Possibly exponentially with every passing semester.

 

UTSC

Cell and Molecular Biology

[Cnussey]

Astrophysics @ Saint Mary's: Both. 1st year was "just" hard enough, but 2nd year was really ****ing hard.

 

Business Admin @ MUN: Exactly what I expected.

[janny_jan]

I found the workload was what made undergrad harder than high school. There is so much more info you needed to know in UG that they cram into a shorter period of time. Around exam time, we would all go into "lock down" for hours and hours a day studying (something I never did in high school). The work is continuous as well, with lab reports, papers, midterms, etc. happening all year long.

However, I got better grades in UG than high school because I was studying in a program that I LOVED and really was interested in most of the classes I took.

I went to a small school and was in a small program so had no experiences with large classes and uncaring profs. I knew all my profs by their first name and went to one of their houses for Thanksgiving when she found out I was from across the country and couldn't fly home In short, UG was awesome.

 

St. Francis Xavier

Human Kinetics/Health Sci

[kinemed]

I found the workload was what made undergrad harder than high school. There is so much more info you needed to know in UG that they cram into a shorter period of time. Around exam time, we would all go into "lock down" for hours and hours a day studying (something I never did in high school). The work is continuous as well, with lab reports, papers, midterms, etc. happening all year long.

However, I got better grades in UG than high school because I was studying in a program that I LOVED and really was interested in most of the classes I took.

I went to a small school and was in a small program so had no experiences with large classes and uncaring profs. I knew all my profs by their first name and went to one of their houses for Thanksgiving when she found out I was from across the country and couldn't fly home In short, UG was awesome.

 

St. Francis Xavier

Human Kinetics/Health Sci

 

This pretty much reflects my experience, likely because we were in the same program with very similar environments. Loved my program!

 

Acadia

Kinesiology

[janny_jan]

This pretty much reflects my experience, likely because we were in the same program with very similar environments. Loved my program!

 

Acadia

Kinesiology

 

When did you grad from Acadia? there are a couple people at UWO now in my program and related programs from Acadia kin! We maritime undergrads like to seek each other out!

[Tango Charlie]

Easier. My only other post-secondary experience was in getting a paramedic diploma, and we had a few university grads in my class, and they said our program was about the same/easier than the stuff they took. Some of the university stuff I found to be easier, some more difficult (math, which I didn't take in OAC, and OAC was a number of years ago), and some about the same. Overall, though, easier than I expected. I never really did much of anything in high school, though, so I'm not certain how it'd stack up. I also don't know how OAC compares to the new grade 12.

[thatonekid]

I wouldn't say it was harder than I expected, only because I though you had to study 24/7 in university. lol. As if I actually studied until the night before

[neuropsy]

A little easier than what I expected. Throughout the last few years in high school, teachers bombarded us with the horrors of university. I thought I adjusted and transitioned into it all quite well. I think the whole experience has alot to do with how you adapt to new environments and deal with new challenges.

 

UTSC Neuroscience/Mental Health

[MedDream]

umm a bit of both.

 

work- harder

environment- much better

 

I'll explain

I came into university thinking it would be "hard". Basically I thought that if I studied a bit more than in high school (in which I basically crammed the night before an exam) I would be fine. NOT THE CASE! I realized that I had gone through high school purely memorizing everything, and in university I find a lot more emphasis is put on understanding concepts, which took me all of first semester to get used to. Also, don't underestimate exams. I figured, "oh, there is so much information, they can't test us on all of it." BUT THEY DO! And it is usually the most difficult question from each concept, so don't get stuck into thinking they make it easy for you haha. However, once I figured this out by doing poorly on a few of my first midterms, things got exponentially better.

 

The environment! Everyone says that in university you are just a number. Totally not the case! I found the majority of my profs to be very kind. They really want to help their students and scheduled lots of office hours. If you can't make their office hours, most of them will check their email frequently and/or set up an appointment for you to meet with them. Also, I kind of like being in a mid-size school (about 16,000 undergrads). If you get involved in things, it doesn't seem as big anymore. It's not uncommon for me to run into several people I know on my way to class, in a timmies line, etc.

 

University of Guelph

Bio-Medical Sciences (2013)

[kinemed]

When did you grad from Acadia? there are a couple people at UWO now in my program and related programs from Acadia kin! We maritime undergrads like to seek each other out!

 

I graduated '09, but I'd probably know or at least recognize the name of most people from like '07-'10. Who's in your program from Acadia kine? Definitely agree about maritime undergrads seeking each other out!

[KennethToronto]

etc etc

 

UTSG isn't as bad as you make it out to be and it's not "full of the best and the brightest" - there are the same %tage of really intelligent people wherever you attend.

 

The environment at UTSG sucks though...I'd agreed with you there.

[Caylynn]

I studied Biological Engineering at the University of Guelph. Did high school in Ontario back when we still had grade 13/OAC, so I had five years of high school going into first year university, with our OAC courses supposedly geared towards university-level studies. Had an A+ average out of high school, winning a bunch of graduation awards for graduating at the top of my class, and the Governor General's academic medal for my school. Ended up graduating at the top of my class from engineering as well, winning the PEO Gold Medal. So that gives you an idea of my academic standing.

 

At university, some courses were a lot easier than I expected, others were much harder.

 

I found my science and math courses to be fairly easy (even calculus and differential equations were surprisingly easy!), but some of my other courses (especially in second and third year) were quite hard. Engineering economics, fluid mechanics, systems and control theory, and the third year design course (the 3rd year bio eng students were given a horrible design project imo) were hard for me to get good marks in (ended up with Bs and B+s). I did okay in my humanities electives, but it's easy to see where my strengths lie - got an A+ in the science-based pysch course, but only an A- in the arts-based psych.

 

I did find, that compared to high school, a lot of exams required us to tackle new problems, or apply our knowledge in new ways, and weren't just a repeat of problem-types or problems we had studied in our classes or in our assignments. We had to take what we had learned and apply it in new ways. Some people had a really hard time with that in our engineering courses. I didn't have an easy time with it, but I would say I was pretty much average in these types of courses. In other words, I could usually come up with a solution, but sometimes it would take me a while and it wasn't always the best solution.

 

As others have said, one major difference was the workload. Definitely had to adjust to having more stuff to do - lab reports, assignments, essays, projects, etc., as well as just regular studying and, yes, homework.

 

So for me, at least, it was a real mix. Some courses were harder than I expected, some were easier, and some just required a lot of work to get good marks in (ie. biochemistry and physiology, which were just a LOT of memorization).

[medrobotics]

Did Engineering Science at the University of Toronto (St.George Campus) specializing in Biomedical Engineering. Came in with numerous scholarships, but hey lol once I was in deep (2nd and 3rd year), that didnt matter at all.

 

Like many of the others coming into the program, came in with an A+ average, but due to 1) the difficulty of the program 2) transitioning into uni got utterly destroyed in my first (and partially second) year. Eventually recovered by my 3rd and 4th year (3.6-3.7), but not to premed-ish levels (3.8-3.9). All in all, a terrible undergrad experience - way different from high school. Tried to do sports, extracurricular in 1st and 2nd year, but eventually had to stop to keep my marks up.

 

As others here described, UTSG is a pretty crappy environment, compounded by the fact that U of T sees undergrads as ATMs, and really could care less about them.

 

This being a premed forum, I would stay that staying clear of U of T is probably the best thing a potential med student could do, to avoid getting certain course(s) that could mess up your GPA.