<p>It really is an unbelievably wonderful experience. Everyone is smart and motivated, everyone is from another state or country and there’s no end of things to learn from each other. In the end if I went to a lesser ranked college I would not trade anything for these years. It’s true though that everyone goes to a really good college and does really well. We’ve basically been in college for the last 4 years. We’ve had amazing coaches and there are so many recruited athletes. People have done year abroad, exchange terms and Washington internships. We have lectures by top authors and politicians on a weekly basis. Teachers live among us and are always there to help and advise. Tell the school you’re interested in something they don’t have and they get it. The top preps have per pupil endowments similar to those at most ivies!</p>
<p>having friends around all the time is great…speaking to your parents on the phone occassionaly…that part is great also. No big dramas…or issues. You will actually be glad to go home a couple of times a year. It makes the whole HS experience more your own.</p>
<p>Did it make going to college less exciting? Not as big a change as it might be for someone leaving home for the first time…</p>
<p>I can;t imagine it will make college less fun. Everyone I know is much more on focus about what they really want from a college. It’s not about freedom and getting away from home as it is for many. We know how good departments are at all the top schools because our teachers and counselors know. I honestly believe we see college much differently than most. I think we’re more likely to choose a college other that HYP because we understand fit.</p>
<p>You will always remember the day you arrive on campus to move in…whatever school you have chosen. All the work, strife…this is the day. All the puffed up parents and kids with looks of all kinds on their faces. It will be amazing. It will be exciting. Is college less fun…absolutely not. In the beginning the academics are less fun but that is because when leaving a prep after 4 years you are leaving a well honed group of students and when arriving at college many are novices to the new style of teaching. I myself was a novice to larger classes…I had never had one. By larger I mean more than 14 kids.</p>
<p>I wonder if I will have that problem also. One year I was in a class of 19 people and everyone was complaining that the class was “huge”
I can’t really imagine big lectures…</p>
<p>It is not a problem really and I haven’t had many large classes. At first I was not too much in favor of it…really it is quite an easy experience. Firstly you don’t have to go prepared in the same fashion so you can put the large class up against a class that is more demanding. This does not speak to the difficulty of material but rather the necessity of discussion/question/interraction. I could never go to class more than fully prepared for the embarassment/humiliation would have been bad. Also the teacher impression and resulting poor review…it just wasn’t a wise thing. You will find many small seminars at college and you will enjoy them but there is a sense of some freedom to attending a large class.</p>