And Classes Begin

Up until this past week, I hadn’t been to class in three months. The thought of school was not something that I was particularly excited about. Yet, after completing the first of sixteen weeks of classes at Fudan University, I am happy to say that I’m still alive.

           It’s weird to be at Fudan because they have an actual campus. As normal as that should be, I am still not used to walking around and only seeing other students. There is a tower in the middle of campus that is 30 floors high. It can be seen from everywhere on campus and essentially serves as the campus’ north star. The rest of the campus consists of academic buildings that are about five stories high, several cafeterias (canteens) and some dorms. I live right off campus in an apartment building that houses international students. While there are international student dorms at Fudan, those are for degree-seeking students. My apartment is pretty nice and includes three bedrooms (there are three of us in the apartment), a living room with a TV, couch and dining table, bathroom, kitchen, and laundry alcove. It has definitely seen better days, but two weeks in, it feels like home.

`           Classes at Fudan are only held once a week (with the exception of languages) and most Chinese students will take around twenty-six credits (credits are calculated similar to how GW does it). I even talked to a student who is taking thirty credits this semester. School pretty much dominates students’ lives here and many that I talked to were not involved in any student organizations or off campus activities.

            I strategically scheduled my classes so that I have off on both Monday and Friday. On Tuesday, I have Management Information Systems in the morning from 9:55 to 12:30. I then have Chinese that evening from 6:30 to 8:10. On Wednesday, I have Survey of International Economics with GW professor Steven Suranovic from 10:50 to 12:30, and then Marketing Management in the afternoon from 1:30 to 4:10. On Thursday, I have Investment Fund Management from 1:30 to 4:10 and then Chinese again from 6:30 to 8:10. Alright, I know that was super detailed, but I think that it helps to show the setup of my day. While many of my classes are two and a half to three and a half hours long, they have at least one fifteen-minute break, and may have two. This really helps make the long classes manageable.

            Overall, my classes seem to be pretty similar to classes at GW. All of my professors have their graduate degrees from American Universities, and act in a similar manner to GW professors. They will ask if students have questions, encourage us to engage in dialogue, and have grading systems that are broken up by small projects, homework assignments, quizzes, papers and exams. I have only had each class once so far, but it looks like it will be a fun semester, and so I am excited to see what it brings.