Orientation Week: the brain-teaser-friendly quest for courses.

Welcome to Middlebury! Population: 8183 habitants.

At Middlebury College, Orientation Week enables students to make up their minds and choose their courses over hundreds of possibilities in various departments. It was the first time I encountered this kind of system which is peculiar to liberal arts colleges. Over this week, the question that one could hear the most was “what courses are you taking?” How astonished was I when people would tell me they chose completely different subjects. For instance, choosing psychology, computer sciences, Hebrew and Greek history altogether is completely plausible. For someone like me who has always been used to register for an already-defined set of courses, that was one drastic change to observe.

Unfortunately for me, I could not enjoy such academic freedom.  As an Exchange Student, although I am studying at Middlebury College, I remain a student from Université Sorbonne Nouvelle – Paris 3. As a consequence, I am subjected to constraints that require me to take courses which match the ones taught at my home university. And here comes the challenging part. Not only did I have to pick up courses which content resembles that of my university’s, but I also had to make sure there were no time schedules conflicts. Another troublesome element lied in the fact that obviously, not 100%-matching courses could be found, but sometimes finding if only one slightly similar course was a hell of a task. When you do, you then have to ask for the approval of your home university’s supervisor and coordinator (and technically wait for their response). In my case, my pedagogical contract established four subjects for this semester:

-          ECON 220: American Economic History

-          ECON 0316: Corporate Finance & Accounting

-          ECON 0444: International Trade

-          CHNS 201: Intermediate Chinese

Le Château

       Naturally, nothing went as expected. In our information packets, we had a sheet indicating the courses we were pre-registered in. Much obliged, I was negatively surprised I was enrolled in one hundred-level courses: Topics in Socio-cultural Anthropology and Intro to Microeconomics. What, what, what? Panic and stress ensued as usual, my bad. In my quest for further information, I found out that the International Programs service could not register me ahead of time for my courses are advanced-level (not surprising since I have finished my undergraduate studies…) and therefore required the professors' approval. It makes sense. Wonderful, another quest to add to my journal: to go see the faculty members in order to obtain their signature for the add-card. 500xp if done (I miss playing RPGs…sic). The add-what? Simply put, it is a green card in which students have to indicate the course they wish to enroll in and then get it signed by the professor and academic advisor. At Middlebury College, you can add courses in a limited period of that ends two weeks after back-to-school, and dropping them is possible until five weeks after. Great system, isn’t it? That way, you can audit several classes you still are undecided about and get a sneak preview. What an awesome option for people who cannot make up their mind, like me.

The Window - McCardell Bicentennial Hall

                As I wanted to take a Chinese course, I took the placement exam that consisted of a 200 words-essay and an interview. Aiming at the two hundred-level courses, I was quite confident I would not be put in beginners. After all, how could I, having learned Chinese for three years (yet only two years of grammar classes). The tricky part was the oral examination. Although the teacher was nice, I was struggling when it came to finding the right words. That is what happens when you do not practise a foreign language. How could I, anyway? I do not have any Chinese background and no one to talk in Chinese too – apart from myself, however I do not think this is the most fabulous idea.

A cosy place to study and whatnot - McCardell Bicentennial Hall

 The results were displayed the next day and I was advised to take…CHNS 0102. 102? As in, beginner? Indeed. I could not help feeling a tad ashamed for after six semesters of Chinese, I was judged ready to take a first-level course for J-term? When put into perspective, that should not be surprising. Middlebury College is particularly well-known for the high quality of its language courses that involve intensive lessons (the double amount of time that I had at my university) taught by a highly-qualified faculty staff. 

Davis Family Library

                Let’s continue with never-ending surprises. When I went to see the professor of International Trade, who was willing to take me in her course, she immediately warned me with the following:

“Have you studied calculus before? Econometrics? Because you’ll need to know them in order to write a research paper.”

Calculus? Eco-what? Research paper? Help, I do not have a clue of what she is talking about! She showed me the types of exercises that would be done in class, and even though she suggested me to take a lower-level course (ECON 0340: International Economy: a Political Approach), I was still not reassured by the presence of all these nasty mathematical formulas. After all, all the courses in Economics I have had never dealt with mathematics, let alone statistics and variables. My field of studies being Foreign Languages applied to Economics and Law, the approach was definitely not mathematic-based. Instead, it focused more on understanding how firms dealt with the economy in a global context, in theory and practice. My skull was heavily hammered in surprise. Change of plans required! (Journal quest updated!) I decided to turn to the Department of Political Science, hoping it would open its heavy gates for the hopeless soul that I am. It did. By the end of the week, I decided to take the following courses:

-          PSCI 324: The Political Development of Western Europe

-          ECON 220: American Economic History

-          ECON 316: Corporate Finance and Accounting

Two of them are college-writing courses (ah, so that is what CW stands for!) but it cannot be worse than dealing with mathematics. In the end, I told myself that if not all my courses are approved by my home university, I would still have had the privilege and the incredible opportunity to not only stay in the US for an academic year, with all its benefits, but also to experience the education system at an elite private liberal arts college. I was a lucky (or rather, worthy and well-deserved one) person among a few and even if it meant re-doing a year at my home university, studying abroad was still an unique rewarding and fulfilling academic, cultural as well as personal experience.

Cosy yet chic atmosphere, perfect for study purposes, isn't it?