Is college better than high school?

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I'm in my last year of high school now, and I've got mixed feelings about leaving.
My parents both say college was much better than high school for them, but I'm still a little anxious about it because it's such a huge change.
It does help that I have a general plan (do a gap year so I can take more time to figure out what to study), and that I've been able to overcome a lot of my bad Aspie traits,
so it's now easier for me to socialize and get along with people my age, although I'm certainly not NT and never will be.

So here's my question to those of you who have gone through high school and college. Which one did you like better, and why?

I'm not sure what country you're in, so this might not be helpful. I'm in Scotland and I much preferred college to high school. In college I wasn't bullied, which I guessed was because people were there more through choice than obligation. The other students really seemed to want to learn. One bad point (not sure if this will apply to you) was noise, as there seem to be so many more people at college than school- I had to drop out because of anxiety about this, but still enjoyed college because you are treated more like an adult and given responsibility for your own learning. Also, no uniform! And my college had a Starbucks counter, if you like coffee. Hope this helps a bit and that you are not too anxious by the time you start.

college and especially grad school was better as more people shared the common interest of the major. it made natural starting places for friendship through study groups.

I found that while bullying generally evaporates once you hit university/college, you also lose interaction with your cohort which really damages your ability to proceed through the courses efficiently.

I struggled through my degree because the more limited interaction with peers (always seeing new people in every unit, limited forced association) meant i was absolutely alone in my endeavours. Without being able to be helped by others, i found that overcoming obstacles was significantly more difficult. There was also no effective support for students like me.

It was great to achieve milestones by my self, but it was a difficult road to take.

I'm in Germany, but thanks for mentioning your experience anyway.
Germany has a lot of Universities of Applied Sciences, and I'm hoping to get into one of them.
I guess my anxiety comes from so much newness at once. New place, new people, new courses, new system.
I don't think I'll have problems with too many people, because I'm in East Germany, which has far fewer problems with overcapacity than the West.

In my experience... kind of. There's less physical violence. People aren't quite as verbally abusive. They still lie to you though (administrations) about what options are there for you, and about any support, mostly though at that point it's more on to the usual adult approach of "we don't really give a crap, figure it out, or don't, there's a thousand more where you came from and even the parts of this job that are my job... ain't my problem".

For me it was so much better. I got away from a unhealthy household, I studied my special interest. I eventually met friends related to it. I got a flat where I could do anything I wanted, eat what I want.

A lot of people find the transition difficult but my homelife was such a mess that it was a huge step up.

nope

Not for me.

Some HS students were looking out for me. But that was gone when i entered college and the bullies who were out of their homes for the first time had a field day making me their target. Note that I had to go a good distance (200 miles) to my school to get to my major so family was not able to be much help.

For me it was just different. In HS I was in a small school, my teachers knew me and I knew my classmates. I didn't have a strong group of friends and my parents found my anxiety hard to manage but in HS I did not feel alone. I spent a lot of time alone but I was happy with that. I couldn't wait to get out of HS so I could go to a school where people took school more seriously.

In Uni there was this forced togetherness which I truly hated. I felt lonely in Uni because being friends with 2 million people was this big 'thing'. I liked my courses, I found it annoying that most people I went to school with didn't seem to care as much as I did about our courses (and would do things like not read our texts but then comment about completely unrelated things during our sessions). I'm glad I went to uni but it wasn't as 'serious' as I anticipated.

College was definitely better than high school. In high school I mostly tried not to talk and hoped people wouldn't hurt me too much.

Then I went to college, 'cause my Dad made me. I didn't want to leave home and I was scared to death.

I hated living in a dormitory and being stuck with all the people and all the noise.

I took long walks alone late at night and was probably lucky I didn't get raped and murdered. I think the reason I didn't was that I had always walked around the hills like I owned them-- I had this Billy Bob Badass attitude about wild animals and stuff-- and I didn't know the streets in town were any different. Maybe they weren't. Maybe the same attitude that shows animals you are not afraid works on people too.

Very few people threw things at me and called me names. I didn't make a whole lot of friends, but I had many good conversations with interesting strangers. In the long run, I did make a few friends, all of whom I still have 10+ years later.

Be careful about socializing. I don't know what it's like in Germany, but in America the club scene is loud and deceptive and nasty and dangerous. That's probably another reason I didn't get hurt-- I didn't go there. I kept to myself.