Now that I've accomplished what seemed impossible last weekend--enrolling in classes--and have completed my first week of classes, I feel like I've had a decent amount of time to compile the list below:
10 Things to Know About Uni When Studying Abroad in the U.K.:
Side-note: I don't mean to generalize with this list. It is just what I found to be true with my experience. Although some of these things will probably be a little difficult to get used to, I still feel like I am a normal college student, boarding the struggle-bus and fighting the battles of non-essential spending and procrastination.
In the end, my lectures seem like they're going to be pretty interesting! I'm already super excited about this semester, and it's only been a week! 10 more weeks to go! Wish me luck!
10 Things to Know About Uni When Studying Abroad in the U.K.:
- Courses are called modules. Classes are called lectures. Schedules are called timetables. Semesters are called terms. If the accent doesn't give away the fact that you're from the US, using any of these "American English" terms will.
- Professors are not called "Professor" until they've earned the title, much like how you wouldn't call a professor who hasn't gotten their doctorate "Dr. So-and-so." Lecturers is a more appropriate term.
- My lectures have between 30 and 230 students in them, as opposed to back home, where I've never been in a class with more than 20 students. I definitely just feel like a number here (except for in the class in which I was called out for "being the American who emailed a lot of questions ahead of time." I felt more than just a number in that class for sure...).
- University (Uni, for short) and college are not the same thing here like they are at home. When people ask what school I go to back home, I feel like I have to explain myself every time I say "Emory & Henry College."
- Students attend Uni for 3 years, not 4. They don't use freshman, sophomores, juniors, and seniors as descriptors, but say they are in Year 1, Year 2, or Year 3.
- Every lecture is set up the same way. The lecturer stands up in front of the class, opens up a PowerPoint presentation, and begins the lecture, not a second too early and not a second too late.
- Lectures are once a week. Not Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Not Tuesdays and Thursdays. Just one day a week.
- Lecturers will send/upload the slides for their lectures before the actual lecture, sometimes as far as two weeks in advance apparently. Students are expected to look at the slides beforehand, take notes on the slides, read out of 20 different books, take notes on those, and then show up to lecture just to take more notes, which they should review and rewrite later, combining them with the notes they took before the lecture. When looking at the amount of prep work students do here compared to the amount I do at home, I feel like I've been "college-ing" wrong this whole time.
- There is no such thing as a liberal arts education. It is completely unheard of to take classes in different schools. Students pick a school (or major) they want to be in and will only take classes in that school. For all of my E&H readers, this means no Transitions, no Foundations, no GWIC, no Connections, no Modes, etc.
- There are no pop-quizzes, no quizzes in general, no tests, no mid-terms, no reflection papers, and hardly any coursework. You can wave participation grades goodbye because there aren't any of those either. Most of the time, each module will have one or two grades total. Whatever those grades are amount to your final grade. In a couple of my classes, I will have one graded written exam--a 2000 word essay--and in others I will have two written exams that will be averaged together. Yikes!
Side-note: I don't mean to generalize with this list. It is just what I found to be true with my experience. Although some of these things will probably be a little difficult to get used to, I still feel like I am a normal college student, boarding the struggle-bus and fighting the battles of non-essential spending and procrastination.
In the end, my lectures seem like they're going to be pretty interesting! I'm already super excited about this semester, and it's only been a week! 10 more weeks to go! Wish me luck!