Bart Hutten, University of Maryland, Post 1
Hi everyone!
My name is Bart, I am a 21 year old Systems Engineering, Policy Analysis and Management student at Delft University of Technology. I’m lucky enough to spend a semester in College Park in the States! I’ll try to give you an impression of my experience here in a few blogposts, feel free to email me if you have any questions related to studying abroad in the USA.
Before I came to Maryland, I went on a vacation with my family through the American Southwest. The national parks (Yosemite, Grand canyon, Bryce canyon) that we visited were definitely the highlights of this trip for me. We then flew to the east coast where my family dropped me off in College Park and my study abroad time started! The first few weeks at the university were simply amazing. I met many interesting people and there were a lot of fun events and parties going on. To top it off, I went to NYC with a Dutch friend who also studies at Delft University of Technology.
The Americans I met so far all seem really nice and more open than the Dutch. Everybody is in for a conversation about anything, so making new friends is pretty easy! Many of them I met haven’t been outside the states and were very interested in cultural differences between Europe and the USA.
A few weeks ago the First look Fair event was hosted on the big mall right at the center on campus. All the sports/social/ clubs were there and I applied for almost 10 (mostly sports) clubs!
I am too busy with classes to try all the new sports though (lacrosse, American football etc.). Unlike Delft, attendance is often mandatory and they check it with ‘surprise’ in-class quizzes. These quizzes can be a pain if you didn’t pay attention in class and the teacher suddenly hands out a quiz for you to make. In addition to these quizzes, I have many weekly homework assignments which are all graded. It works well if you keep up with it though, I had my first midterm last week and I found that I did not have to study as hard for it as I would have in Delft.
The first two weeks of classes is called the add/drop period, since many students tend to oversubscribe on classes (they have a lot of electives they can take towards their major!) and use the first two weeks to see if they like the courses and drop/add some. I found out that I did not meet the prerequisites for one computer science class, so I was able to swap it with another engineering course.
The weather here in September was pretty nice. Sunny and just as humid in Delft, you only notice that more because it tends to be hot. Around 35 celsius in the afternoon is quite normal for this time of year and it is often ‘sticky’ at night. Luckily my apartment has airconditioning which makes life much more comfortable.
Naturally, I am also following this year’s elections more closely than ever, but I’ll leave that and other topics for future blogposts.
All the best from College Park 🙂
Bart
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