The College

The most important thing to know about college is that it is VERY different from high school.

From what I have seen and heard, many CMU students do not fully realize that college is VERY different from high school. In fact, I often hear complaints from students that are based on the mistaken impression that college is supposed to be like high school. However, in reality, college is very different from high school. Here are some of the main differences:

Responsibility
One of the most important differences between high school and college is that in college, the learning is primarily the responsibility of the student. The faculty are ready to help you learn: they will provide lectures and discussion opportunities; they will craft assignments which will help you master the material; and so on. And the faculty are ready to help you outside of class time when you need it. However, it is your responsibility to come to us when you are having problems. The faculty are dedicated to helping you succeed, but they are also determined to treat you as adults. No one is going to baby you here. If you want or need help, you have to take the initiative and ask for it.

Studying
Because the main responsibility for learning is yours, you cannot expect your professors to spoon- feed material to you. Much of the learning for a college course will take place outside of the classroom. In fact, you should expect to put in at least two hours of studying outside of class for every hour you spend in class. Depending on the class, you may need to spend that time reading (and re-reading) the required and recommended readings, reviewing the lectures and your notes from them, working problems or doing other sorts of exercises, and (last but not least) THINKING about the material. If you are not sure what you should be doing outside of class, then be sure to ask the professor.
Remember: Good universities expect their students to spend, on average, at least two hours studying for every hour they spend in class. That is why someone taking twelve to fifteen semester- hours is considered a full-time student. If you do not have time to study, then you do not have time to be a student. Many CMU students devote large amounts of time to jobs or other non-academic pursuits and still expect to do well in a full load of courses. Such students often expect their professors to water down their courses so that the necessary work for them can be completed without taking time away from other things. The problem with this attitude is that it is based on a failure to grasp the fact that a good education takes time, and that a full time student should be just that--a student who devotes most of her time to her education, and who makes that her top priority.

Teachers versus Professors
In high school you have teachers. In college you have professors. What's the difference? A professor divides her time and energy more or less equally between two roles: the role of teacher and the role of scholar or scientist or artist. The faculty of a university not only pass knowledge on to students. They also create new knowledge. A high school history teacher teaches history. A college history professor is an actual historian. A high school science teacher teaches science. A college science professor is an actual scientist.
    In other words, college professors are actively engaged in research that extends the frontiers of knowledge, understanding, and art. The fact that American college courses are taught by practicing scholars, scientists, and artists is one of the main reasons that people from all over the world come to American universities. A university is a place where everyone is learning, experimenting, creating, and pushing the boundaries, your professors included.
        You may have heard the phrase "publish or perish." That phrase applies to college professors. A college professor is expected to conduct research in her field that is eventually published in scholarly journals and books. Professors who do not do this are not doing their whole jobs. One of the reasons for requiring professors to be more than teachers is to make sure that you are getting the best education possible. At a good university, the instructors are more than just people who read a couple of books about the subject and looked over some instructor's manual; they are experts in the subjects they are teaching.
        The fact that your college professors are also scholars, scientists, and artists does not make them any less committed to teaching, however. A person earns a Ph.D. and embarks on a career in academia because she loves the subject she studies. A good professor is always ready to share her enthusiasm for her subject with others.
        By the way, the proper title for someone with a Ph.D. is "Doctor so-and-so;" the proper title of someone who is a professor is "Professor so-and-so." Since some professors do not have Ph.D.'s, you are safest if you call people "Professor." Many professors prefer that you address them less formally, but unless they tell you otherwise, it is best to address them in a way that recognizes the time and work they put in to earning their degrees (it usually takes between four and six years to earn a Ph.D.--and that is AFTER four years of college).

Course requirements
In most college courses, there will only be a few graded tasks. For example, it is quite common for a whole course grade to be based on three exams, or two exams and a term paper. While this does vary somewhat from discipline to discipline and professor to professor, for the most part the practice of having graded work every week or so is more appropriate for high school than for college.
Of course this means that each exam and each paper will count for a large part of your grade. That is just part of college life. No one said college would be easy or stress-free. The way to cope with this is to stay current on your studying, that is, to study every week and not just right before the exam. In college you will be treated like an adult, and part of what that means is not having to have a quiz every week to make sure you are doing the work. In college, it is your responsibility to keep up with the material or to get help if you are falling behind.

Homework
You can also expect that very few of your college courses will require graded homework. This will vary somewhat from course to course, but for the most part graded homework is something that you have in high school rather than in college. There is plenty of work to do outside of class, but in most classes, most of that work will not be collected and graded. College is for adults, and adults are capable of making their own decisions about how seriously they take their education. If you choose to neglect the work you should be doing outside of class, then you should be prepared for the consequences. If a professor tells you that you should be doing x, y, and z outside of class, then you can expect that these tasks will be helpful-- maybe even necessary--for you to do well in the course, regardless of whether she collects and grades them.

Grades and standards
In college, the standards are much higher than in high school. However, the faculty are ready and willing to help you meet those standards. Most professors will do anything they can to help you meet the high standards of college--anything, that is, except lowering those standards. No one has a right to good grades. You have to earn them. Do not expect to get an A or B for just for meeting the minimum requirements. If your work is merely adequate, if it meets the requirements but does nothing more, then you should expect a C. A grade in the B-range means "very good." It means that you have not only met the expectations for the assignment, but that you have exceeded them. Do not expect a B for mediocre work which just meets the minimum requirements. If all you do is meet the requirements, expect a C. To get an A or B, you have to exceed expectations and do more than the minimum. Grades in the A-range are reserved for work which is really excellent. If you want an A, you must EXCEL.
Most students in college got A's and B's in high school. That means that they were above-average as high school students. However, what was above-average performance in high school is only adequate in college. In college you are competing with other students who were above average in high school. It is more difficult to do better than average in college because the average student is much brighter.

Papers
Much of your college time will be spent writing papers. In most courses, a paper should display some original thought or research; it must be more than just a book report. Do not expect to get an A on a paper just because you wrote a book report with no major mistakes. Papers and other written assignments usually require you to do some thinking on your own, to build on or apply or criticize the ideas from the course for yourself. (This varies somewhat from course to course; if your professor has not made it clear how much original thinking your papers should involve, be sure to ask her.) In high school, one can often get by merely by repeating or paraphrasing what someone else thinks about some topic. In college, you are supposed to learn to think for yourself.
Also, keep in mind that you are in college, and when you write papers, you need to write like an educated adult. Educated adults pay attention to grammar, spelling, and punctuation. Plan to spend time proofreading your work before turning it in. A paper is something like an interview, and you want to make a good impression. Few things make a worse impression than when a college student writes a paper that looks as though it was written by someone who failed 9th grade English.