US Alumni Surveys – New England Table of Contents Boston University (2) Bowdoin College Clark University Emerson College Harvard University (2) Mount Holyoke College Smith College Tufts University Wellesley College Williams College Other alumni have attended the following schools: Brown University (2) Colby College Dartmouth College Middlebury College (4) Northeastern University (4) Smith College (engineering major) Wesleyan University (3) Trinity College University of Vermont Yale University (3)
Welcome message from author
This document is posted to help you gain knowledge. Please leave a comment to let me know what you think about it! Share it to your friends and learn new things together.
Transcript
US Alumni Surveys – New England Table of Contents Boston University (2) Bowdoin College Clark University Emerson College Harvard University (2) Mount Holyoke College Smith College Tufts University Wellesley College Williams College Other alumni have attended the following schools: Brown University (2) Colby College Dartmouth College Middlebury College (4) Northeastern University (4) Smith College (engineering major) Wesleyan University (3) Trinity College University of Vermont Yale University (3)
Alumni Survey: Boston University
Class of 2008/09 Subjects studied. Economics with a minor in Philosophy What were the main reasons that you chose the country where you are studying? I decided to go to school in the US primarily because I'm American and have never lived in the US; I figured college would be the right time to do that, if ever. What features attracted you to the particular university which you are currently attending?
I wanted an urban environment coupled with a campus feel, and I'm glad to say BU offers the perfect mix in that regard. 3. Have those expectations largely been met? What I love about this school is that one can do anything. I often think that it is a microcosm for the world in the sense that there is an impressively wide spectrum of people, thought, and ambitions. Also, the school is there for the taking. If you sit back and expect to get the payoff of a $50,000 education, you will be left hanging. If you want something, you have to go out and grab it. It is there for the taking. 5. Are you very happy-‐reasonably happy-‐not all that happy-‐ definitely unhappy with the social life at your university/host town or city? Honestly, I don't think I've quite gotten over the culture shock yet. Boston is not a “European-‐like” city as most would have it. What is great about BU, however, is diversity of its student body. I have met people from all over the world, even more so than at the Lycee. Do I fit in? I don’t think anyone at this school “fits in” per se. There is everything here, from indie kids to jocks, Manhattan socialites to kids from Boston’s poorest suburbs, stoners to straight edge, anybody and everybody in between. Everyone sheds their label as they get here, creating a very open atmosphere. The frat scene is limited to the kids who don’t know how to socialize outside of a rigid framework, a very limited scene indeed. I’ve met some incredible people here. What don’t I like about BU? I think it’s fair to say that Boston is a little…underwhelming. Especially so if you are under 21. I spend most of my time on the campus even though the city is right there. That being said, we do get the advantages that come with a city: great concerts year round, big sports scene, art, etc. 6. Is your coursework challenging compared to your final years at lycee? I major in economics with a minor in philosophy. I would say that the coursework is about the same or easier in terms of difficulty. However, the speed and style of the work you do is entirely different. Also, BU is renowned for harsh grading: as a general rule, they make relatively easy to get a B and quite difficult to get an A. Averaging an A-‐ is no walk in the park. I wouldn’t say school is difficult, though. 7. Do you have regular contact with your teachers or tutors? Are they accessible outside of class? My teachers and teaching assistants are always available. They really encourage discussion outside of class and are always ready to help. BU is great about keeping classes small too. I’ve found it very easy to navigate the BUreaucracy, and registering for classes is all online. 8. What extracurricular activities have you joined and have you enjoyed them? In terms of extracurricular activities, I’ve played guitar in a jazz group, taught guitar, and played rugby. Ton of activities on campus for anyone and everyone. Don’t be lazy.
9. Has it been hard to navigate the logistics of your school-‐-‐ registering for classes, finding housing, etc ...? I would highly recommend moving off campus after freshman year. Even though BU offers great housing for upperclassmen, it’s expensive and you get chaperoned. Get an apartment, save a lot of money, and have parties.
