Question

Compare and contrast the transition to college with the transition to middle school

Answer 1

Children transitioning to middle school usually starts showing lesser interest in academics and they seem to lose confidence in their academic skills and abilities which is related to developmental changes and shifting interests. They become more inquisitive to know more about their bodily changes and develop more interests in their friends and their activities.

Whereas young adults transitioning to college faces different kinds of emotional issues like feeling nervous and fear of the unknown that is going to happen in the college. Meeting new people, facing new challenges and new stressors can be the cause of their distress. Especially, if these young adults had to put in lot of efforts to achieve good academic results in their high school, then they are sure to have feelings of self-doubt and fear of low performance in their academics.

Though at both stages there are drastic changes that happen to the child, the cause of these changes are different. Middle school children tend to cope with the stressors with the help of teachers and parents, but for some young adults who move into colleges do not adapt well to the college life and experience academic difficulties in their first year of college which may eventually lead to dropping out.