Were They Prepared for College? SHS Grads Reflect

After the start of the second semester of their freshmen years, we spoke to a few members of the SHS Class of 2022 about how prepared they felt for the academic rigor of college courses.

There was general agreement that college involved more unstructured time and required more independent work than high school. With sporadically scheduled classes, all agreed that they needed to be self-motivated to use their free time wisely.

Scheduling aside, the classroom settings are different in college than in high school. Lecture halls with hundreds of students are new for every former Scarsdale High School student. Seminar classes take different forms and can be as long as two hours without teacher intervention. Labs can reach four hours long, over double the duration of the lab periods in Scarsdale.

The SHS graduates have also had to figure out how to get extra help from teaching assistants as professors often have limited office hours. Many adjustments had to be made.

Nonetheless, the Scarsdale High School graduates we spoke to felt they were well prepared academically for college courses and had the tools to navigate their new environments.

Rafaella Vogt, who runs track as a freshman at Lesley University explained, “The workload at SHS prepared me properly for college work and the strictness of deadlines. It definitely improved my work ethic and time management skills, along with providing me with the skills for college-level assignments.”

Jeremy Ng, a freshman at Yale University agreed, saying, “The heavy workload at college made organize my time. The humanities workload at Scarsdale was roughly similar to what I am facing now – the constant emphasis on refinement of writing in high school was incredibly valuable..” He noted one key difference: in many STEM classes at Scarsdale (with the exception of his experience in AT Physics), there are not always “Weekly Problem Sets” like in college, but, nonetheless, the weekly workload was similar.

“Nothing in my first year has seemed significantly harder than in SHS, nor have I ever felt unprepared,” added Aaron Klein, a freshman at Brandeis University. “Not that I was swamped with work in Scarsdale, but especially in terms of essays and papers, I felt very prepared. I’ve always felt like everything was achievable. I think that’s something that Scarsdale taught me – that any assignment can be compartmentalized. Assignments now aren’t intimidating as a result.”

Ng explained the difference in the timing of work/assignments at college. “The key difference is in academic ‘spacing.’ I’ve noticed that most of the classes here are substantially more staggered. Major assignments are due weeks later, but the amount of content in each of them is considerably greater.” He also noted less weekly feedback in college than in high school.

Klein echoed this notion, describing, “In Scarsdale, teachers would check in often and they were really accessible. In college, professors are there for you but you have to take the initiative yourself. I think Scarsdale instilled that asking for help is okay. They helped me feel comfortable reaching out to teachers, and that’s something that I feel has been really helpful.”

Although, inevitably, college classes deal with more advanced topics, the pace with which topics were taught at SHS helped students feel as if they could keep up, with Vogt insisting, “Scarsdale’s fast-paced and packed teaching style definitely matches that of most of my college courses.”

Everyone’s college experience is different, with school size and intended paths of study heavily influencing certain classroom dynamics. Nonetheless, common ways of learning are intertwined in all collegiate disciplines, and Scarsdale High School has undoubtedly done a good job at replicating many college learning environments. Even for the aspects that cannot be re-created, valuable learning, studying, and working tools were acquired that have easily translated to life beyond Scarsdale.

Despite the many differences in the teaching methods, the learning environment, and the work requirements between high school and college, the students agreed that the transition to college was a comfortable next step rather than an anxious leap.

Adam Katcher is currently a freshman at Columbia University, undecided with his intended major. Also a graduating member of the Scarsdale Class of 2022, Katcher says the content of this article represent a common consensus among his Scarsdale peers.