Alumni Survey 2016 interview: Boston University Honors College
Roommate/social life: Roommate from Miami, born in Haiti. University Orientation: I skipped a lot of international events. Got free tickets to baseball game. Welcome stuff organized by dorm, ice cream social for international students. Extra part: Common Ground to visit city. “A lot of orientation was really cringe-‐worthy. A lot of it was warnings, skits on sexual assault that were pretty useless, threats if you get caught drinking but they don’t follow through with it. BU is notoriously bad about sexual assault; they’re being investigated by the FBI. Preparation for issues around drinking and sexual assault: We had assemblies about sex and puberty in Seconde but not ever discussed sexual assault at lycée. Didn’t see any info about that. Would be good to show Hunting Ground, so that students learn that it’s not everywhere like it is here at the Lycée. “My friends and I usually go to MIT fraternities. ‘One guy actually asked me how to talk to girls.’ Sometimes guys in the dorms have said weird things and there’s a big community of girls to shut it down whenever it happens.” Adapting to America social scene: “No one would know where I’m from unless I told them. There’s a lot of pop culture lingo that I missed out on. But my roommate sat me down with some videos and taught me some slang. They weren’t movies, mostly zines, slang, that kind of thing online, viral videos, and then just like expressions. ‘Lit’ and ‘turned’ are both a good time. There’s a lot of slang. A lot of it’s black slang, so I never would have encountered it here because it’s such a white school. Like, those shoes are fuego. But that might be an Atlanta thing. Otherwise people just say it’s fire. Which means it’s cool.” Adapting to campus political climate: “Here’s it’s always Palestine, Palestine and if you support Israel you’re not Nazi but in the US it’s totally the opposite. There are so many Jewish students at BU. People like to talk about politics a lot, at least in the honors college. People like to debate about it. I don’t. I just want everyone to get along. So I just kind of back away slowly. I feel like it just creates a divide between me and the person I’m talking to. I mean, I’m not going to change anyone’s point of view. BU’s had some neo-‐Nazi uprising in the past month, people posting Black Lives Don’t Matter posters. My roommate will share our disgust at the way the world is but we’re basically on the same page. We had daylong symposium on ethics and race but first two speakers were both white men and someone pointed it out and then the whole thing just sort of went down in flames, people were calling teachers out for sexist comments, saying you can’t have a forum on diversity with just white men and the director tried to solve the problem by saying, I’m Jewish and people were like, ok, what does that have to do with it. People saw the list of speakers and assumed everyone was white even though they weren’t and so the dean of students turned up. It was a fiasco. That event was just students confronting teachers on lots of things and teachers offering really bad defenses. Very different than here. Also, calling teachers by their first names, I just can’t do it. I have to force myself to do it. My boss invited me over to her house for Easter and it was really awkward, it was just her family watching baseball. I live right near Fenway and I like hearing them sing Sweet Caroline, that’s my favorite part of baseball. Academics: I had to register over the summer and there was no academic counselor to tell me what I should take and at what level. So I signed up for a bunch of 100 level courses and in the end they don’t count because I got credit for bac. I took archeology and a neuroscience class on Reading,
Language, and the Brain. It was a science class made for kids who haven’t done science and kids who don’t have science in America really do nothing so I feel like I even had more knowledge than they did. In math I seemed to know more than they did. Or I know nothing in areas that Americans consider basic and then in stuff I’ll consider complicated I’ll know more than they do. I could understand a lot of what my roommate was doing and she’s studying computer engineering. Some basic stats things we hadn’t done here. I just did Statistics and I’m doing another one next semester. I liked it even though math taught in an amphitheatre of 150 people is not the way to teach math. He was a really bad teacher. He used slides he downloaded from Pearson and he was just reading it. And the math book was $250, but I got a used one for $50 and then we had to pay $100 to access the site to do our homework. So that was ridiculous. Textbooks are so much and then you sell it back for nothing. First intro to communications class was 600 but I’d say about 200 or less actually went to the class because there’s really no way to even fit. That was a stupid class. They get better and better once you get into them. But I really liked my second semester class, Writing For Communication; the teacher was such a sweetheart. And it was a 20-‐person class instead of 600. But in my class I think 4 people including myself were native English speakers. So it was basically English as a second language so it was very easy, so I would talk a lot, which gave me extra points. Academic expectations: I had to change my writing style. They expected something different. Adding a lot of sources and citing it right. That was probably the biggest challenge in changing systems, was not knowing MLA. The sourcing was the worst part, and I needed it for every class except for statistics. I use the online database and then it usually links to books in the library. I had two huge research papers second semester for the honors colleges, one for Modernity and its Discontents. I think I was the only one who liked that class. The honors college classes are so great. The first one was the neuroscience class, it was 9-‐10 people around the table with this amazing neuroscience professor from Harvard and MIT. They basically teach what they’re really excited about. The Ethical Leadership of MLK Jr. was another amazing class. Professor was really good friends with Coretta Scott King. That came with a free trip to Atlanta to see civil rights monuments and meet important people. Got to meet an organizer of the Black Lives Matter movement, famous artist whose work we saw in the civil rights museum. And yet honors college almost entirely white and Asian. That class was all white. That class I had a 15-‐page research paper to write. And my studio research paper was like 10-‐12 pages. First semester I was really not getting good grades at all in writing. Comm 101 really didn’t like my writing style at all. They just want really clear, with lots of sources. No one tells you what they expect. My modernity class, he had these tutorials, where you would go to his office and talk about the paper. My big research papers went great in the end. I worked really hard on those. I had 11 books checked out from the library for my Martin Luther King paper and I had two pages of work cited. Using sources in French looks lovely, and they can’t check it to find out you only read the abstract. I’ve gotten worse grades here than at BU. Here I could always blame it on my French and there not so much. One big difference is timing things, and having multiple drafts and not just scrambling to write it by hand in class really fast. You have to type it up, have sources, have steps, you turn in the first draft and then a second draft and it can be kind of penible but in the end you realize it’s better. “It’s so nice to have fewer class hours. I feel like here I would miss a class every week because I just couldn’t deal with how much class there was, we’re just constantly in class all the time and all you want to do is sleep. In college I think I missed like three classes because there’s so few of them that you want to go.”
