It's over! Well, it's actually almost over; I have 3 more finals on Monday and research paper that is due on Tuesday. Nevertheless, I can sum up my experience already. One thing that I know for sure is that this was the most challenging semester in my entire life. Wishing to be done with my Associate's degree as soon as possible and transfer to 4-year school, I was stupid enough to take 18 credits, instead of minimum 12 international students are supposed to, which is actually "only" 6 subjects: Psychology, Accounting, Management, Macroeconomics, English Composition I, and Effective Speaking. I put the word only in quotes because, back at home, if someone had told me that I'd complain about having to take 6 classes, I'd have laughed at this person's face. Believe me, it's not as easy as it sounds, especially if one is aiming for straight A-s in all 6 subjects.

I'm certain that taking 6 classes in the US college is not less challenging than studying from 9 am to 4 pm every day in our universities. Of course, there is always a chance that my opinion has to do with the fact that I've simply become too lazy from the stupid nanny lifestyle that has been depressing shit out of me for the past 2,5 years. However, with this being said, there are at least a few things that make the whole experience of studying in the US very different... good different. Most importantly, in America, students do not live according to our favorite principle "От сессии до сессии живут студенты весело", they have to be on top of things all the time because the grade does not depend on how well you prepare for the final exam or how well you can cheat. It is a combination of different things that counts. I know that some of our colleges are moving towards the same system; however, it didn't work that well last time I checked...

As far as my own experience is concerned, I seriously thought a couple of times that I'm gonna hang myself from all the work I had to do for my classes, which had to do more with its quantity than its difficulty. There were even some nasty thoughts about dropping at least one of the classes. Fortunately, I was able to live through all the bad thoughts and completed my studies rather successfully. Never in my life, however, will I repeat the same mistake - I'd rather spend next 6 years trying to finish my education than once again try to combine two jobs and 18 college credits. With this being said, I learned a lot during this semester and, most importantly, realized that Computer Information Systems major is not for me, even though I haven't had chance to take any computer classes yet. As I have mentioned in one of my earlier posts, I do like to work with computers; however, after this semester, I've become much more interested in business related subjects. Thus, I'll be changing my major once again when I transfer to CUNY next year. I'm thinking about Marketing; it seems to be interesting profession that should agree with my personality much better than getting haemorrhoids from sitting in front of the monitor the whole day.

Как учатся в США (на русском)