<p>OP,
"I wonder how common it is for college students to find their academic work relatively easy, even less challenging than all the preparation leading up to college acceptance. "</p>
<p>-Acceptance is the easiest part and a fun one. I have never heard that it is easy at college. As opposite, I heard from very high caliber HS kids (some graduated #1 from their repsective HS, some are private prep.) that college classes are exceptionally challenging, much more so than they expected. Some intro classes are going thru AP material in 2 weeks and then move on and some top Honors kids are falling out of their original track, just get weeded out, unless they adjust very quickly. I am talking about state public colleges. I have no idea about Ivy’s or Elite schools.</p>