I sat down with sophomores Julia Loda and Julia Loprinzo to talk about the misconceptions they had about college.
Loda (left) is an IT major with a certification in Childhood Education, and Loprinzo (right) is a Social Science and History major with a certification in Childhood Education.
A common misconception about their major is that Childhood Education students just color and grade papers about the ABC’s, but that is not the case. Loda says, “Lesson planning takes hours. People don’t realize how much work their teachers put into all their daily lessons.”
“I think the biggest lie I was told in High School was that we needed to know MLA format front and back. A lot of my professors use APA.” Loprinzo said. Although it is still important to know MLA format, definitely brush up on APA before you come to college.
Loprinzo said that for her major, she had some misconceptions that were corrected the second semester of her freshman year. The Mount allows its first year Education students to observe classrooms so they’re absolutely positive they want to be teachers. Most colleges have students wait until it’s too late.
“For tech, it is not straight networking all of the time.” Loprinzo said. “We are learning how to teach the kids to use different media with technology as well.”
The biggest misconception that the “Julia’s” touched on was this: even if you were the top student without studying in high school, that is not going to fly in college. Sure, we have all seen the memes on twitter about high school teachers compared to the “laid back” college professors, but that does not mean college students don’t have to try.
It may seem scary, but if you put in the hours to study and work hard, you’ll reap the rewards. Be proactive, time manage, and take advantage of your school’s academic resources. If you work hard, you’ll play hard.