I can only really write fast if I get out my stylo plume and write by hand. I can’t concentrate when I write on a laptop, I start checking the thesaurus and thinking about how I could say it and I write like a paragraph every two hours. You can’t turn it in by hand. Everything is on line. It’s like Educhorus only it works way better. Honors colleges gives you priority reservation. I was supposed to be registered as a rising junior because I got a year’s worth of credit. I could graduate three semesters early. They didn’t count any of my French, which is crazy. I think I will graduate a year early, just because of the money. I might be able to enroll directly in a German university and get credit for that and not pay tuition. My German classes are really good; I’ve liked them a lot. Doing 5 classes per semester. 4 is not much at all. I’m talking two classes in my major (Mass Comm PR and Advertising). My concentration in German is already basically done. Archeology I didn’t like at all. I mean I was glad I did it; it was interesting, but digging stuff up, no … “The reading load is a lot heavier. I don’t have more free time but there’s 200 places where you can do work and read and the honors college has a study lounge on the room where everyone hangs out and no one ends up studying but it’s a really fun community because everyone lives together and are studying the same courses.” Next year 1 class everyone has to take on ethics. Honors College is not that good a deal. You can’t graduate early so I’m going to have to drop it my third year. The first year is great because you get your own counselor, you get priority registration, you get a community and those amazing small classes. Every Sunday they have a food party; they just have a lot of money to blow on us. But after the first year it’s just a bunch of required classes. They have an under 50% retention rate and it’s dropping. Their GPA requirement is kind of tough but the scholarship is even higher. Most of the honors college is engineering majors and with the honors colleges they have no wiggle room, all their courses are planned out for them. It doesn’t show up on your degree and you have your Keystone project at the end but that’s it. Most of my friends are engineers. You don’t really meet anyone in your class because you don’t really talk to the other students in your classes. You meet everyone from your dorm and your activities. That really bothered me at first because I thought, how do people make friends here? “It was hard to getting used to eating alone. First semester if I didn’t have someone go with me to the cafeteria I just wouldn’t go so I ended up losing a ton of weight. Second semester I got used to it. I just play with my phone or sit near the door so I can flag friends when I see them come in and be like, hey, come join me!” I feel like I could have been happy at any university. Overall, I thought I was set up pretty well.
American Section Alumni Survey: Bowdoin College 1 . What is your intended major/main fields of study? Major: English or Art History or Economics Minor: romance languages 2. About how many hours of class do you have per week? How much time, on average, do you devote to studying outside of class? 11.5 hours of class per week. About 12 hours of studying outside of class (it varies throughout the semester-‐ during midterms and finals, more studying is needed). 3. What are the three best classes that you’ve taken so far? The worst? Best: English-‐ Introduction to Drama Italian language class Art History: Contemporary Chinese art. I have not taken any bad classes, though I did prefer going to my humanities classes then my math class, but that is simply because I don’t enjoy math that much. 4. What extra-‐curricular activities or work/internship/volunteer experience have you done? I edited pamphlets (in French) destined to the poor migrant French speaking population of Maine, as well as editing a fellow student’s French papers. I will hopefully be creating a knitting club next semester if I can get more group members by then. 5. Why did you choose your university? I visited the campus (of Bowdoin College) and loved it! I met with several people in the Bowdoin administration including a representative of Bowdoin for France and an alumni meant to interview me, both echoing the great experience many people had described to me earlier. 6. Have your expectations been met? What has most surprised you? My expectation have been met and more! I am happier then I could have ever imagined at this school! 7. Do you feel like you fit in with your fellow students? What are they like, generally speaking? I fit in very well with my fellow students: they create a fun and stimulating environment! 8. Have you found it easy to adapt to the social scene at your university? Yes very easy! Everyone was so terribly nice to me! 9. How much contact do you have with your professors, in and out of class? I have quite a bit of contact with my professors! They are always available to help me and offer their time to explain to, or discuss things, with me personally.
10. What are the benefits and disadvantages of your university’s size, facilities, and location? Benefits: its small size (you get extra attention!), its really good food, its friendly atmosphere. Disadvantages: it is situated in a little town pretty far away from any major city, but plenty of stuff is always happening on campus (I like it because of the wilderness around and because its in the really wonderful state of Maine). 11. Does your university help you find internships, study abroad, jobs? Yes they do! All you have to do is ask! 12. If you could do it again, would you attend the same university? If not, why not? YES MOST DEFINITELY. 13. What advice would you have for a new student coming to your university? Make sure you browse all the available classes before you choose which ones you want to take, because there are some really fun classes you might miss out on like a bird song class!! 14. Is there anything you wish you had known when you were applying to university? To not worry!
American Section Alumni Survey: Clark University. USA What subject is your main area of focus? Double Major in Political Science and History Have you or are you planning to do a study abroad or work experience semester and if so, where? Going to DC next semester on a Washington Semester Program with AU 1. What were the main reasons that you chose the country where you are studying? Quality of education 2. What features attracted you to the university you are attending? 5th year free BA/MA Accelerated degree, size, quality of teachers and the sense of acceptance no matter who you are 3. Have those expectations largely been met? Absolutely. 4. Are you happy with the academic program at your university? Can you tell us why? I am very happy with the program. I have taken amazing classes that challenge me on an academic level. 5. Are you happy with the social life at your university/host town or city? Worcester is not the best city in the world. But it has a personality that is for sure. I love the social life at Clark, since we get good speakers and have a very active student activities board that has programs every Thursday, Friday ,and Saturday night on campus. I fit at Clark in every way, and I love that fact. I love the diversity of political and religious opinions. 6. Is your coursework challenging compared to your final years at lycee? What would have helped prepare you for university-‐level courses? My coursework is more challenging than the lycee, of course but I was very well prepared. 7. Do you have regular contact with your teachers or tutors? Are they accessible outside of class? My teachers are very accessible outside classes, and I have become personal acquaintances with a few. 8. What extracurricular activities have you joined and have you enjoyed them? Had you already done these in lycee or are they new discoveries? I continued MUN of course and even participated in Haarvard MUN. I become involved with Hillel, the Jewish group on campus. Finally, I am on the board of trustees committee as Student Representative. 9. Has it be hard to navigate the logistics of your school-‐-‐ registering for classes, finding housing, etc ... and how have you coped with those challenges? The resident advisors and peer advisor are a great support system to navigate the logistics at Clark U
