The journey from high school to college

By: Priya Darshini

She walks down the wooden hallway, each step evoking memories of her school life. Nostalgia hits her head on. Shwetha Elisha, 23, remembers her days spent rushing to and fro classes, her satisfaction over completing an assignment successfully, the stress of delivering an excellent presentation and the relief she felt at the end of every year.

The day she graduated from high school was one of her proudest and scariest moments. She was about to leave her care-free student life behind and embark on a new journey. “I was nervous but excited at the same time. I had all my friends with me and we knew that we would have more responsibilities but there was also a sense of having more freedom” she reminisces.

Fitting into university life can be difficult, especially because students have to constantly prove to themselves and their peers, that they are capable of handling the consequences of their actions. “I feel as I get older, more people respect me – when I was younger, people didn’t take me seriously”.

When in school, students are bound by many rules and regulations that have to be followed. Nava, 23, said that “schooling was torture for me [because] I was constantly told what to do. I was treated like a five year old by my teachers”.

He claims that university life gave him the freedom to pursue subjects he was interested in but along with this came the burden of responsibilities.

The transition from high school to university is a very stressful period of time. Those depending on scholarships have to wait for responses from the various universities and financial aids they have applied to.

They have to deal with the disappointment that comes with rejection letters, and if lucky, the joy of getting into the university of their choice.

But what about students with no option for financial aid? Ranita, 21, settled in Malaysia when she was three years old but does not have a Malaysian citizenship. Due to this, she was unable to apply for financial aid while studying at Segi University as they do not offer scholarships for international students.

“It’s a little sad for me, because we don’t get to celebrate Christmas as grandly as I’d like to. My dad has to pay RM 15,000 straight up, at the beginning of January every year until I graduate. I feel it is unfair because local students are allowed to pay on a monthly basis”.

Figure 1: Some international students such as Ranita have to pay their total university fees at the beginning on the year. 

Compared to her days in high school, Ranita implied it was easier to pay school fees as they had the option of paying per semester. After completing her high school, other critical decisions occupied her mind.

Deliberating which university to study in for the next four years was difficult because she did not want to transfer from a university once she had begun her studies there. “I didn’t want to inconvenience my parents because I knew that just to transfer out would mean paying more money, and what if I didn’t fit into the college I was transferring to?”

“Even though there have been stressful moments, I feel I’ve learnt more [in university] and applied this to real life”.

Despite her distaste towards the lack of financial aid for international students, Ranita claims that she enjoys university life a lot more than her high school life: “I’m growing up” she smiles.

There are some however that miss their high school days but have come to accept that change is inevitable and that they have to move on to the future.

Preetimit Kaur, 20, said that “in high school, grades weren’t a priority. Even if we failed, we could still move to the next class – there were no repercussions. Now I’m in university and if I fail, I have to pay to retake that subject and this adds a lot more pressure to meet the passing grade. I’ve had to take my studies a lot more seriously and put in more hard work”.

Corresponding with this opinion is Shanti Kumari, 20. Shanti’s Form 5 class in high school was “like a family” to her, but in university, she initially felt alienated and detached.

“I didn’t feel like my lecturers cared about me or whether I did well. I had to motivate myself and was completely responsible for my grades. In school my class teachers were always supportive and encouraging. They wanted me to succeed and I liked knowing that they genuinely cared about me”.

She does claim however that being in university has helped her adapt to different environments and cultures and has made her more independent. She acknowledged that she has to “accept that not everyone is always on your side” but that the experience has made her “stronger”.

Carmen, 20, who is currently studying at IMU to become a chiropractor, says that she has exams almost every month and never ending lab reports to complete. She rarely has time for herself and misses high school, admitting it was “a walk in the park”.

She recounts that she “didn’t know what stress was [back then] – it was very relaxed and easy compared to what I have to endure in university”.

Shwetha Elisha concurs stating that her first year in university presented its fair share of challenges. “Working together with people I did not know was upsetting at times because my grade was dependent on someone else”.

Nevertheless, she has come to realise that her overall verdict is that university life is what she makes out of it and she is determined to persevere.