College is not quite the same here as it is in the US, but I think I’m starting to figure it out.

To begin, Irish students pretty much only take classes from their major, so international students like myself seem to throw a wrench into the works by taking classes in many different areas.  Thankfully, NUIG has an International Office that takes care of our registration.  But, we don’t register until Jan. 23^rd (this Monday), even though classes have already been running for about two weeks.  So while the Irish students are already enrolled, we the Americans have just been showing up and testing out which classes we might like until we are officially enrolled in them next week. 

University is also only three years here–I found this out when I tried to tell an Irish student that I was a sophomore.  They say first-year, second-year, or third-year student.  There are also little differences in terminology, like courses or classes are called “modules” and professors are “lecturers.”

The way an individual course is run is also different.  At Penn State, a class has one teacher, many (or at least several) graded assignments, and varies in size based on level of the material and subject.  Here, most classes seem to be lectures, which in truth are not as large as I’m used to but lack student-teacher discussion.  Some classes have optional “tutorials” where you can meet in a smaller group to go over the material again for an extra hour each week, but they aren’t built into the course like something like that would be at Penn State.  It’s kind of nice that they leave it for you to choose. 

But an even bigger difference is that all of my classes have about two professors teaching it.  One teaches the first hour-long session, then the second professor teaches during the second hour (meeting on different days).  I’m still not quite sure how this works out.  Lastly, the final grade for the course seems to depend on maybe two assignments.  Irish students are assessed with an essay half way through and an exam at the end, but visiting students are mostly just required to write a long essay for the end of the semester.  So, many of my classes will come down to a final essay or exam.  For example, I’m taking Irish (Language) for Beginners–the final exam in March is worth 90% of the final grade, with five smaller assignments throughout the semester adding up to the other 10%.

The professors expect students to be self-motivated and do a lot of the learning outside of lecture, which explains the way the grades are weighted.  It’s an interesting way to approach education, and I kind of like it.  I am very much used to being tested after every unit though and the teacher making sure we understand every area before the final.  Here, you focus on what interests you and on the final you choose one or two essay questions from several possible options covered in the course.  There are certainly pros and cons to each system and I’m sure different people would do better in different ones.  But I’m looking forward to trying out this way of doing it!

On a related note, everyone goes home on the weekends here! When Friday comes around, I see many many Irish students heading to the bus stations with backpacks packed for the weekend.  I guess since Ireland’s relatively small it is easy to get home on the weekends.  And with laundry costing 5 Euro at the apartments, I don’t blame them.  Consequently, most things happen during the week: parties, club meetings, etc., take place Monday through Thursday.  I can already tell it’s going to be a big adjustment moving back into the dorms at Penn State in the fall!

Location: Galway, Ireland