Three months after graduating from three years of the same rules and standards, students will learn transition into a new set.

The treatment, rules, and curriculum in the middle school are very different than in high school. Glen Rock Middle School and High School are located in the same building. While they may share the same hallways, their differences are drastic.

Entering high school for the first time, worry, fear, and excitement take over the thoughts of incoming freshmen students.

For Daisy Tahan, a student who went to Glen Rock Middle School, her largest fear was for the bigger picture of high school. She worried about her grades because they “actually count”, and that she would be disorganized. Tahan also said that in middle school she didn’t try that much, so entering high school, the grading system worried her.

Freshman, Kieran Egan went to elementary and middle school at Academy of Our Lady, His biggest fear was that he wouldn’t get to classes on time since there are “so many of them”.

Tahan said that her premature ideas and fears have withered away. “Now that I’m actually in high school, it’s a lot easier than I thought it would be.” Tahan stated.

Egan said once he found all his classes, things became a lot easier. “It’s not hard now, but at first it was”, Egan said.

Sports are a huge part of Glen Rock High School. Lucy Cunningham, a student who played softball at Glen Rock Middle School, said that high school sports are “more serious” and require “more of a commitment.”

Egan has been playing football since elementary school and says that now, “Practices are longer, it’s more effort, and it’s more serious.”

Cunningham states that in Middle School work was easier, “It counts now in high school”

Tahan stated that her work ethic has changed a lot since Middle School. “In middle school I didn’t really try at all, and I was disorganized too”. She stresses how she didn’t work to the best of her ability and that now she works hard and studies more because “now it counts.”

For Glen Rock Middle School and Academy of Our Lady, the schedule consisted of the same classes at the same time each day. At Glen Rock High School there is a rotating schedule, which goes on a rotation of four days.

Cunningham says she likes it so much better, for if she gets sick of a certain class, she gets to take a break from it for a day. Also, if she has a lot of homework in a particular class she has more time to complete it.

“First thing in the morning I’m never fully awake so having the class later in the day sometimes is good” Cunningham said.

Lunch in Glen Rock Middle School is a 45 minute period divided into two parts, one of which you actually go to the cafeteria and eat. In the high school there is an hour long period, you can eat in the cafeteria, the courtyard, or the gymnasium.

“I love the hour lunch period because I have more time to socialize with my friends and get work done” Cunningham said. “At lunch you can talk to teachers, whereas in middle school if you tried to leave the cafeteria you’d be yelled at.”

At Academy of Our Lady, there were uniforms. Egan says now in high school he likes being able to wear what he chooses because nobody is wearing the same things. Glen Rock does not have uniforms.In Glen Rock Middle School, the dress code was different. One of the rules was that you could not wear shoes without backs to them.

Cunningham, a fan of flip-flops said, “Every day I used to wear flip-flops and hide my feet in class, whenever the teacher would walk near me I would hide my feet. I would not let them see it because thought that if they did they would get mad at me. For wearing your flip-flops in very hot weather you’d be told to put on your gym sneakers.” She found this to be outrageous.

Electives are something that you can choose from at Glen Rock high School. There is a wide variety in arts, writing, music, computers, and seem similar. While, in middle school there was just art, music, dance, and computers.

Tahan says, “You also get to explore what you like a lot more and you can decide what you might wanna do when you’re older. I think it’s a lot better. I take journalism and I really want to be a journalist when I grow up.”

Overall, high school seems to be a lot different than middle school. Egan says it’s harder, it takes more work, but he meets more friends and has more fun.  Cunningham believes High school is so much better.

“There’s so much more freedom. They treated us like we couldn’t do anything on our own, now we are treated like young adults. It’s all a lot better,” Cunningham said.