McGill students gave mixed grades to their first-year university experience at a recent symposium. In interviews following the event, many students said that universities could do more to ease the transition from high school to the independence of university life.
New students have to find out a lot by themselves.
There is a 'cut-off' in a lot of programs, which means that only a certain number of students will be able to get in. There is a feeling among the students that the professors are out to get you. It's a matter of surviving, not about how much or how well you learn. I can't remember anything that I learned in first year because we would just memorize a bunch of life cycles and formulae, then forget it all after the exam. The students can't see the value of that kind of education, unless it is just to separate the students who are willing to work that hard from those who aren't.