12 10 / 2009
academia
woooah I haven’t tumbl’d in what feels like forever. Anyway, this past week was the first week of lecture. It was… an experience. Mind you, I come from a private liberal arts college with 2500 students, so attending a university with more post-graduates than undergrads is a pretty new concept. Some general things, good and bad, I have noticed so far:
- The amount of people in one class is mind-boggling. My corporate finance class consists of SIX HUNDRED+ students. 600! that is my entire class year at Smith. It feels more like you’re going to a theatrical performance than a class. I know this is common to universities in general, even in the US, but it was my first experience of being in such a gigantic class. The econometrics class is also huge. Smith has spoiled me intensely.
- Library space? THERE IS NONE. You have to fight to get a computer and people are a lot less concerned about noise level here than in the US. We compete with post-grad students for basic resources. Again - a very new concept for me.
- Lecturers? Brilliant. A few were disappointing but the finance prof in particular is awesome. I’m really looking forward to that course.
This week we officially start classes, aka discussion sections. They are no bigger than 20 (thank god) and will hopefully improve my understanding of the subjects.
That’s all for now :D
