are college professors tough on the students? My high school teachers tell me they are more strict;;
Well it honestly does depend on the individual professor, but personally, for the most part, professors are a lot less strict than high school teachers are, at least when it comes to deadlines and attending class, especially when you have stuff going on in your life (death in the family, mental illness, breakups, etc).
For example, when I was an undergrad, I had what would probably be considered a nervous breakdown. I won’t go too deeply about what happened, but essentially, it got to a point where I literally couldn’t do any work without falling apart. I talked to one of my very wonderful professors about this, and she told me to turn my final paper in whenever I was ready. I turned it in literally 11 months late and she still went back and gave me an A in the class. She also wrote me a really lovely recommendation letter for my grad program of choice.
So the thing about professors is they’re a lot more likely to see you as an individual adult and human being with a life and problems than high school teachers are, unfortunately. Even professors on the stricter side of things (like many of my graduate professors) are more than happy to accommodate you or give you extra time on assignments if you tell them you have specific needs.
So what I’d recommend is, if you anticipate having issues at all, talk to/email your professor at the beginning of the term telling them a bit of what you’re going through and that you may need some extra accommodations. Then, when you’re in class, do your best! If you show your professors that you care about the course content, they’re a lot more likely to cut you some extra slack.