An AP United States His­tory teacher once inter­rupted him­self dur­ing a lec­ture and shared with my fourth period class­mates the fol­low­ing factoid:

“If you think high school goes by so fast, wait until you get to col­lege. It goes by 4 times faster!”

Mr. Rober­son was cor­rect. At times, my col­lege career did feel like some­one was push­ing the fast-forward but­ton and would not let go.

Many things can get over­looked dur­ing this four-year period. Think about it, col­lege pro­vides the oppor­tu­nity to study a myr­iad of sub­jects, per­form research, and meet incred­i­ble peo­ple. So in the spirit of the hol­i­days, I posed the ques­tion to my friends and social net­works: “What are you grate­ful for from college?”

Below you will find actual responses to this ques­tion. And more will be on the way. Enjoy unwrap­ping this gift from BetterGrads!

"The social experiences-Allowed me to grow and mature. [Grate­ful for] a cou­ple of pro­fes­sors for mak­ing mate­r­ial inter­est­ing and per­son­ally relevant."

-An alum from Occi­den­tal College

"I am grate­ful for the net­work of con­tacts and great friends that was built."

-An alum from USC

"The con­fi­dence, sense of self, and teacher rela­tion­ships that lib­eral arts edu­ca­tions give students ."

-A junior from Occi­den­tal College

"The var­ied envi­ron­ment that facil­i­tates per­sonal and pro­fes­sional growth."

-An alum from Occi­den­tal College

"My Friends and Study Abroad Experience."

-An alum from the Uni­ver­sity of Puget Sound

"That I took the time to get to know my professors."

-An alum from Occi­den­tal College

I'm grate­ful for life­long friendships..being in a chal­leng­ing envi­ron­ment [both] socially and academically..meaning being around so many inter­est­ing peo­ple from dif­fer­ent backgrounds..it opens you up to new expe­ri­ences and new ideas..grateful for the independence..being out­side [my] com­fort zone to grow as a per­son among other ambi­tious young people..the goal dri­ven atmosphere..having pro­fes­sors who believed in / pushed me to great­ness and expect noth­ing less. Also very grate­ful to have the oppor­tu­nity / abil­ity to get involved in so much on and off campus..the resources were always there..just had to pur­sue them.."

–A senior from Occi­den­tal College

What are you grate­ful for from col­lege? Com­ment below or feel free to drop us a line @bettergrads on twitter!