Angelo DiTocco
“It’s over!” says the doomer. “The West has fallen!” says the chud. “Society is collapsing!” says the blackpiller. Although these types of people are often mocked, it’s not uncommon to imagine the past as a better time. I myself am guilty of doing this with my high school days, especially given that they were effectively cut short when COVID hit. Even three years after my graduation, I still occasionally have dreams about finding my way around a building to get to my first period math class or whatever.
But the more I think about it, the less sense it makes to keep my head in the past. Sure, high school was a fun time, but there are many things I like about being up here in Binghamton. So, despite being a natural-born hater, I’ll start this year by telling you all the advantages of college over high school. If you’re an incoming freshman unsure of whether you’ll like this place, or just an over-nostalgic dumbass like me who needs to start living in the present, then this article is for you! Here goes:
More Flexibility
One thing I absolutely do NOT miss about high school was having to wake up at the inhumanely early time of 6:20 AM every school day to then spend the next 6 hours straight going from class to class. As a college student, you don’t have to worry about that. For most classes, you’ll have the ability to pick a time of day that suits you. There are unfortunately a few classes where the only sections are at inconvenient times, but you can still find ways to work around it. For example, if I’m forced to take an 8:00 AM or 8:30 AM class, I’ll usually arrange a big break after it so that I can take a nap if I need to. It’s not a perfect solution, but something like that would be nearly impossible to pull off in high school.
Aside from the flexibility of when your classes are, you also have more freedom over when you get your work done. Rather than churning out homework nearly every day like high school teachers do, professors tend to only assign stuff every week or so. This gives you the option to pick when you’ll spend the most time doing your schoolwork. You can save it for the shorter days with fewer classes and club meetings so that you’re not overwhelmed on any particular day. You could also just put it all off until the day before it’s due. Just don’t blame me if something goes wrong.
More People
To say that Binghamton is a big school would be an understatement. This can be quite intimidating at first (and to be honest, it still is sometimes), but more people means more social potential. Some classes will put you in massive lecture halls with hundreds of people, each one a possible friend or acquaintance. Don’t get me wrong, there is a bit of charm in being able to know half of your grade, but it’s still good to have a shit ton of options.
More people also means more clubs. You probably noticed this when you went to UFest. Sure, half of the tables might have just had weird giant letters I can’t understand, but there are still plenty of real clubs to check out, and there’s probably something for you, too. You get to choose between multiple publications to write for! (You should choose this one.) Not only can you potentially make new friends, but you can discover entirely new interests as well. I, for one, thought I hated writing until I joined the Review.
Walkability
This one might be different depending on where you’re from. I personally grew up in a remote, upper-middle class neighborhood in the suburb of Mahopac (it’s near Westchester if you’ve heard of that). Some would describe it as a nice, quiet, crime-free area, while others may describe it as an isolated, boring dystopia. Whatever the case may be, down there, you need a car (which I don’t have) to go anywhere of interest. But here in Binghamton, this is a non-issue, especially if you live on campus. I used to have to wake up an hour before class started, but now, in some cases, this number is reduced to a mere 15 minutes. Clubs and other social gatherings are also easily within walking distance, and on the way there, you’ll actually be seeing people. Unfortunately, many places off campus are unreachable by foot, but at least public transit exists, and that’s good enough for me.
Specialization
The cool thing about college is that you get to pick a major, which lets you take more classes on things you’re actually interested in. Sure, there are a few annoying gen-ed requirements to worry about, but for the most part, the stuff you’re learning will be somewhat relevant to what you do when you graduate. My high school, on the contrary, required us to take both English and social studies classes every single year, which I wasn’t very fond of as a STEM-inclined student. My senior project may very well kick my ass this semester, but I still wouldn’t trade it for a literary analysis of The Scarlet Letter.
And there you have it: a few good reasons why college is better than high school, and why Binghamton in particular is probably better than whatever high school you went to. Now, it isn’t perfect by any means, but despite all the complaints people make about it, it’s really not that bad. So stop ruminating over the past and start living! This place has a lot to offer.