One of the things about high school that was true was the consistency. You showed up every day at a certain time. You left every day at a certain time. You had classes in-between those times. Depending on what type of scheduling the school used you would have the same class every day (or, perhaps, the same classes every other day). In general, though, there was a schedule that sort of repeated. While the classes would change every quarter or semester, the time frame would stay the same. That was the benefit of the high school schedule. It was something you could count on.
College changed that quite a bit. While classes were generally scheduled during the day you could also have night classes. You’d have to do more group work outside of normal “class” hours in a different way than high school. Not only that, you’d have to travel further than a couple of hallways to get to some of your classes (they were probably in different buildings now — perhaps even different campuses). There was also a great deal of time in-between certain classes depending on the schedule. Perhaps you’d have entire days where you only had one class in the early morning and the rest of the day you’d be left to your own devices. Should you study? Work on the homework of today or the stuff that’s due tomorrow? Should you work ahead, catch up, or play that video game? Choices, choices…
All of these things were fairly standardized in their time though. While they began to vary more wildly there was almost always a typical time for study and for sleep (unless you were pulling all-nighters with increasing frequency). These schedules kept you on a relative standard for when certain things were going to be done, and you got used to it. Schedules are important… and I only recently realized how much. I realized because my schedule changed drastically, and now I’m trying to cope with the ramifications of that change.