School plays an important role in our life. Many of us will spend more than fifteen years at school in order to get the qualifications that are required to work in a specific field. Of course, those years are broken down into several levels, some of them being more liked than others. Two important steps that we go through are high school and college. Even though some people would think they are almost similar, yet there are significant differences between them. The cost of high school education is not the same as the cost of college education. Also, some differences apply from an academic point of view. Typically, the social environment also differs from high school to college, a fact that can be related to the question of freedom versus responsibility.

It is true to say that college is more expensive than high school. Of course, it provides a higher level of education, but by having so high fees it does not give a chance to them coming from a family with a low income. Also, at college you have to buy your own books whereas in high school you borrow them from the school for a year. As they do for high schools, the government should pay for the books and then borrow them to students, as they do in high schools. Paying for the education you get is expensive, but many people have to pay even more. Many cities do not have colleges, so students who want to get a higher education have to move away to another city where they will be provided the education they need. This often involves paying for an apartment and for food, and sometimes for the bus , which is not, unlike high school, free. As you can see, college is a lot more expensive than high school.

However, the cost is not the only think to consider when comparing high school and college, the relation between teachers and students are also different. At high school, they see their students lower than them., not as equals. To tell the truth, it is very hard for high school students to become friends with them because of the fact that they are seen as simple students who have nothing to learn to their teachers. However, at college, it is easy to have a friendly relation with a teacher because their students as equals.

As college provides a higher level of education, the amount of work you have to do at home is a lot greater. At high school, where we get a more general education the time spent home doing homework is a lot smaller. This does not mean that you do not work at high school but it does mean that it is easier in that sense. Moreover, a big advantage of college, from an academic point of view, is that you have more choices. You can choose a lot of subjects related or not to your field of studies whereas at high school you cannot.

There are also some differences between the social environment of students at high school and students at college. Since college students have more work to do at home, they have a limited freedom out of school and this makes it harder for them to see their friends during the week. However, at high school they have known their friends for a while whereas at college they often have to make new friends, because many of theirs have moved away to another city. This can be really hard for some people, but for other people this is a good opportunity to meet a lot of new people, which means a lot of new experiences to benefit of.

Before concluding, it would be important to mention that often college students have a whole new set of responsibilities to deal with. Since many moves away from home, they have to live in an apartment, pay their bills, buy their own food, make their own meals, clean up their apartment themselves, etc. For most of them, this is something new and they have to learn how to deal with it and this normally takes a while. Compared to them, high school students have almost nothing to care about except for school, because they live at home with their parents, who do most of those things for them.

It is obvious from what has been said that college and high school both have their advantages and their inconveniences. Attending the former is more expensive than attending the latter. Then, at college, you are considered to be more like adults whereas at high school you are looked upon as simple students of a lower class. Also, high school students do have fewer homework and more free times, but at school they are not really free in many ways. Finally, attending college engages being a lot responsible, because you have a lot of things to care about. As you can see they differ a lot but have at least two things in common: they are both there to give students a good education and they both represent many years they will never forget.