University Life

Well it’s getting close to finals at L’Ecole de Management and I thought it might be nice to take a moment and blog about school life here in Strasbourg. Surprisingly, I have had more schoolwork in the last week than I have had this whole semester in France. The French university system is extraordinarily different than the American university system I am used to back at home. Being a Georgia State student, I have become accustomed to having classes that meet twice a week at a specific time and place. However, this is far from the case at my university in France. Whenever I do have class scheduled, I always have to make sure I arrive at school early in order to check the board listing where class will be held that day. If this doesn’t seem chaotic enough, some of my classes will be scheduled for eight in the morning one date, then ten in the morning the next date. Being a student in France definitely means having a flexible schedule!
Regardless, one refreshing aspect of French university life is classes only meet once a week compared to twice a week back at home. However, it has been a hard adjustment getting used to sitting in a two hour lecture compared to a seventy minute one. Along with this, most classes do not meet regularly during a three-month semester. For example, one of my classes is scheduled to meet ten times this semester. We met for six weeks in a row and then took a three-week break. Also, l’ecole de management offers what I like to call ‘cram courses’. These are classes that only meet three days consecutively for ten hours. I am scheduled to start one next week and I must admit I am a little nervous as to what this experience is going to be like.
Tests and workload at l’Ecole de Management has proven to be lighter than what I am used to. Only one of my classes requires a book and another class of mine does not even have any tests. I think the biggest difference in workload has to do with the number of classes a student takes. Whereas at my home university I am used to taking four to five classes, here in Strasbourg an average student typically takes many more classes than that. I am not complaining though. Honestly, the light school schedule has been a great advantage to me as far as gathering a European experience goes. Spending less time in a classroom has enabled me to travel more and obtain cultural knowledge in addition to my academic classes.

Until next time-
Kate Bryan