Nicholas Driban never thought his 4.25 high school grade point average (GPA) could slip to a 2.84 his first semester at Penn State.

"In high school, I had a 4.25 on a scale of 4.0 with weighted [advanced placement] classes and all, but I never really studied, so I didn't have any study skills," Driban (freshman-division of undergraduate studies) said.

He said he was not prepared to take on the college workload, and was surprised to end his first semester with B's and C's.

According to a study from the Higher Education Research Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Driban is not alone. College freshmen are studying less than in past years, and high school grade inflation is rising, the study reported.

The UCLA study was based on responses from 282,549 students at 437 public and private colleges and universities.

According to the study, only 33.4 percent of college freshmen reported spending six hours per week or more studying or doing homework during their senior year in high school.

The study also said the percentage of first-year college students who study less than one hour per week has nearly doubled over the past 15 years, from 8.5 to 15.9 percent.

In high school, Driban said he could do anything in a class and get an A, whereas in college, he needs study skills to succeed.

Dirban said his high school English teacher gave him an A because she liked him, although he did not do any work for the class.

"But teachers in college aren't like that," he said. "They don't even know who you are, so you aren't going to get away with that kind of stuff."

Driban said he does not think he is alone.

"A lot of my other friends got all A's in high school, probably because of grade inflation, and now that they're at college a lot of them struggle."

Janis Jacobs, vice provost for undergraduate education, said although some students in high school get grades that do not reflect their abilities, she doesn't think effects of high school grade inflation are a "big problem" at Penn State.

"I don't hear many people complaining about it, so I don't think its much of a problem here," Jacobs said. "But I think there is enough conversation going around in the news that people are starting to take [the issue] seriously."

She said the topic has been in the news for the past two years because of a Harvard study that addressed the existence of grade inflation.

Jacobs said sometimes it is difficult for admissions offices to tell the differences between some high schools in the way their courses are weighted, but she said when the SATs or ACTs are calculated with the GPA, the weights of advanced courses are taken into account.

"What's critical is that the students coming here are prepared," Jacobs said.

Jacobs said she hopes the decrease in students' GPAs from high school to college is because more students are engaged in work outside of the classroom and extra-curricular activities.

"I am hopeful that the drop is not from a lack of studying, or the fault of professors for not giving our students enough work," Jacobs said.

Tyler Stimely (freshman-engineering) said grade inflation at high schools is common.

"I know in my high school anybody could get a 4.0 by taking easy classes, or their grades were just inflated so much by AP classes that it got ridiculous," Stimely said. "I think these days there is just much more opportunity for extra-curricular [activities] here like the frats and clubs that students just get distracted."