This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at San Francisco chapter.
When planning a study abroad program, the to-do list is so huge that I expect to forget something. It wasn’t until my first day of orientation, though, that I figured out exactly what it was. Not once in my six months of prepping did I bother to do research on the differenct academic approaches of the American Business School (ABS) and SFSU. Now that the semester had started, I can point out four major differences.
1) They don’t have a unified campus.
I used to complain about how far it took to get to the business builiding to Burk Hall. Never again. The American Business school doesn’t have an actual campus like SFSU. Rather, it is split into four different buildings shared with different schools. Some classes are even taught at the Eaubonn campus, which it outside of Paris. Those who take it travel at least 45 minutes. Due to the small amount of space, ABS lacks a proper library, cafeteria and a plaza where students can just gather to study or hang out. It makes me feel spoiled by how much the SFSU campus has to offer.
2) If a class session is missed, it needs to be made up at some point during the semester.
My International Marketing course is normally on Tuesdays, so I was confused when I noticed I also had the class on a single Wednesday during the same time as my French civilization course. Classes need to have 12 sessions. If there happens to be a holiday during a class or a professor has a scheduled absence, then the class session needs to be made up. This is done in advance and could happens any time and any day during school hours. This is very different from SFSU. At SFSU, if a class is missed, then more material is added to lectures to make up for it.
3) Class sessions are held in different rooms each time.
I remember feeling slightly horrified at the idea of classes not having permanent assigned rooms. Classrooms change every day and every class, so don’t get too comfortable in any one room. So it’s my job to check my class schedule every day to figure out where my session will be held. This has been inconvenient, but as long as class isn’t held on the sidewalk, I can’t complain too much. At SFSU, I can’t rememer having to change classrooms at any point during the semeter. I always knew where my classes would be.
4) There are no office hours or TA’s.
Again, I was a little disturbed by this. My professors weren’t going to set time aside to meet with students who had questions about the material, assignments or exams? Professors stressed that they were available by e-mail and after classes, but both feel impersonal and distant. At SFSU, if professors had limited hours I could count on two to three TA’s to answer any questions I had. This isn’t the case here, though. The teacher is the only one available for questions and the opportunities are limited.
These differences have been the hardest to adapt to. After comparing the two schools I feel that SFSU is easier to navigate and allows more one-on-one time between students and teachers, However, the American Business school is giving me the opportunity to be more proactive with my education. If I need help, I need to go out and seek it. There may not be a library or an assigned classroom, but if I adapted to life without In-n-Out, this shouldn’t be a problem.