Every year, students move from the Staples hallways to college campuses with pits of fear in their stomachs. Students are often plagued with anxiety– everyone’s heard the horror stories of hours of homework, impossible readings, and mind-boggling mathematics that separate college curriculum from that of high school.

However, graduates assure current Staples students that they can exhale a sigh of relief. Due to multiple factors, many Staples graduates found that their colleges were quite manageable.

“Because of Staples, I definitely felt more prepared for ‘core’ requirement classes than my counterparts,” Corey Werner ’13, now a student attending Bentley University, said.

But that does not necessarily mean college is easier than Staples classes. Steven Sobel ’14, a student at Princeton University, said,  college classes are certainly  more difficult in material, but there is more freedom for college students to pursue subjects they are actually passionate about.

Sobel said, once a student completes the mandated ‘core’ classes, “you can take more classes that interest you and more subjects that you would be good at.”

Furthermore, in addition to college students taking more classes of interest, they also take fewer classes as a whole. Baxter Stein ’14, a student at University of Chicago, points out that there’s no more juggling eight classes at a time. Instead, students, “have time to actually prepare and focus on individual classes rather than just becoming overwhelmed by a million different things,” Stein said.

“I’ve personally found it much easier to handle because of that,” Stein added.

Science teacher William Jones agreed, saying students only have three or four hours a day, on average, of class time, resulting in more time to do work.

However, this reduced class time can be a drawback.

“Staples classes were slower paced than those at college, and so they felt easier,” Eliza Llwellyn ’14, who attends Harvard, said.  “A lot of class time was dedicated to solidifying concepts […].  This doesn’t happen in college.”

While the difficulty of college varies depending on the school and the student, most students agree that Staples does a great job preparing for college.

“Coming out of Staples, you’re in a great position to succeed in a college academic environment,” Katie Cion ’14, a Princeton University student, said. “There are a ton of people who, regardless of their intelligence or potential, can’t say the same of their high school.”