24/7

Today I feel compelled to write about what has been in my head for past week: classes. Whether it be what classes I take, a class I thought I would love and did not like at all once I took it, a class that I tried randomly and ended up loving…classes in general. The main reason is not just because this was my first week of classes in Strasbourg, but because I admit I came here with the preconceived notion that classes here would never measure up to my classes at HC. I came here convinced that classes would be the one thing I would miss the most from the hill. So for the past week I have been afraid of continuous disappointment, but today, thank God, I see a bright light.

The first few days were awful because the class I was most looking forward to, one that is also part of my self-designed major, was not at all what I expected. Even though the professor is quite amazing, he is an expert in his area and that is well understood by the way he talks, the material itself was not interesting. So I gave up the notion that classes here would not measure up to classes in HC and I tried classes that I did not plan on trying. I searched, and tried, and searched, and today I believe I have my five classes and will even a sixth one.

Do I think classes here are not as amazing as at HC? They are simply entirely different. What I, and probably any student used to liberal arts, do not appreciate is the size of a class. I will never consider a class of 200 to be better than one of 25, even if it’s at Harvard, simply because I don’t have a voice. Luckily for me, the Institute d’Etudes Politiques, which is second best in France, has smaller classes than other disciplines. So yes, I have to sit in one or two classes with 200 other students and will probably never be able to ask a question in class, but I have 2 or 3 other classes with about 40 students and I believe that the size of the class very much affected my preference for that class over another.

What do courses here have that is better? The variety of classes. Naturally, this is a university, not a college, so I can take classes of really specific things like the Human Rights Convention. I thus have the opportunity to learn, dissect, analyze and learn everything about only this convention. That is quite awesome, and it is an advantage to being here.

So I believe that there are ways around the bad things, like class sizes, but it takes an effort. I think when going abroad we will miss the office hours, the student to professor relationship, etc…but it is an experience worth taking because after college I am not sure when I’ll be able to take a class about random, specific and important things like the European Human Rights Convention (mind you that the Court is right here and we can intern in any number of places related to the Convention :P)