The Difference Between Best Friends in High School and in College

By Kaitlin Hurtado on July 5, 2018

The best friends that you had in high school, or even before high school, will most likely always have a special place in your heart, but the best friends that you have in college are a completely different story. Not only do you know them at a completely different period in your life, but you are also going to experience growing together, stressing together, and most of all – experiencing some of the best moments of your life together.

While you they hold the same title of “best friends,” college best friends will be different than your high school best friends, and here is why:

girls at music festival

Photo by Aranxa Esteve on Unsplash

If you are living away from home for college – best friends in college are your home away from home

You most likely lived with your family full-time when you were in high school, but in college, it is not uncommon to live away from your family. When you’re in high school, your best friends are your best friends – they are the people you sit with at lunch, attend school events with, and have sleepovers with on weekends. At the end of the day, you most likely went back home to your family, just waiting to see your best friends at school the next day to give them the latest gossip.

However, best friends in college are going to be different. When you live away from home in college, you can’t just drag yourself home at the end of the long day to get a much-needed hug from your parents for comfort. Instead, you have your college best friends to have your back during hard times. Got a bad score on an exam you study really hard for? Call your best friends for a movie night in. Got a new position that you’ve been eyeing at your job? Call your best friends to celebrate with a bar crawl.

Your best friends in college are going to be your go-to support system away from home, and it’s important to remember this, especially when you find yourself struggling and think you have no one to turn to.

Best friends that stress together, stay together 

College is no easy feat – and while it may be classified as the best time for many people, it is full of stress, disappointment, struggle, and other moments of suffering. You don’t need to suffer through the bad along, however, because your best friends in college are going to be the ones suffering by your side.

They are going to be experiencing the same things as you most of the time. You can share complaints about all the bad – not being paid enough at your part-time jobs, struggling to pay rent, or the heavy course-load you are expected to take on to get your desired degree. Best friends that stress (and suffer) together, stay together, and that is definitely the case when it comes to your best friends in college.

Not only are you going to be comforted when your best friends have your back in college, but you will feel better knowing that they truly understand what you are going through because they are also in college. They will be the ones studying by your side during cram sessions around midterms and finals. They will also be the ones you will call to celebrate at the end of exam seasons.

It is a different sense of companionship than what you had with your best friends in high school as high school tends to be less stressful and the drama for many people can be looked back on as petty or meaningless worries.

You can live with your best friends in college – be roommates and best friends. 

Touching back on living away from home in college – if you lived with your family full-time in high school, your time with your best friends in high school was probably limited to school, some after-school hangouts, or weekend sleepovers. However, your best friends in college can also be your roommates when you are in charge of planning your own housing.

Living with your best friends in college can be your worst idea, or your best idea, depending on how you handle it. It can be bad because if you find out your living styles clash without communicating – clean versus messy, no guests versus constant parties – it may lead to the friendship between you deteriorating.

If you communicate prior to moving in and while you live together, however, you won’t be needing to excessively worry about your friendship failing as a result of living together. Living with your best friends in college may give you the best experience – your best friend being mere seconds away, being able to hang out without worrying about transportation. The opportunities are endless. Having a roommate that is also your friend makes your living space much more comfortable.

The best friends you have during college are going to be very different from your best friends from high school, but it’s important to remember that as long as you are able to get a stable support system throughout your life – they’re best friends all the same.

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