The first tangible difference a college freshman feels is the change in his academic schedule. While a high school student tackles most classes for the full 36-week school year, college classes take up a shorter 15-week semester, not counting integration and examination periods. Even the daily schedule varies greatly, with the average high school student attending classes for six straight hours daily while a college student may spend as little as half of that time in class, depending on the number of hours he's taking. However, the college student makes up for it with required schoolwork outside of class hours, typically two to three hours of self-study for each hour spent in class.
Usually, high school classes are of a broader, more general nature than college classes, with all schools covering similar topics in social studies, the different sciences, mathematics and language arts. College is for specialization and, hence, becomes more content-focused than student-focused. College teachers expect that all enlisted students have sufficient background knowledge and skills for their specific classes, which instills the need for passing prerequisite courses. High schools provide a teaching environment while colleges offer students an active learning environment.
Greater student responsibility means that a student must exert more than the minimum effort for success. If in high school she received step-by-step instruction from her teachers, in college self-reliance is expected. Motivation, performance monitoring and goal-setting all fall on the student's shoulders. The teacher provides a syllabus as a guide but leaves it to his students to keep up with his lectures and assignments. A student who falls behind must have the initiative of seeking further instruction from the teacher, from fellow students or from personal research.
While students train themselves to be more responsible, the role of a teacher in directing and supervising his students' progress gets reduced to a minimum. Not all professors check homework, though they may assign plenty for students' practice. High school teachers remind students of incomplete homework; this is rarely true among college teachers. During lectures, a high school teacher may provide organized summaries and lecture materials; college teachers generally expect students to outline their own notes from classroom discussions. A college teacher cannot be expected to alter the pacing of his lectures to address the specific needs of a single student.
Finally, because college serves as a training ground for independent and self-sufficient students, heavy parental involvement is not encouraged. High school teachers deal with minors and may, therefore, consult freely with their students' parents or guardians during Parent-Teacher Association meetings, open houses and personal conferences; however, because of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), a college student now has the right to limit information exchanged between her teachers and parents.