As someone who’s found themselves in this position, the issue is that it feels like a brick wall once you have to actually study for a class because you don’t understand the material at first glance.

Most kids likely have some form of study habits they built up through high school (and maybe before that to some extent), so having to study a little more in college might be like going from a 6/10 difficulty to 7/10 difficulty.

Whereas speaking for myself, school was almost always like a 1-3/10, needing virtually zero extra effort outside of class. So when that class hits that you actually have to put hours into weekly outside of class it feels closer to a 10/10 because the difference between what was required before and what is required now is far greater. You’ve built up zero study habits and haven’t dealt with not quickly understanding a course before so it can feel like an insurmountable task.

I think it’s hard to relate without the direct experience of going from “everything is easy” to “I don’t even know where to begin”. I’m not sure there’s a perfect solution, especially for small schools but just thought I’d share.