According to Goodreads.com, Mark Twain supposedly said, "I have never let my schooling interfere with my education." I interpret this to say that there is much learning that is acquired outside of school. I have also been taught a lot of book sense as well as common sense in high school and college. Even though college offers much freedom and independence, it requires more self-discipline and responsibility than in high school. There are many similarities between high school and college, but many more differences, as well. Some of the areas that I have discovered are the levels of freedom, critical thinking, and diligent responsibilities that each type of education requires.

In high school, the level of freedom is very limited because a student is still under the age of eighteen, has a curfew, lives at home with parents, and must attend school seven hours every weekday, excluding holidays and breaks in the spring, summer, and fall. The level of freedom for a college student is wide open. A student in college can choose to skip class without parents being called to enquire as to why he/she was not in class. Most college students do not have a curfew, and some live on campus in a dormitory or share an apartment with friends or significant others. Students in college may have a class every day of the week, three times a week, or twice a week for only three to five hours each day. The hours for attending classes will vary according to the course load of each college student. In college, no one makes a student stay on top of his or her schoolwork or keeps track of his or her comings and goings. High school students do not have the freedom to come and go as they choose.

Critical thinking is an essential key to success in both high school and college. In high school, a student is required to memorize lots of facts for exams. A high school student is often discouraged from questioning high school textbooks or the teacher in certain classes. As a student goes through college, he/she will find that professors want more than memorization. A college student might have to critique an essay, read and respond to a view in history, or compare and contrast conflicting scientific theories. All of these tasks require thinking critically because there is a need to go beyond memorization to applying and synthesizing the information.

Most high school students have very few