The key to academic success in college is diligence.  For some people, that takes a long time to realize.  In high school, parents and teachers would serve as reminders of what work to do, but in a large university setting, all responsibility for motivation and action shifts to the student.
     Another academic change in college is the nature of the courses themselves.  A full schedule in high school had a class every period, and most classes met every day.  College courses meet anywhere from fifty minutes to several hours per week, and to have eight in one day would not be particularly viable.
     College is more about preparing to benefit society than about memorizing trivial facts.  Especially in degree-specific courses, the assignments have more relevance to the material and very specific objectives.  For example, MUSIC 40S, the seminar in music education, has a number of assignments, one of which is this website, that all relate to music or its teaching.  Here are four more:

Professional Organization Website -- Outstanding Teachers Part 1 -- Outstanding Teachers Part 2 -- Professional Development Plan - These are all .doc files.