Yeah - college is a big adjustment from high school, especially if you're living away from home for the first time. It's a lot of work, but there's generally nobody checking up on you to make sure you're keeping up. You have a lot more freedom, and it can be hard to handle if you're not really self-disciplined. Having a job makes it that much more difficult. For me, I think my first quarter was the hardest in that sense. I let myself get too far behind and then had a really hard time catching up at the end.
I wouldn't make any hasty decisions, but I agree with Michelle. Take some time to explore your interests. There are a lot of classes I wish I had taken (especially more computer programming). I can still learn on my own, but as you get older and more settled into a career, it's a lot harder to make the time. (I think the ability to learn outside the classroom is a good thing to take out of college.)
Well, for what it's worth, my high school did prepare for freedom rather well. The first middle school I was in had moderate rules. Nothing too strict, nothing too open. Then I moved, and my new middle school was like a dictatorship. The school was literally built by a prison designer. It certainly had that atmosphere. I couldn't even wear a hat in that place. I could go on for hours, but I'll spare everyone that pain. But then I got to high school, and let me out of my cage. They said, "fly away, little birdie, fly away!". My high school has an open campus policy, which means I can hang out anywhere I want in it, save for like five locations. I could hang out right outside a classroom if I wanted. We had no hall passes. No one questioned why you were in the halls, and it was great. I never even had to tell my teachers I was going to the bathroom. They were like "For pete's sake, your an adult now, so just go. You don't want to keep your bladder waiting, do you?". And I was on good terms with the interim Superintendent/Principal in my last year, so I could get things out of him. Oh, and yeah, my high school was a regional high school, so we were our own school district independent of the town we were in, so our principal was both principal and superintendent.
College is a lot like my high school in those areas. Which is why adjusting to the freedom of college wasn't so hard. The workload is the thing I'm having trouble adjusting to. Being in special ed in high school meant that I had a much decreased workload and I had certain accomodations that my IEP guranteed me under US law. For those that don't know, IEP stands for Individualized Education Plan, and it truly is individualized. Every student on one is carefully evaluated and given accomodations accordingly. Those range to any number of things. I get a calculator to use on all math related work (I can't do mental math. Kinda sad really.) and I get extra time on tests and quizzes. My IEP is usually updated annually. Luckily, it got transferred to college, which is great.
