So you are writing a paper on this topic? This is interesting!
I have to agree with Freedom. Basically, students are babied through high school by their parents and teachers. Teachers care where you are at in class and do their best to try to help you along. For me, this turned into doing all of my work in the last minute, and turning it in for a grade that was in the top 25% or so. That is because I never struggled in high school, so what I did was always pretty good.
I kept this same attitude in college. Profs would give you options like "we will have four tests and a final. You only have to take four of the tests. But if you get a grade that you want to replace, I'll let you take all five tests and drop the lowest one." This encourages students who don't have any self-discipline to fail the first or second test, and then try to study "really hard" to get good grades on the next ones and the final. Well, it never works that way. Once you get behind, it is almost impossible to get caught back up.
At least in big schools, professors don't care where you are and what you are doing. (Many smaller schools are different though...) Especially in the weed-out classes that you have to take at first (chemistry, physics, calc, etc.). They are usually in big class rooms and the professors don't take attendance. They know that if you miss class, you'll miss the notes and that hurts a lot. The professor can summarize the material and condense it better than you ever could on your own. So you end up missing material, and the professor doesn't care. (This is not a bad thing, it just makes you develop self discipline...)
Another problem is scheduling. In college, you schedule your classes the way you want to. Therefore if you have a friend that doesn't have classes on tues/thurs, you might be tempted to skip your class so you can do something with your friend. I believe that if everyone had classes at exactly the same time, there would be by-far less skipped classes.
And then distractions!!!!!! Alcohol, girls/guys, video games, in some cases drugs, partying... But there are other distractions too... going to the gym, going to get food, and even studying can be used as an excuse to not go to class.
I have to agree with Freedom. Basically, students are babied through high school by their parents and teachers. Teachers care where you are at in class and do their best to try to help you along. For me, this turned into doing all of my work in the last minute, and turning it in for a grade that was in the top 25% or so. That is because I never struggled in high school, so what I did was always pretty good.
I kept this same attitude in college. Profs would give you options like "we will have four tests and a final. You only have to take four of the tests. But if you get a grade that you want to replace, I'll let you take all five tests and drop the lowest one." This encourages students who don't have any self-discipline to fail the first or second test, and then try to study "really hard" to get good grades on the next ones and the final. Well, it never works that way. Once you get behind, it is almost impossible to get caught back up.
At least in big schools, professors don't care where you are and what you are doing. (Many smaller schools are different though...) Especially in the weed-out classes that you have to take at first (chemistry, physics, calc, etc.). They are usually in big class rooms and the professors don't take attendance. They know that if you miss class, you'll miss the notes and that hurts a lot. The professor can summarize the material and condense it better than you ever could on your own. So you end up missing material, and the professor doesn't care. (This is not a bad thing, it just makes you develop self discipline...)
Another problem is scheduling. In college, you schedule your classes the way you want to. Therefore if you have a friend that doesn't have classes on tues/thurs, you might be tempted to skip your class so you can do something with your friend. I believe that if everyone had classes at exactly the same time, there would be by-far less skipped classes.
And then distractions!!!!!! Alcohol, girls/guys, video games, in some cases drugs, partying... But there are other distractions too... going to the gym, going to get food, and even studying can be used as an excuse to not go to class.