Starting college earlier??? Starting college earlier than expected seemed like a completely unfortunate event. When I was first informed that I should start before everyone else, I only saw the negatives and none of the positives. In fact, following the program, I realize that I wouldn't have liked to spend the summer any other way. Going through a college summer program taught me that it's actually a lot harder than I initially thought. In high school I never studied a day in my life and I still would have gotten pretty high grades. At first, I thought it would be the same and that I wouldn't have to put much effort into anything, but that thought quickly changed when I received a C on my first essay. I had never received it