10. How did you go about discovering what you want to do and how to make friends in a new environment? Take all the classes you want and be social! 11. What has surprised you most about your university experience so far (either good or bad)? The endurance I did not know I had. 12. What do you wish you'd known when YOU were applying to university? It is the time of your life, enjoy it and never say No
Alumni Survey: Emerson College, Boston
b. What subject(s) is your main area of focus? I pursued a double major in Writing, Literature, Publishing, and Marketing Communication d. What are your plans post-‐graduation? I am currently interning with an event/wedding planner in New York City. I hope to continue in the event planning field, or branch out into entertainment marketing, for TV or music specifically. 1. What were the main reasons that you chose the country where you are studying? Wanted to get out of France and both of my sisters were in the US, so I just followed in their footsteps so to speak. 2. What features attracted you to the university you are attending? Emerson College was the only university in the North Eastern US that offered a Publishing major, so that's what initially drew me in. My sister was also attending so I was familiar with it and with Boston, and knew I would like it. It was also very specialized and small, and in the middle of a city, which were all very appealing factors. 3. Have those expectations largely been met? Yes. Though I regret not participating enough in life on campus, classes, teachers, people were all wonderful. And Boston is an absolutely amazing city to study in, because even outside of your university, you're surrounded by so many other students from all kinds of other colleges. It's really great. 4. Are you happy with the academic program at your university? Very happy. I think I've learned a lot, and had so much hands-‐on experience. I liked that my biggest classes were made of 40 students. It makes a difference when you're not the most academic person. It's such a creative school. And everybody knows it, the teachers, the professionals, so they hold you to high standards, but in a different way; they know your worth, which is really nice. 5. Are you happy with the social life at your university/host town or city? Unfortunately I didn't partake in too much of the university's social life but my social life in Boston itself was terrific. I've made some very good friends and Boston is so full of culture. I lived in the North End, the Italian neighborhood, so I have nothing to complain about. Emerson is not a very diverse school when it comes to culture. I think it tries to be but you mostly run into people from NY, NH, MA... Being the French girl was definitely nice, and I made a couple of international friends, including one French, which helped keep me close to home. The hardest thing to adapt to was the mentality; people are laid back in America and you learn to embrace it rather than frown upon it. I used to call it superficial because I thought everybody had a hidden agenda, now I just think of it as being friendly, which is more than I can say about French people when I go home. I find it to be a nicely-‐paced lifestyle; there's time to do things and enjoy life. 6. Is your coursework challenging compared to your final years at lycee? I must say the lycee prepared me well. I was never a straight A student. I tend to check out when things don't interest me. But I managed to do okay at the lycee, and going to Emerson was such a
natural transition. It was hard, but I enjoyed so much of it. Writing essays was the hardest part because after awhile I just wasn't used to it anymore. Overall though, people were always freaking out during finals and I just felt like I had it so easy because I'd been so used to it. 7. Do you have regular contact with your teachers or tutors? Are they accessible outside of class? They are very accessible outside of class. I've graduated so I don't contact them too much anymore, but they make themselves very available. A lot of them are on twitter, or facebook, and in this day and age, I think they like to interact with their students, see where they progress to. 8. What extracurricular activities have you joined and have you enjoyed them? I was part of Emerson International, but not as much as I would have liked to. I wish I had done so much more in my free time, but instead I was a waitress making a bit of extra cash. I was in student council and theater at the lycee but it was too intimidating with such a bigger student body. 9. Has it be hard to navigate the logistics of your school? They kept changing the Emerson website during my time there, and it was the most annoying thing. Now they have the thing down, but for awhile it was so frustrating because it kept changing and I didn't know where to go and what to do. Registration was very easy. I was always in the first ones to register online because I was 32 credits ahead thanks to the OIB. So I always got the classes I wanted. Housing was easy because my family owned an apartment in Boston already. So I think I've been pretty lucky overall. 10. How did you go about discovering what you want to do and how to make friends in a new environment? Orientation (International especially) helped a lot. Living in the dorms was a huge thing. Always hanging out in people's rooms. I think when people say they wish they could go back to college, it's really that first year that's exceptional. For me it was anyway. Your first time being independent, making friends, doing your own things and making your own decisions. It's such a big deal but so much fun exploring all of that. I'm still not sure what I want to do, but my classes got me closer. I stuck with the classes that interested me the most and narrowed it down. 11. What has surprised you most about your university experience so far (either good or bad)? That Americans have no shame showing up to class in their pyjamas. I'll never get used to that. It makes people lazy. haha 12. What do you wish you'd known when YOU were applying to university? I think I was pretty educated when I applied. But that is thanks to my siblings. I think it's important to know what you look for in a university more than anything. What kind of lifestyle you are looking for.
