Being an Erasmus Student Sucks!
I finally got through enrolment today which means I have access to the university's computers. Yee haw! Now I can try to update my blog more frequently...
I had my enrolment today. Really exciting...Got through some paperwork and now I finally have my library card (which unfortunately won't qualify as student ID card - they have some tecnical problems) and NUS (National Union of Students - that gives me student's discount) card. What I don't have is a personal tutor, anyone who would give a damn what I'm doing here. I've waited this enrolment for whole week and it turned out to be something quite unuseful (ecxept on what comes to those cards...). I still can't see any course descriptions or syllabes. Next week when lectures start I just have to go there without any information.
Went to see this Senior Lecturer of African Politics today about my course selection and he made me feel like second-class student cos I'm here only for couple courses. He wouldn't care less who am I, what I'm doing and which courses I should take. Well, thanks for nothing!
posted by Minkki @ Friday, September 29, 2006
3 Comments:
Sorry to hear that SOAS is not that much better in tutoring than AAKKL. Just take it easy and do as a newcomer here would do: go and check all the lecutures that sound even remotely interesting and choose then. This means couple of weeks of hassle but eventually it will get better when you drop the ones that are not interesting.
And Mekku here urges you to use the libraries as much as you possibly can: that's the main reason why London is the best place in many fields.
Besides, you might still find a tutor that interested in your topic: you met this guy only once, and although he might be a jerk it is also possible that he was busy or had a bad day etc. Just don't give up yet...
Places where people study often sound very pro and cool when you are still outside. Once you get in the hype fades away you may end up a bit disappointed because your expectations were so high. But nearly always your best resources are, as Mekku commented, the facilities and as I add, the fellow students. Lessons and teachers are just a framework - you fill the content yourself. That's my experience, also from UIAH, although tutoring there is much better than at AAKKL. The standard of tuition varies quite much, from some amazingly good teachers to genuinely confusing ones, as everywhere. Anyways, I'm sure you'll find also less grumpy teachers.
But Erasmus students are the ones that drive you nuts even here in Helsinki (I've got about 20 of them in my class). You know, those loud ones in the computer lab speaking that uncomprehensible EuroEnglish.
But like the ones before me have said, try to get over it, and enjoy the facilities and the advice of fellow students. And by the way, my experience tells me that the best tutors are the foreign students who are there to get a degree.
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