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Academics at BU

4/28/2014

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One of my biggest fears about coming here was facing the workload. BU is the 46th best school in the world, and it is with no surprise that with its excellent professorial team, you will have to submit a lot of papers. But there are actually a lot of presentations and assignments where students work as a team. It is a great way to understand how different people work and how culture can shape your viewpoints about the world.
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Studies in the U.S. are based on readings that you do at home, followed by a discussion in class about the different understandings the students had. It is very interesting to see how the same reading can be interpreted in so many different ways. Therefore, there are no classes where the teacher is the only one speaking for 3 hours. You will be “intensively” solicited.   

My common workload is reading approximately 100 to 150 pages per week across four courses. It is even more difficult when English is not your main language, and when you are reading at a lower pace. One class generally requires two individual papers, two team presentations, and one project. It can vary greatly depending on the teacher.
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The grades are usually calculated by a curve method. This means that 25% of students will have A or A-, 55% will have B+ or B and 20% will have B- or less. This is a very fair method of grading since it doesn’t take into account the difficulty of the tests, but the overall performance of students instead. It usually is very revealing of participation, which is 15% to 20% of the entire grade! You cannot just come to class and listen to the teacher; you definitely have to be active in discussion whether your answers are correct or not.   

In a typical class, you have a midterm and a final, which covers the presentations as well as concepts seen in class. There are no trick questions or traps!   

 My recommendation is to follow the readings each week and to not fall behind. If you miss readings for 1 or 2 weeks, it will be pretty hard to catch up. If you can do all the readings successfully, you will have no problem passing classes with a B+. An A- will most likely require full attendance and intense participation.   

Here is an example of my spring courses in my Master Innovation & Technology Program: 
  • Innovation Marketing Techniques
  • Operations & New Ventures
  • Innovation Process
  • Business Law & Regulations    


As you can see, it is a mix of Marketing, Entrepreneurship, and Innovation. I am very glad to have such interesting yet challenging classes.
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My First Impressions vs. My Expectations

4/18/2014

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I have been lucky enough to travel the US before. I have been to Los Angeles and Orlando and knew pretty much what to expect in Boston… 

I expected everything to be big, from the drink sizes at fast food restaurants, to the cars, and the town itself (especially the campus). 

I was expecting to meet people who were friendly, easy to talk to, and who wore a big smile on their face all day long.   

For the most part, my expectations proved to be true, but to my surprise, some of them did not. Coming from Europe, it is true that you will find that most US cities are very big with large streets and cars the size of European trucks. The campus of Boston University is gigantic. It is like a small town within the city. You have many food courts, libraries, entire districts of BU buildings and a state-of-the-art arena for sports games with a fitness center, swimming pools, and so on. It is perfect for sports lovers.   

As I lived in Los Angeles, where life is not so expensive, I set my expectations on having a confortable lifestyle here in Boston. However this is not the case. You have to be ready because Boston is rather expensive, even for people coming from London or Paris. Paying rent is definitely the biggest part of your budget, as is buying food. You can be comfortable having a studio for an average of $1,300, but it depends on which area you are looking to stay.   But Boston is truly an amazing city. Because the population is comprised of mostly students, there will always be something going on, every day of the week. Whether you want to have a walk or go to a party at the local bar, Boston suits everyone. It is also very close to New York City, which is about a three-hour drive while Quebec, Canada is only six hours away! Boston has definitely fulfilled my expectations…!
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    Alexandre

    I'm a graduate student at BU, from Paris, France, studying Innovation & Technology...

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