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Challenges of College Education

Whereas many learners yearn to get to college, very few are usually aware of the

many challenges that college education entails. Feldman, et al. highlight that unlike the

lower-level educational institutions, college life and education is contrastingly different,

with the main reason being the increased freedom that a learner is accorded upon joining

college (377). Many people regard college students as adults; a context that changes

many aspects of college education. In regards to the scheduling of learning time, a

college schedule for classes is highly flexible, an aspect that seems nice, but at the same

time poses many challenges to college students. The following essay will expound on

college education, highlighting some of the main educational challenges that college

students face in their day to day school life.

Managing personal time as a college student can be quite a challenge. Lei argues

that unlike the educational experiences in the previous lower level educational

institutions, college life gives one more freedom to manage his or her time, a freedom

that can turn out to be a challenge to manage (195). It is up to the student to be

responsible and take charge of his or her time. Class attendance is a compulsory activity

that each and every student is supposed to undertake. However, the college does not
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police students and force them to attend their classes. As such, this can be a challenge as

many students might end up not attending their classes, and instead undertaking their

personal activities that are non-academic in nature. As such, time management is one

major challenge facing students in their college education, and one that needs a student to

show a high level of discipline and responsibility in order to solve it.

Homesickness is another major challenge that faces college students and may

have negative implications on their studies. According to Sun and Hagedorn,

homesickness refers to a situation where one extremely misses his or her home due to

spending long periods of time away from home or not having had a previous experience

of residing away from home (943). This challenge is mainly faced by the freshmen and

women students. As a challenge, being homesick can lead to one suffering from mental

issues, for example, depression. Khademi and Aghdam assert that homesickness leads to

college students not paying the wanted amount of focus on their studies as they are

mentally stressed (573). As such, homesickness, directly or indirectly affects one’s

grades, hence needs to be addressed extensively. One solution to being homesick is

through being in touch regularly with those at home. For those students who may be three

or four hours drive away from college, it is advisable to visit home at least once every

month.

In conclusion, college life does pose different types of challenges to students and

if not addressed, might negatively affect one’s college education. College does offer a

different context of education and day to day student life which brings with it varying

challenges. It is up to the students to be able to react strongly in the face of these

challenges. Time management and homesickness happen to be two different types of

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challenges faced by college students. If not addressed, both have negative implications on

the educational aspect of students. It is also important that colleges play a role in regards

to helping students go through these challenges and come out strongly. This can be

through setting up college groups to encourage students to air their problems and in

return get advisory support on how to try and solve the challenges that they are facing in

their day to day college lives.

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Works Cited

Feldman, Gilad, Subramanya Prasad Chandrashekar, and Kin Fai Ellick Wong. "The

freedom to excel: Belief in free will predicts better academic performance."

Personality and Individual Differences 90 (2016): 377-383.

Khademi, Ali, and Ali Asghar Farshi Aghdam. "The role of personality traits and

resilience on homesickness of college students." Procedia-Social and Behavioral

Sciences 82 (2013): 537-541.

Lei, Simon A. "Variation in study patterns among college students: A review of

literature." College Student Journal 49.2 (2015): 195-198.

Sun, Jie, and Linda Serra Hagedorn. "Homesickness at college: Its impact on academic

performance and retention." Journal of College Student Development 57.8 (2016):

943-957.