Is high school preparing students for college? Former CATS students respond.
By Heyli G.
Do college freshmen feel like high school prepared them well enough? How can CATS better help students going to college?
As a high school junior, I wanted to find out. So, I spoke with my twin sisters who just graduated from CATS and who are now enrolled at UC Santa Cruz and UC Irvine.
According to Magaly G., a college freshman at UC Santa Cruze and former CATS student, “I don’t feel like high school prepared me enough for college because they are totally different in every way such as the classes and the workload.”
She added that in college there’s a lot of reading and it’s fast-paced which doesn’t let you catch a break or a moment.
Magaly shared that high school could have better helped her by having teachers who actually teach that subject.
She said that, “By not having a teacher for a class, I’m going to need more help, which puts me at a disadvantage than other students who actually have taken the class with the teacher who is for that subject.”
She also feels like school could have helped her in English because what she was writing in English during high school is nothing compared to what she has to do for college.
Julyssa G., a college freshman at UC Irvine shared that, “Coming into college I knew it wasn’t going to be easy, but I felt so unprepared.”
She felt like in her high school all you had to do was show up and turn in the assignments, that it didn’t matter if you understood the material. She said, “I would’ve wished my high school pushed me a little harder to form study habits and actually learn what was being taught to me.”
Ms. Brigit, the college and career administrator, said that we should inform students about the college process from 9th grade, to 10th, to 11th, and then 12th grade years.
She shared that, “I think what’s really important to support our students to succeed with the college applications process and just learning more about college is getting them informed at the very beginning.”
Students should get started as they come in, so that they are well prepared and have enough knowledge on what to expect during their senior year.
Ms. Brigit likes to prepare her seniors to think about where they see themselves. She added, “So, do you see yourself moving away from home? Do you see yourself living by the beach? Do you see yourself going into the desert area?”
She encourages the seniors to go in person to visit the schools they’re interested in, so that they can be familiar with it.
Missing teachers or unfilled positions have also had an impact on the students’ education, said Magaly. It’s been a struggle throughout the whole district where teachers are going into different careers because they don’t want to teach anymore, she said.
Ms. Brigit said, “So, it definitely has had a challenge on our students especially since our students, I think anyone actually not just our students, but anyone likes consistency.” She thinks that this challenge will help students become adaptable whenever they need to.
In addition, students should take Writer’s Seminar seriously.
Mr. Dominguez said, “It should be taken seriously because even though some of them might think that they’re not going to be attending college, they might actually change their minds down the line.”
He shared that he knows people from who he went to high school with that are currently going to college.
He added that, “So, by taking the class they’re being exposed to the materials necessary for college and university,” which helps them in the long run because they’re learning how to write properly and which is needed to be successful.
Writer’s Seminar is a class that exposes seniors to the reality after/outside of high school.
According to Mr. Dominguez, “By seeing the prompts, it’s basically giving them a heads up of what they can look forward to and just brings them back to the fact that they are part of a bigger society.”
According to a poll by You Science, about 75% of high school graduates going to college don’t feel prepared for college. Mostly because of the lack of preparation that their school offered them.
