The Ultimate Showdown: College vs. High School

by Victoria Mayes

Throughout our lives, we spend a significant amount of time being forced into an environment to learn. Then, after all is said and done, we are given the option to subject ourselves to a similar environment, with people in our ears telling us “no, college is better! trust me!” …But is that the universal experience? Or has college discouraged people the same way high school has? In the battle of High School VS College, which one would win?

These are the questions I had after realizing that most of my close friends come from that same environment, which means they share the same opinions I do and have stories that resemble mine for this topic. My personal experiences with high school were hellish – for lack of better words – for several reasons, including: being bullied by peers and by teachers, needing help and not having access to anyone that could help me, general burnout, and countless others that are more personal. I have my fair share of anecdotes about not being able to thrive in the environment where I was supposed to learn and grow. However, I realized there might be others in my life, that maybe aren’t as close, who didn’t share my experience at all.

To answer my questions, I put together a Google Survey and posted the link to it on all of my social media accounts(Snapchat, Instagram, and Twitter{now known as X}) at roughly the same time. This allowed me to collect responses for a little over 24 hours, to which 24 people input their opinions. I asked people what year they graduated from high school (and college, if applicable), as well as where they went to school. Many people I know are from around Western New York, resulting in a lot of responses that were from SUNY school students. However, I know many people who are from other states that gave responses as well, from places ranging from Oklahoma, to Texas, to Maine. Here is the data I found.

To start, when there were only 12 responses, I noticed they all favored college. I’m glad I kept collecting responses after, because the 12 responses that came after definitely tipped the scale more than I anticipated. There are 3/24 participants who dropped out of college, while the other 21 participants are either still in college or have graduated already. Most of the people who have graduated already, have graduated recently with some outliers ranging from 1989 to 2017. The following chart shows how many people enjoyed high school:

One participant who voted “Kinda” voiced that their first two years they “did not have many friends and not many fun experiences”, whereas their last two years they “were lots of fun after I started to open up more, did theatre, band, clubs. COVID messed with my senior year but still enjoyed my studies and peers.” I noticed a theme emerged from a lot of people’s responses. People enjoyed extracurriculars, having a routine, and being around friends, if they had any, but there are not a lot of mentions of being able to thrive in the way that the environment is advertised. School is there to help us be able to learn and grow, but the responses I got highlight fulfilling social needs more than anything. For comparison, here is the chart showing how many people enjoyed/are enjoying college:

There are several more people having an overall better time in college than in high school. The middle of the road responses are still there though. One participant who voted “Kinda” for their college enjoyment – in contrast with their “Yes, maybe a little” response for high school – said “I’ve made a lot of good friends but have struggled more mentally in college than in high school.” This time, there wasn’t much of a theme; most people’s responses were of mixed feelings. Some people thought the friendships/atmosphere were similar to high school, others loved how much less drama there is in college. Most people enjoy the freedom, but some of the choices they made with classes didn’t click with their personal learning style.

Here is the chart for the reason this article was written: overall, which one was better?

It’s clear that college is giving people a more positive experience in comparison to high school, but it’s surprising to me that it isn’t winning with a landslide victory. As mentioned, my high school experience wasn’t good, and I’m thriving in college here at SUNY Niagara. It breaks my heart that not everyone has been thriving in the same way that I am, because everyone deserves a chance to sharpen their skills and learn the things they want to learn.

No matter what your experiences are, you have control over what you want to do with your life. If college isn’t serving as that stepping stone towards the place you want to get to, that’s okay! As long as you try your hardest to put yourself somewhere where you will learn and you will get to where you want to be. Your experiences are valid either way, but it’s clear that college has definitely won this showdown.