I've been trying to think about the differences in US universities and the Argentine universities, and believe me, there are a LOT - but most of what I've thought of so far has only dealt with organizational aspects (free printing versus going to a photocopy store, class times, general chaos here in class scheduling and registration, etc.). But I got an email today that really made me realize a more subtle difference in class dynamics that I always kind of knew existed but was hard to concretely see: American college students are a lot more competitive than those down here!
I have a midterm next week in my International Economic History class at di Tella (which is the university that is definitely the most similar to the US) - and the whole class (50 people?) has an email thread going where everyone sends notes and summaries to the entire rest of the class. Tonight, someone emailed out a full first-half-of-the-semester study guide he had gotten from last year. Wow! That would never happen in one of my classes ... not like I would outright NOT give a study guide to other people in the class, but I certainly wouldn't mail it out to every single other student! I guess we're just too concerned with beating curves? Maybe it's just my school? Either way, I do get a more whole-class effort vibe here than I would at a similar class at Duke!
At least they all include you in their group! But interesting. I'd be curious what path most college grads take in BA - maybe that's the answer to the non-competitiveness. Are jobs plentiful? Do they mostly know exactly what they're going to do?
ReplyDeleteAre there entrance exams to BA universities or is it like here - anyone can find a school to go to?