International Similarities

Tuesday’s class really interested me and got me thinking about the differences and similarities in schools around the world.  In past classes, we’ve discussed elective classes and what their worth is. I think that most American schools may have this all wrong, especially for those who know what they want to do with their life and what, specifically, they want to study.  It seems that, from what the guest speakers where sharing with our class on Tuesday, that other countries start narrowing in on what individuals prefer to study earlier than college.  High school is where the divisions start taking place; students start picking out which courses they want and this helps them decide which college/university they would like to go to.  Universities seem to be more specific in what the students study than US universities.

I did a little more research and found this interesting article which discusses the college experiences of four students each from a different country (The Netherlands, Turkey, USA and Norway). The article has each student explain what studying, costs, accommodations, and fun are like for a typical college student in their country.  The USA student claims we study close to 40 hours a week, while the other three countries report somewhere between 10-25 hours of studying each week.  It also seems that American schooling costs more.  However, at least according to these students, college students enjoy spending time with friends, exercising and going out during the weekends…….although I’m sure we all could have guessed that!

So basically, it seems that college students are pretty similar across the world….the school systems really aren’t too different either (at least from the countries who were represented in class…and from what the article states).