I’m set to leave for WU and Austria in a week and I could not be more excited! I have been brushing up on my German, which I hope to improve (especially when it comes to listening) throughout my exchange. I will have plenty of time to adjust to my new home in Vienna before classes begin in March, so I can explore the campus and city without worry. My WU exchange does not come with an internship attached and WU does not recommend that exchange students to acquire an internship, which means I have more time to dedicate to my classwork, all of which vary in topic. Despite already knowing German, all of my classes are in English due to WU’s German classes being taught at a professional level that I have not yet reached.

For my semester at WU, I am enrolled in four classes – all of which are business classes. Being a business and economics school, WU does not offer much outside of these two subjects. I intend on taking a basic finance class, called Corporate Finance. My second class, Service Operations Management, covers Pitt’s Operations Management requirement. Both of these classes are the standard WU lecture class – a large percentage of the final grade is determined by the final exam, with a lesser amount determined by in-class work and presentations.

My remaining two classes are more unusual as they are both project-based classes. To fulfill the Strategic Management requirement, I am enrolled in Strategic Management and Organizational Design – for Business Information Systems, WU offers Information Systems Project Governance and Management. Both of these classes meet even more irregularly than usual, and the final grades are more determined by presentations – my Strategic Management and Organizational Design doesn’t even have a test incorporated into the syllabus at all. Both of these classes have a more active learning process, allowing me to apply my newly learned skills in an academic setting.

As mentioned in my previous post but Austrian academic culture puts more emphasis on the students to take responsibility in their schoolwork. Punctuality is also highly valued in the Austrian classroom, not only in an academic setting, but also through all aspects of Germanic culture. In both professional and academic settings, it is considered rude to only be on-time, much less to show up late. WU takes this to an extreme – if you don’t show up to your registered classes on the first day, you are automatically unenrolled. This ties in how Austrian students have higher expectations and are given less leeway compared to American students.

Due to these differences in systems and values, time management is a vital skill to be successful in professional and academic environments. Whether it be showing up to meetings and classes early or managing the free time between class lectures, being able to successfully allocate time to schoolwork and your social life is essential for a healthy balance. This emphasis on independence and time management may be why, generally, Europeans have a more balanced work and social life compared to us Americans. This is further supported by WU’s generous breaks throughout the semester – these breaks are between a week to two weeks long, allowing students to destress from classes and travel, unlike the occasional day-off that American schools. In fact, many students do travel during these breaks and a variety of reasons make this possible: public transportation is well-connected and reliable, tickets and hostels are often cheap, and students simply having the time to do so. In exchange for these longer breaks during the semester, the winter and summer breaks are much shorter than America’s but are often still the longest break for Austrian students. I already have ideas where I would love to travel during these breaks but have not made any definitive plans as of yet. I have so many ideas and I can’t wait to accomplish as many as I can!