Alumni Survey 2010: Harvard University . b. What subject is your main area of focus? Undecided, but now leaning towards concentrating in Literature. 1. What were the main reasons that you chose the country where you are studying? The well-‐roundedness of liberal arts education and the ability to experiment with more subjects before deciding a major. 2. What features attracted you to the particular university which you are currently attending? Exciting lectures, endless possibilities, and its international prestige. 3. Have those expectations largely been met? yes! 4. Are you very happy-‐reasonably happy-‐not all that happy with the academic program? Very happy. Courses are generally fantastic and there are several mechanisms to ensure that a course is right for you before you commit to it. 5. Are you happy with the social life at your university/host town or city? Very happy. The Harvard community is unbelievably diverse and everyone can find a place in it! There are many other internationals at Harvard which makes "fitting in" much smoother and everyone has their own unique intelligence and worldview. Going out at night can be frustrating at times coming from Europe in that alcohol is illegal for people under 21 so bars and large organized parties are not generally options. That being said there is a thriving party scene, it just takes some adjustment. 6. Is your coursework challenging compared to your final years at lycee? What would have helped prepare you for the courses you've encountered at university? It is very different: a lot of reading and a lot of being individually responsible for knowing material without being held accountable until a mid-‐term or exam. That being said, in the day-‐to-‐day there is often less work than expected from the Lycée, and more time to do it. "Reading period" before exams/ final papers is worse than the lycee because it is unstructured time in which you are expected to organize and undertake a huge amount of work and no one has assured that your exam schedule is reasonable if you haven't 7. Do you have regular contact with your teachers or tutors? Are they accessible outside of class? You generally have to make an effort to hang out with your professor in a large lecture class since your smaller group time is spent with Teaching Fellows, but this is not the case in smaller classes! Either way teachers are always eager for students to come and meet them and converse with them during office hours or schedule a meeting at any other time. Your relationship with teachers is really what you make of it. 8. What extracurricular activities have you joined and have you enjoyed them? Had you already done these in lycee or are they new discoveries? I started new activities rather than the ones I was used to at the Lycee. I am learning black and white film photography, do volunteer tutoring/mentoring for a group of recent immigrants, and am "comping" (a selection process) the poetry board of a school magazine. I also work as a media aid/ camera operator in the science center and as a french tutor for an MIT professor. 9. Has it been hard to navigate the logistics of your school-‐-‐ registering for classes, finding housing, etc ... how have you coped with those challenges? I am not the most organized of people but even so I've survived! I'd say it's important to keep on top of things for yourself. All the resources are there if you just think to use them. There are also many figures to guide you in these things that will go out of their way to ensure you aren't having any difficulties (resident proctor, course advisor, peer advising fellow...) 10. How did you go about discovering what you want to do and how to make friends in a
new environment? Going to a variety of campus events. Talking to people from my course. Attending the international orientation before school starts (DEFINITELY do this, it is a great way to bond with the other international students, get logistical things like bank accounts and cell phones out of the way) The initial month or so is a frenzy of friendliness and it is still always acceptable to sit with a random group of people in the dining hall and introduce yourself. 11. What has surprised you most about your university experience so far? Being very American by Lycée standards, I didn't expect to feel so foreign when I arrived here. There's a cultural shock, to be sure, but you survive it. 12. What do you wish you'd known when YOU were applying to university? This sounds silly now, but if you're between two equally great universities... consider the weather.
American Section Alumni Survey: Harvard University b. What subject is your main area of focus? Undecided. History and Literature or Social Studies. 1. What were the main reasons that you chose the country where you are studying? I did not know what I wanted to do in life professionally and wished to benefit from a broad liberal arts education of the highest level. 2. What features attracted you to the particular university which you are currently attending? Harvard appealed to me for its fantastic quality of education as well as for the opportunities it held in promise. Meeting the Harvard community was also an important interest of mine. 3. Have those expectations largely been met? Yes. While it is always difficult to change environments so young, Harvard is a great place to study for sure. I would simply advise people to come here if they feel they can maintain their confidence level and do well in stress filled environments. 4. Are you happy with the academic program at your university? I'm mostly very happy because it provides excellence in every field, from French cinema to political philosophy. 5. Are you happy with the social life at your university/host town or city? There are great people here, and I like some people here a lot. It can be very New England, which is not all that bad, but this is still college America, with different social standards and attitudes. Be prepared for a change. I have managed to fit in but I missed France immensely last semester, as is to be expected. I like the fact that most people here are driven by strong curiosity and love for challenge. I think on a general level American freshman are less mature. 6. Is your coursework challenging compared to your final years at lycee? My coursework here is roughly the same, but different in nature. Much more reading here; I think students in en and enh should be asked to read whole books before the start of discussion, to get a sense of reading hundreds of pages in short periods of time. This would have helped me. However, I was extremely well prepared and the writing skills the section taught me work very well here. 7. Do you have regular contact with your teachers or tutors? Are they accessible outside of class? Yes, and there are office hours; I don't go often though. It really depends on the teacher. 8. What extracurricular activities have you joined and have you enjoyed them? New discoveries: rugby, and trying to get into the business board of the Harvard Lampoon. Things I kind of did at the Lycee: tutor kids in South Boston 9. Has it be hard to navigate the logistics of your school-‐-‐ registering for classes, finding housing, etc ...? It was easy and very well explained. 10. How did you go about discovering what you want to do and how to make friends in a new environment? Trial by error, course descriptions. Course shopping week! A great feature, you can try out teachers and subject matters. On a general level, try things out! Don't commit too early. Even to a group of friends! 11. What has surprised you most about your university experience so far (either good or bad)?
I was not surprised by excellence here, I expected it( which does not mean I am not grateful!) I was put off balance by the different living style here in the US.
