What is the typical benchmark of education, that you're expected to know before going to college?
Pretty much everything that's covered in high school, and then some. They'll expect you to know how to research, write essays longer than just a couple of pages, and things such as that. Basically, it's expected that you payed attention in high school and know what you are doing academically.
What are some good tips about college?
1) Pick a major on something you are interested in, but also something you can make money off of. Take this time to figure out what you're interested in and figure out how to make a career out of it. You don't have to shy away from liberal arts major or stick solely to STEM fields. To a point, you do you, but make sure you also plan for your career.
2) You have to study. If you don't know how to study, learn. I didn't study in high school so my first semester of college kicked my butt, but I quickly turned things around because I had no other choice. You will have to study.
3) Make good friends, but remember you are there to get an education. Your primary focus in college should be your education, but having a good friend support I think goes a long in that. Get involved in a club, organization, play intramural sports if that's your thing.
4) Try new things. There was a lot of things that I found out I liked in college that I had no idea because I never had the chance to try it in college.
5) Don't be afraid to ask questions. You in school to learn and get an education, don't be afraid of your professors to ask questions and don't be afraid to seek help if you need it. If you are curious about something, investigate it further
6) Don't skip class unless you are sick. Nobody's perfect, there were some classes I just blatantly skipped because I didn't want to go, but for the most part, unless I was too sick, I went.
It's incredibly stressful, busy, and full of hard-work but also the best time of your life. I figured it out once and with all of my classes, coursework, work, and extracurricular activities I averaged about 70-80 hours a week normally, during busier periods of time that would easily go up over 100 hours. There would be days I was only home to sleep and doing homework and/or something else through breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It wasn't that uncommon to go 8-9am to 10-11PM non-stop. I didn't even have a busy schedule compared to some of my friends.
How should I go about paying for it?
Pray for energy, strength, and willpower.
Basically, what are the need to know things, that I need to know, in order to get, first of all accepted, and second of all, pass with at the very least a B grade.
There's too many variables to say this. It would depend on where you want to go, what you want to major in, etc.