Post high school most people are committed to a university. This was not the case for me, I felt lost, unsure and confused about what my next step in life would be. An opportunity arose: The transfer program. This allows students the chance to save money while transferring directly to UW-Madison from any MATC assuming the student reaches the requirements in terms of GPA and Credits.
After being accepted I was still intimidated to attend a 4-year university. My big expectation was that easing my way into UW-Madison by starting at MATC would make my transition easier as I was in the grove of going to classes, putting multiple hours aside a week to do work, and utilizing my resources to help me prosper throughout my time at MATC.
This was NOT the case. Coming into UW, I was ready to learn but not expecting to do it on my own. My expectation was geared more toward having to do less work outside of class (when taking the core classes for my major) and more in class learning.
I took a design studies course that consisted of learning how to stick, knit, and sew. The class ran about 2 hours a day, twice a week. I was not prepared to devote 6-10 hours outside of class to work on my projects which ultimately led me to fall behind. My expectations of being able to complete work in class, similar to MATC, was shut down after the projects started to get more intense.
All in all, this experience taught me that before choosing a class, make sure to truly analyze how much time you need to put in OUTSIDE of class to be able to be successful in the Course.