Hi everyone! Just to remind you all, my name is Riley Scott, and I am doing my study abroad program in Barcelona, Spain. My university is called Universitat Pompeu Fabra. The campus itself is beautiful and is located in a great area that is close to the center of the city. Between my classes, I am able to get great food, take a break in the park, or walk through the gothic quarter. I can even walk to the beach in 20 minutes if I want to go before class.
The classes themself are very different from my classes at Pitt. They are all 2 hours long which was something that was really hard to get used to for me. There are also less assignments and homework than we have in most classes at Pitt. The classes here place a huge importance on the final exams. For my classes the finals are worth between 40 to 50% of my grade. It makes it a little more stressful for me personally.
The majority of classes I am taking here fulfill my Gen Ed requirements. I am taking one finance class here. As a junior, I found it difficult to find classes offered by my university that fulfilled requirements for my business classes. Although, I did have most of the core business classes complete which might be a difference from other Pitt students. The Gen Ed classes I am taking here are interesting. The professors are all very passionate about the topics they lecture about. My favorite parts of the classes are the museum trips I have taken. I went to multiple different exhibitions which is something that I wouldn’t have done on my own. I would say most of the Gen Ed classes here take field trips.
There are multiple skills that have helped me excel in this new academic environment. The main one is the ability to independently go over what I learned in lecture. Since the lectures are so lengthy, it is hard to absorb all the information during it. I have been taking notes and reviewing what was taught a few days after class to ensure I remember everything. This strategy has helped me save a lot of time studying for my midterms and hopefully my finals later. It can be really hard to make time to study during the weekends when I am traveling, which I have been doing most weekends, so reviewing after a lecture has been immensely helpful.
I hope this helped anyone thinking about doing this program in the future! I love studying here and highly recommend it.
(The pictures at the end are places that are a 10 minute walk or less from campus)
