I have been in Marseille for a little over a month now. My neighborhood is a pretty busy area. Right around the corner, there is a Normal, which I find very convenient. It has pretty much any random item that you might need on the fly. There are cleaning supplies, a beauty section, and some snacks.
I have Tuesdays off from class. I like to take those days to explore a bit. There is always a new place to discover. This Tuesday, I found a new cafe to try called 7vb. They specialize in cinnamon rolls. It was nice to have a taste of fall here when the weather is still very warm.
As far as academics, KEDGE is very different from Pitt. It has taken a while to get used to the changing schedules here. At Pitt, you have the same courses every week, in the same classroom unless there is a holiday or a one-off circumstance. In Marseille, the course schedule also runs on a 15 week time frame, but you only have 9 sessions of each course once a week. It is similar to evening classes at Pitt that are longer but only one time per week. Because of the difference in the number of weeks that you can have courses and the number of sessions we have for each course, you will not have every course every week. Classes change classrooms each session as well. It is very important to check your timetables to ensure you are headed to the right place at the right time.
The actual course work is more interactive here from most of the courses I have taken at Pitt. In most classes, I have a group assignment. There are a lot more informal presentations. Participation is not only encouraged, but I would say a lot of courses are built on it, and it is a large part of the grading in a lot of courses.
My class sizes are similar to some major specific courses at Pitt. None of my classes would be able to fill the lecture room in Sennott, but I would say it is pretty similar to the classroom sizes in my high school, or one of the smaller classrooms on the second floor of Sennott.
Each class is 3 hours long with a 15-minute break in the middle. It is always nice to emerge out to the general spaces during break and get to talk to friends in different classes or grab a quick snack at the vending machines. They have coffee vending machines for .50 to .60 euros! Attendance is overall mandatory here. At Pitt, it is generally a policy determined by the professor, but at KEDGE, there is an attendance app that you must sign into at each course session. If you miss more than two sessions per course (justified absences or not), you are not able to sit for the final exam.
Pretty much everyone has at least a half hour commute to get to class because of its location. The after-class rush is pretty similar to the fight to get a spot on the bus back toward East Liberty on Forbes. It can get very packed, and in the heat, very sweaty.
My courses for the semester are Business Strategy, Organizational Behavior, Management Operations, Geopolitics, and a French Language Course. The courses are pretty similar to courses I would take at Pitt. For this reason, I would say that if you have limited availability in your schedule, KEDGE may be a good option if you are looking to study abroad. Geopolitics, for example, will fulfill my social science requirement, but as KEDGE is a business school, the course also integrates business into the course.
As I mentioned earlier, participation is a huge aspect to the courses here. I think that this will be very useful to me as I continue to develop stronger communication skills by presenting my ideas to larger groups of people. Admittedly, this is a task that can be a bit daunting, but the repeated practice of it will hopefully make it more normalized to me and shake my nerves for when I need to present my ideas in my future career.
