With GCSE results day fast approaching you might be about to head off to college. What should you expect though? How is going to college different to staying on at school?There are many reasons for doing a course at college instead of staying on at school. It might be simply that your school doesn’t have a sixth form for you to go into. It might be that your school sixth form doesn’t offer the qualification or course that you are interested in or it might be that you feel like you need to go somewhere new, meet new people and make a fresh start. Whatever your reason, expect to find studying at college a bit different from studying at school.What to expect at collegeAt school you tend to call your teachers Mrs such and such or Sir / Miss. At college you tend to find that your lecturers will let you call them by their first name. This can seem a bit strange at first but you soon get used to it.Also at college, you tend to be treated much more as an adult (albeit a young one) and you will be expected to live up to this. You’ll be expected to make a note of when all work is due in and get on with it without being chased by teaching staff.You might also find that you have breaks in the day where you didn’t before – you’ll be expected to make use of these times, get yourself to the library and get on with your work.Often at a college of FE you’ll be mixing with a huge variety of people who are studying at all sorts of different levels, from pre-entry right up to Foundation degree so get used to being surrounded by this variety.Not having to wear a uniformOne of the biggest differences is that you will not wear a uniform and the freedom to look like yourself can be very appealing. Obviously this doesn’t mean that you are free to dress scantily – you still need to be decent but it allows you an opportunity to express yourself in a way that you might not have been able to before.You can study all sorts of qualifications at college, from level 1 courses up to foundation degrees and colleges tend to offer a great range of vocational qualifications from level 1 up to HNC and HND level as well as traditional A-levels.If attending a college of FE sounds good to you – check out what HE courses you can do at a college of FE in our results day guide supplement.
