Hey everyone!
For this week I thought it would be fun to compare my academic life at Wellesley and at Edinburgh. In a lot of ways my academic life here is a lot different than what I’m used to at Wellesley, but there are surprisingly many similarities as well.
For one, one of the biggest similarities is the way my days are going. In both places, I spend the mornings and early afternoons in my classes, most afternoons studying or doing homework at the library, and most evenings with friends or with different student organizations and events. What’s a little different in my schedule here though is that I live a lot further away from the campuses and the different facilities, so a big part of my day now is dedicated to travel time.
The double-decker bus I take in the mornings
Something very different here is just the scale of everything. All of my classes have a lot more people than I am used to: at Wellesley a typical class has about 25 people, while here my classes have more than 100 people in them. The sheer scale of the campuses is very different too. You can walk around the whole Wellesley campus in about 20 minutes, but here the campus is divided into 3 big areas throughout the whole city, so you definitely need to catch a bus between the buildings.
The central campus, mostly for humanities classes
The King’s Buildings, the sciences campus
Something that I am also trying to get used to here is not having weekly homework or midterms. I know, you might ask “What’s the problem with that?” For me, I really like my weekly PSETs, essays, and projects at Wellesley because they keep me accountable to study continuously. Here, practically my whole grade is determined by the final exam in December, so I am adjusting to keeping myself accountable to study weekly without the pressure of homework.
So, yeah, my academic life here is definitely different than at Wellesley, and I am still adjusting to the changes, but I am excited for the challenge!