Last Friday was the last day of my first semester in America, seventeen weeks and twelve blog posts (including this one) since I arrived. It’s gone quite quickly, but so does every year. One semester to go…
The main event of the past few weeks was the final exams. If you’ve read the previous post then you’ll hopefully be aware that the American exam season is somewhat different from ours, in that here we are examined as we go along, rather than all at the end of the year. This means that I was examined on everything I’ve done this semester last week, and can now forget it forever, which in the case of the solid state physics course I will be quite happy to do.
Not sure if this is better than the British system though. Yes I was examined on stuff almost as soon as I’d learnt it, meaning that it was “fresh in my mind”. I find that phrase rather intriguing- does that mean that some of the stuff I learnt in my first year is sitting at the back of the fridge that is my brain slowly rotting? Anyways- it was good in this way, but we have a lot less time to revise here, about five days between the end of each subject and the exam, rather than the week or two we get at home. The best way to compare them would be results. I’ve had a few so far but I’ll wait for the rest to talk about them and try to convert them into a British grade- which may be the trickiest part. The systems are…less than compatible, to say the least.
At this point I suppose I should sum up my impressions of America after one semester, so here we go...
Academically it’s hard to say whether or not it was easier. I would say the actually difficulty level was less than or equal to what I did last year, but that some of it was harder for me personally as I didn’t have the same mix of knowledge that all of the American students had. For example the solid state physics relied heavily on a good knowledge of statistical physics which I haven’t done yet, but was still the best match for what I would be doing at Lancaster. (I didn’t enjoy that class, if you hadn’t guessed). But some of the classes, particularly the second year geology course I took, were really easy (although I’ve never done a British geology course to compare, so it could just be that physics is hard.)
That’s looking at it in terms of difficulty, but what I should probably look at more is opportunity- that is, did I get to do stuff here that I wouldn’t get to do at home. Erm, yes. Lancaster has a very concentrated, physics based course and it’s been good to be able to do lots of astrophysics here instead. I’ve even got to some real research, studying the Canes Venatici I dwarf galaxy. That research is continuing into next semester so I will talk about at another time. In fact I may do a whole blog post on it, so get ready for some proper astrophysics at some point! I’ve also been able to study galaxies and observational cosmology in detail, and to do some long lab experiments that I would miss out on at home. So from that angle it’s been very good.
And what about life in general? Well the accommodation’s been really different, both in the catered food and having room- and suite-mates. We’ve gained a reputation for loud political arguments , which I think may have annoyed some people who were trying to study over our discussion of drugs an abortion last week! Sorry. But I’ve don’t really think that I’ve missed having a room to myself, not much anyway, and the benefits it bring in terms of people talking to each other are great. So in this area I think the Americans have got it right.
Catered eating, well I’ve enjoyed it. It’s been quite nice to be able to eat whenever I want without having to cook it and the food has been very good on the whole. But I think that one of the most valuable things I learnt at uni was to cook, something that I would have missed out on here.
This reminds me of one of the main impressions I’ve got of American University life as compared with Britain. Most people aren’t far from home here and go home regularly, on many weekends. There’s much less of the moving away from home feeling that there is in Britain, where university is something distinctly different. Here it feels much more like just a continuation of school, indeed they still call it school.
Socially it’s been good, although I am missing Lancaster nights out as, being under 21, they won’t let me into nightclubs here. I have got to do stuff like science theatre though which has been great fun (I got an Honourable Member award, which was surprising given that I’ve only been free for two out of the many shows they’ve put on).
And what about the church? Well The Wesley Foundation’s been great and I’ve been able do some good things with them, particularly the Detroit trip from a few posts ago. As for other churches, well I’ve been to a few and have had some very interesting and varied experiences, which have so far neither confirmed nor refuted some of the images of the American church we have. More on that next semester after I’ve visited a few more.
So I suppose the big question is, would I recommend a year abroad to other students? So far, the answer would be yes. Hopefully that will be the same after next semester!
Seventeen weeks down, twenty three to go…
