It’s Wednesday of week two and I am finally enrolled in all of my classes. It great to finally have a full schedule and not be worried about falling even more behind. But on that note, I do have a lot of catching up to do over this weekend. I am lucky because more of the professors record their lectures with the slides so for the lectures I missed, its like I’m sitting in class, just a week later. It’s really a great piece of technology, because now the students can reference the lectures for studying for exam or if you are sick or just for further notes. My astronomy lecture theater even has a smartboard that projects into the presentation. So a professor can show more than one screen at a time during lecture and in the online recording, which is incredibly useful.
Many of the professors here don’t require textbooks, but rather send of course notes to the copy center on campus and you can pay a small amount for the resources you need all term. My astronomy lab book was $9, most are around $15-$20 though I did have to get a textbook sized one that was $48. That is still way less that even one textbook at Drexel. Any required textbooks can be found in the library and for any require online work, you are given the access codes. I can spend as much as $400USD on textbooks for just 10 weeks at Drexel and so far here I have spent $57AUD, and still have all the required and recommended resources for my classes.
I can’t believe that I already have a presentation next week and two papers due the week after that. While all of these projects are fairly small, I am excited and nervous to see how they go and see if grading/ expectations will be different then from what I understand from class. I think I will be fine, but this until I see my grades, there is this tiny fear that might be some cultural difference that I haven’t experience yet about academics, but I guess we will see soon! It’s exciting to be back in classes and learning again after Co-op, especially at a school this different and amazing.
Today I also attended in information session about applying for graduate school here. While it is still very early in my time here, I already enjoy my classes and my professors have been great. I will also be going to another information session next week on graduate scholarships and funding. Who knows, maybe I will end up here again!