American Section Alumni 2010 Survey: Smith College
b. What subject is your main area of focus? I am probably going to double major in Religion and the Study of Women and Gender. 1. What were the main reasons that you chose the country where you are studying? I chose the United States because I wanted a chance to figure out what I wanted to study. I also wanted to be able to major in whatever I want without it overly affecting my job opportunities later :) Furthermore, I wanted to have some fun with the all the work! 2. What attracted you to your university? I love the academic level here. I also love the fact that it's an all girls school-‐ never thought I would want one of those! But it's actually really amazing, because the fact that it's an all girls school makes it so everyone here is really focused and interesting-‐ the classes are very interesting and full of discussion! Also, it's an absolutely gorgeous campus :) 3. Have those expectations largely been met? They most certainly have! 4. Are you very happy-‐reasonably happy-‐not all that happy with your academic program? I am happy with the academic program here. At first I thought that it wasn't too challenging, but I wasn't taking enough classes. The professors are a large majority of the time great professors, but I have come across one or two I wasn't too fond of. 5. Are you very happy-‐reasonably happy-‐not all that happy with the social life at your university/host town? I definitely love the social scene here. You have to find the type of person you want to stay with, that's for sure-‐ whether you want to be in the party crowd or the crowd that stays in or another crowd. I like the fact that I've found people who are willing to go out with me every night, but if that's not your thing you can find those who like to stay in too. I like Northampton-‐ I do miss being near a big city but if I find myself too much in a bubble then I just take a bus and visit my friends at UMass. 6. Is your coursework challenging compared to your final years at lycee? What would have helped prepare you for the courses you've encountered at university? I feel that the lycee prepared me very well for the work here. It's difficult, but honestly, nothing compared to the amount of stress I felt at the Lycee. 7. Do you have regular contact with your teachers or tutors? Are they accessible outside of class? They are-‐ they all have office hours and check their e-‐mails regularly. 8. What extracurricular activities have you joined and have you enjoyed them? Had you already done these in lycee or are they new discoveries? I am in the Smith College Chorus, which isn't something that I did at the Lycee (obviously). I am also a Gold Key Tour Guide, which is absolutely amazing! There are a lot of extracurriculars here that fit whatever someone would want. 9. Has it be hard to navigate the logistics of your school-‐-‐ registering for classes, finding housing, etc ... how have you coped with those challenges?
It's been pretty easy-‐ the upperclassmen in your house always help you with that kind of thing, so you're never left hanging. 10. How did you go about discovering what you want to do and how to make friends in a new environment? I've moved around a lot, so I was pretty used to it. They also have a lot of orientation things to help you get to know the girls there. And then to meet boys, all you have to do is go to parties off campus or take a class there! 11. What has surprised you most about your university experience so far (either good or bad)? Honestly, I didn't think I was going to be so happy. I have met some amazing people, and I even met my boyfriend in September. It's really easy to meet new people, no matter the sex. It's been amazing :) 12. What do you wish you'd known when YOU were applying to university? Don't stress out so much! You WILL get in somewhere-‐ it's okay if you don't get 700s on every subject with the SATs. You'll be fine.
American Section Alumni Survey: Tufts University
b. What subject is your main area of focus? No major yet...but political science /International Relations, philosophy, economics, and peace and justice are four departments I took or am taking classes in. 1. What were the main reasons that you chose the country where you are studying? I chose the US because the system offered more flexibility than any other system I looked into (France, UK,...). The idea of picking classes as I go, and taking classes that might have nothing to do with the focus of my studies was very attractive. I think it was also important to leave France after spending 7 years at the Lycee. I wanted to see something else, but I think leaving France was also the next logical step in the international education of the Lycee. Also the French prepas were not attractive. The people around me who did them never seemed happy, Leaving France gave me the opportunity to do something different from the majority of French students. 2. What features attracted you to the particular university which you are currently attending? Tufts is right outside Boston. I feel like the distance is perfect. In 15min I can be inside the city. Yet the campus remains a calm place. Tufts also attracted me for its flexibility with majors/classes/... I knew that unlike most schools you could enter in the Art&Science and chose to change to Engineer the second semester. Also not until the end of Sophomore do you have to declare a major. I also knew Tufts had a strong reputation for areas around politics. The Fletcher School is really a great source, with amazing speakers who come in. The teachers are all very interesting. Finally, they said their international community was very strong, which was comforting in a way. 3. Have those expectations largely been met? For flexibility my expectations have been met. As a French student with a Baccalaureate, we get 5 credits (but 8 are recognized with a bac ES). These credits got out of the way nearly half of the required classes students have to take, and allowed me to take intermediate classes in economics the first semester. With all these requirements out of the way it was also the opportunity to take a fun class (History of African American Music). I basically have almost no constraint. I also knew that because I speak French I would not have to learn a language (which is a requirement). The Fletcher School has already been a great source. The teaching assistants for most political science classes study at Fletcher. Their insight is always helpful, but they also know what speakers are coming and which one could be interesting. The conferences are always really interesting. In the field of political science, I really feel like Tufts students are surrounded by some of the best. For the international community, well it is very strong all over the campus. Not a day goes by without meeting a new person from a distant place. 4. Are you happy with the academic program at your university? I am happy so far. I took classes that were all interesting. My academic advisor is very present when I seek his attention. Most teachers are open to discussing the material after class, or at one of the café on campus. There is always someone to talk to about the material and answer questions. In all of the classes the readings were of good quality. The books are chosen with attention, and all of them add something to the course. But most importantly I feel like I learn new material, even when we talk about the World Wars in IR. 5. Are you happy with the social life at your university/host town or city? Tufts is right outside Boston, and in the middle of an area populated with universities. There are a lot of young people around. But this is very very different from St Germain/Paris. The social life
