It's hard to believe that I've been at university now for over a month. I miss high school a lot, both the people there and my classes, but I'm enjoying university life. While there are definitely a few big differences between high school and university, the list isn't nearly as extensive as I had been expecting. When you leave grade 8 to go to high school in Ontario, everybody makes a big deal about the "transition", and the same can be said about leaving high school for post secondary too. I don't find that I've really had to transition at all - things just changed a bit. Whether you're nervous about leaving for school next year, in two years, or maybe even in six years, I hope that I can debunk some university myths and give you a bit of insight into what to expect!

Myth 1) Classes are SO different!

This is only partially true. Your classes are bigger, they might be spread out over campus, and you don't know everybody in them. Other than that, there is hardly any difference between first year university lectures and grade 12 classes. You listen to the prof, take notes, and ask questions. In most classes you don't even need to take notes, because you're given PowerPoint slides that you can just annotate yourself! Plus you hardly have any class time. Instead of five 75 minute physics classes a week, I now have three 50 minute classes. You cover a lot more material in these 50 minutes, but other than a quicker pace the learning style does not change very much at all.

Myth 2) Living away from home is a HUGE change!

This definitely depends on the person, but I have not found living in residence to be that much of a change at all. I get up, have a shower, get breakfast, and go to class, same as I did in high school. I get back, attempt doing homework, hang out, eat supper, attempt doing homework again, hang out some more, and go to bed. The only difference is that instead of your parents, brother, dog and cat being around, you're surrounded by a bunch of people your own age. It's not as weird as you may think. I love my residence, which is probably why I haven't found adjusting to living away from too terribly difficult. I definitely think that you should visit all the residences at your school (especially the small ones!!!) before you decide where you want to live, so that you can figure out where you're going to be happiest. It's different, but your entire way of life is not uprooted.

I've got four midterms this week to study for and some Skyping to do, so I'll leave you with those two. If you have any questions about university I would absolutely love it if you'd leave me a comment (: I will be posting more as I think of them!