During the first semester of freshman year, everyone was still pretty restrained—worried about being late and scrambling to get excuse slips if they ever missed class.

By the first week of the second semester, people were still testing the waters with each teacher’s personality and tolerance.

Now, for the first class on Monday, only about two-thirds of the students were scattered across the tiered lecture hall.

College could be as free and easy as you wanted it to be, or as rigorous as senior year of high school, depending on whether you were willing to pay the price.

While Ning …