Hey Collegiettes™!
My name is Alexandra Patterson and I’m an English major at Kenyon College in Ohio. I’m spending this year abroad at the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom and I’m having a blast! I’ve been here since September and have had a lot of time to settle in so over the next few months I’ll be sharing experiences from my travels!
A Little About Why I Came Abroad
I always knew that I wanted to study abroad so when I was looking for colleges, it was at the top of my list. Part of the reason I chose Kenyon was for its excellent study abroad programs and the way it encouraged juniors to spend time abroad.
Being an English major, I decided it would be best to go somewhere I could speak the language and immerse myself in literature—England was the natural choice. Victorian literature is my favorite to study so I chose a program that would allow me to take as many Victorian classes as I could.
A Little About My Program
I’m lucky, my program is run by my home school! There are thirteen of us who came over to the University of Exeter, all English majors. All of my credits transfer back—we even have a professor from Kenyon who comes over with us! It may sound like I took the easy road, choosing a program where I didn’t have to venture out on my own, but because I want to pursue honors in English during my senior year I need all of these credits to count!
Because my program is sponsored by my college, they take us on trips to really cool places! We’ve been to Tintagel and London so far!
A Little About Studying England
The University system here is very different from in the States. For starters, students only attend for three years and know their major going into school. They spend these three years concentrating on this subject along since diversification requirements don’t exist over here. The hardest thing has been explaining why American universities require English majors to take science to my flat mates!
There are smaller differences too. For my English modules (what they call classes over here), in class participation isn’t a requirement! Because no one is really required to speak the class discussions can easily become dominated by one individual. Another difference is course workload: for some of my classes I only have two papers that contribute to my grade. These papers often don’t draw on what is done in class since the tutors (what they call professors over here) want you to do outside research. Not many students seem to do the class readings since grades don’t depend on them—a definite difference from the US.
A Little About What’s Next
I leave tomorrow for a weekend in Glastonbury and Stonehenge. My study abroad group from Kenyon will be watching the sunrise from the center of the stones—how awesome is that?! I can’t wait to share pictures and stories with you next week. Until then!