is very different, but I tend to think that you make it what you want it to be. For example, the frat parties were never something I enjoyed... so I figured out other ways to have fun on the weekends. It's all about meeting the people (during orientation, classes, in clubs,...), the ones you feel comfortable with, and I think it's possible here. On the other hand, this led me to spend more time with international students, and my best friends are from France, Turkey, India, Israel, Russia,......This does not mean I do not have American friends (I plan to live with an American next year), but I will spend most of my free time with international students. Also the international community here is extremely large, so it's not like hanging out with 2 people. More and more I tend to think that there are very important differences between American and international students, but once again it's about meeting people you are comfortable with. So it is true the American culture is very different from the French culture, but there are attractive aspects of it. I am not dissatisfied with the social life and culture, but I imagined it a little bit different. 6. Is your coursework challenging compared to your final years at lycee? I feel the Lycee prepared me very well for the level of the courses here. It is of course more challenging but it remains reasonable if I put effort and work into it. I feel that we are very well prepared in writing. I was surprised to see the level of certain students in my English class. In history, I feel like I know the World Wars and the Cold War in better detail than most students. Maybe there could be at the Lycee a stronger focus on research. Instead of having one major research paper every year, having smaller and more frequent ones could be a good idea to get the students used to doing research. I use research for almost any paper here, and this was not the case at the lycee. Learning how to use data bases, citing,... are skills I had a basic knowledge of from the Lycee, but I had to improve them here. 7. Do you have regular contact with your teachers or tutors? Are they accessible outside of class? Yes! A professor with over 200 students will answer any questions, set up extra office hours, and stay after class. The majority of professors here are very accessible in and out of class. They even set up a system to encourage student-‐professor activity. If a student walks into the Tower Cafe (at the library) with a teacher, they both eat and drink for free. My English teacher has extra office hours before papers are due. My Macro Econ teacher is accessible on Skype and studies at the library before exams in order to be there for students with questions. I really feel like teachers are there to serve the students and help them with any problem. I have heard of students trying to reach an advisor without success, but those are isolated cases and exist in every university. 8. What extracurricular activities have you joined and have you enjoyed them? I joined the soccer club. Through it I met a lot of people. I am trying to join two student associations right now. One is called AIESEC, the other is called EPIIC. The first one is basically a large network of students and professionals who interact together through conferences, workshops, and internships all over the world. It's the largest student run association in the world. This group also has workshops on how to write a motivation letter, handle an interview... EPIIC's action is much broader because it is split into various associations with different objectives. It's part of Tufts' Institute for Global Leadership. I just recently met a sophomore from there and so I am in the process of finding a spot in EPIIC. It's hard to explain exactly what they do, this will probably help: http://www.tuftsgloballeadership.org/programs/epiic I'm also trying to become a french conversation leader for next semester. This is more of a on-‐campus job though 9. Has it be hard to navigate the logistics of your school? Most of it is easy with a little effort. The first time you chose classes is during orientation. So you are surrounded by host advisors and your academic advisor. It's fluid and easy to do if you look through the course catalogue (which is handed out the first day of orientation), and get the codes for the courses you want. Housing is also easy because there is nothing to do for freshman year.
The university choses a room for you (and a room mate in my case). The international center communicates actively about visa issues and papers for international students. My academic advisor and the international center really help, and I found that the international host advisors were very helpful. I also had to take care of banking, visas, telephone... It can be quite time consuming, but in the end everything worked out fine. 10. How did you go about discovering what you want to do and how to make friends in a new environment? I did international orientation, and I recommend it to every Lycee student.The orientation program helped me meet friends and get to know the campus. During orientation, we also have the chance of meeting people from various student groups and associations. This culminates at the association fair, at which you give your email to a bunch of groups who eventually spam you. At least you know what is happening. 11. What has surprised you most about your university experience so far (either good or bad)? What I've enjoyed so far is the feeling that you live with friends. Every student shares his life with friends. We eat, we relax, we study, and do almost everything together. There is a real sense of solidarity on campus which I find amazing. Classes can be very very different. And I find it entertaining. It's not the same thing everyday. I think you need to have a certain degree of flexibility in general, to adapt not only to your new life on campus, but to adapt your schedule every day. You can imagine how your day will happen in the morning, the odds are that it won't happen like that. Just go with the flow. 12. What do you wish you'd known when YOU were applying to university? I should have looked through course catalogues and closely into majors, because every school is very different for those. Also I was surprised by the amount of international students, and knowing could have been somewhat reassuring before leaving. I can't really think of anything important though...
