File
College can be challenging
Specialist reassures students they can handle the workload.
By Christy Romero
sac-ranger@alamo.edu
The biggest difference in high school and college classes is the amount of responsibility and self-sufficiency required of college students, registration Specialist Joe De La O said.
De La O, a pre-nursing sophomore who works in Duran Welcome Center, said when he helps prospective students register for their classes, they often get apprehensive.
“I see a few students who come in a little nervous. Usually high school teachers scare them a little bit. They’re a little nervous about the first day, not knowing where to go, if they need their books or not,” he said.
“We try to reassure the students that they can do it. It’s not going to be extremely hard, maybe a little challenging, but it’s not going to be anything that they can’t handle.”
Contrary to the popular belief, De La O says a lot of incoming students are excited and ready to get started to get to classes and study. He also said college students are expected to have the tools to face their new challenges such as turning in their assignments on time.
“The assignments are on the syllabus that is given at the beginning of the semester,” he said. “There really aren’t a lot of reminders. You just do your essays and turn them in on time. Some professors will let you turn things in late; others won’t accept late work, and you won’t get any credit for it.”
He said students have to study harder for classes many students find difficult. Because students attend class only twice a week or less, students have to master material not covered in class on their own.
“The hours you spend studying depends on the classes,” he said. “Some classes are a little harder than other classes. You have your science, math classes where you want to spend the majority of the time studying. You have classes like history and English where as long as you read the chapter, you’re good.”
If students have trouble understanding the material, there are places at the college to get help besides flooding a professor’s email before an exam.
“Each department has a tutoring service,” he said. “The math department has math tutors, the English department has English tutors, and biology has a Biospot for students to get help.”