AmSec Alumni Survey: Williams College
Class of 2008/09 Subjects studied. I'm a biology major, but have taken a range of other science/math courses (including a lot of chemistry) as well as subjects such as English, Linguistics, Psychology... 1. What were the main reasons that you chose the country where you are studying? I mainly wanted to study in the US because I was attracted to the liberal arts curriculum. I've always been planning on going to veterinary school after I graduate, but I did not want to dive right into a pre-professional program, which is what would have happened in France. 2. What features attracted you to the university which you are currently attending? I like Williams because it is a small school, with a very tight-knit community, but it has access to resources that much larger schools might have. The science facilities are incredible, as are most of the professors I have had. It was amazing to me that even in larger lecture courses (the largest one I've been in here probably had around 100 students) the professor could learn everyone's name. Even though going to a small school means sacrificing some measure of choice in terms of courses and majors, I think it is worth it because of the individual attention each student gets. 3. Have those expectations largely been met? I didn't really know what to expect coming here- but I have been extremely satisfied with my experience. I was told that going to a small college meant that you could really get to know your professors and fellow students. This is definitely true at Williams. 4. Are you very happy-‐reasonably happy-‐not all that happy-‐ definitely unhappy with the academic program? I am very happy with the academic program here. Most of my experience has been with the science courses, which are extremely well-taught. The science facilities are amazing- the laboratory parts of the courses are very different from what could be found at the Lycee! The classes are challenging, but if you choose well never discouragingly hard. There are a lot of different course options, and I think that Williams has amazing faculty members in every department. I have only been disappointed with one or two courses that I have taken here so far! Another aspect of the academic program is that there are "divisional requirements": everyone has to take at least three courses in each of three divisions, which are basically math/science, language/arts, and social sciences (somewhat reminiscent of S/L/ES...) While some people here don't like the requirements, they are easy to fulfill if you come to the school with diverse interests. 5. Are you happy with the social life at your university/host town or city? What do you find appreciate most about your fellow students or your host culture? What don't you like? I am very happy with the social life here. It is very, very different from the Lycee- which is good in some ways, bad in others. The international community isn't huge, which is a bit frustrating sometimes, just because there aren't as many people around who know where I'm coming from and what it's like to have grown up in other country. That said, it has been an eye-opening, enriching experience to meet Americans from so many different parts of the country, and from so many different backgrounds. Williams really attracts students who come from all different socio-economic and cultural situations, more so than at the Lycee, where most people (I realize this is a simplification!) were from relatively well-off families. Also, while the international community is small, it is pretty tight-knit. I haven't been a huge participant in international student activities, but most of the international students know each other! Another strong aspect of social life here is the athletic culture, which was definitely a new experience for me. A large part of the student body plays a varsity sport. I think that people applying from France tend to attach negative connotations to strong athletic presences on campus, but I don't think it should be a concern. My roommate from freshman year is one of the most serious athletes I have ever met (she is on the national triathlon team), but we got along extremely well from the beginning- she is extremely invested in academics at Williams and definitely does not fit into the stereotype of a college athlete! Williams definitely isn't a "party school" (no
fraternities/sororities, and no special interest housing at all), but there is a bit of something for everyone- for those who want to party as well as those who don't. 6. Is your coursework challenging compared to your final years at lycee? The coursework is challenging, but I think being at the Lycee was good preparation. Compared to a lot of my fellow students here, I was definitely not as scared as bad grades (switching to the American grading system was a bit of a shock! I'm still not used to think of the equivalent of a 15 (75%) as a bad grade...) and of hard work. It has been a bit tricky figuring out where I stand with respect to placement in science courses, because the curricula are so different in France and the US, but altogether the transition was pretty smooth. Having so much less time in class really encouraged me to work especially hard on my assignments out of class. I spend more time learning and thinking about the material for class than I did at the Lycee. It is also not "uncool" to want to work hard and spend a lot of time in the library... It can get pretty stressful at times- but nothing that people who have taken the Bac can't deal with! Also, the atmosphere is not competitive at all- collaboration with other students on assignments is encouraged. It has been really helpful for me to be able to work through problems and study with friends in my courses. 7. Do you have regular contact with your teachers or tutors? Are they accessible outside of class? Most teachers are very accessible, have regular office hours, are always happy to answer emails, and hold review sessions. Some will even give out their telephone number! There are also students available for free tutoring for most subjects. In particular, there are resource centers for both math/science classes and writing-intensive classes where students can go for tutoring without setting up appointments. 8. What extracurricular activities have you joined and have you enjoyed them? I joined the Equestrian team here. I rode horses in college and lycee, always pretty casually. The team here is very casual too, which I like! I'm a science tutor, and I also help teach science at the elementary school. I haven't really made any new discoveries, but I've been able to figure out what I'm really interested in! And it is definitely encouraged to try out as many new things as possible. I've also participated in freshman orientation. All freshman choose some kind of program- which can be an outdoor adventure-type trip, a more arts- focussed program, or the program I led, which introduces the first-years to the surrounding area (there are a few other choices as well!) It's an amazing experience to be able to be a part of the freshmen's first impression of Williams, and it was a really fun experience to lead trips to different places near campus. 9. Has it been hard to navigate the logistics of your school-‐-‐ registering for classes, finding housing, etc ...? Housing is on-campus for the first three years, with the option of moving off-campus senior year, so finding housing has definitely not been a problem at all. I have not had any trouble registering for classes, but I think it is more difficult for people taking courses in the arts or social sciences where classes are generally smaller. That said, there has been a lot of discussion lately about how to deal with people being dropped from classes, so I am sure the situation will improve. Logistically, it is pretty easy to register for courses; it is all done online and the dates for registering are well publicized. 10. How did you go about discovering what you want to do and how to make friends in a new environment? When I first arrived at Williams, I was struck by how friendly and open all of the students were. Everyone seemed to be optimistic about college, and excited about everything! It was encouraging to meet so many people who were as interested in making friends and discovering new things as I was. The student body is very supportive and inclusive of all types of people. It was not at all difficult for me to make friends- it was a lot easier than I expected, actually. This is in part because of the first-year residential system and orientation program at Williams, which are both extremely well put-together, and encourage building friendships and meeting all kinds of different people. The freshman residential system is one thing that attracted me to the college. The administration sorts all
freshmen into "entries", which are groups of 20-25 freshmen who live together, with two juniors, called "junior advisors" (we don't have RAs at all- the junior advisors do not have any disciplinary power). The entries are supposed to be representative samples of the college's population. They are a way to encourage integration of the student body. Each entry organizes social activities for its members, especially during orientation. It's a great way to help new students find friends! And the junior advisors are crucial in providing support and guidance to the freshmen in their first days at school. The entry experience was central to my social life freshman year, and contributed to a lot of the strong friendships I have formed here. 12. What do you wish you'd known when YOU were applying to university? I think I was actually pretty well-informed - but I would tell people that if possible it is very helpful to be able to visit colleges, go to some classes, and spend time with the students!
Related Documents
