Day in the Life of an American University student
I’ve always enjoyed reading the day in the life threads to learn about different people, so I figured I would do one myself, so people here can have a deeper understanding and more insight what it’s like to study at a university in North America as a British student.
I attend the University of Minnesota, a large public university in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. The cities are about 10 minutes from each other, and are separated by the Mississippi River (our campus sits on the banks of the Mississippi). We have an enrollment of about 52,000 students, with about 30,000 undergraduates. I am a third year student (junior), majoring in Business and Marketing Education; I also have two minors, one in leadership and one in management. This was last Thursday
9am to 11am: Wake up, make breakfast and get ready for the day.
11am to 1130am Walk to campus, while stopping by Starbucks. One of my roommates works there part time, so I stop by to annoy him and to get my caffeine fix.
11:45am to 12: I am a teaching assistant in the leadership minor, meaning I help a professor teach a class. The class takes place twice a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and I have a meeting with the professor those mornings to discuss the lesson plan, what to adapt from last time, grading assignments etc.
12:30pm to 1pm: Lunch. I stopped quickly at our student union, and grabbed Panda Express, a fast food Chinese chain in the US. Never a bad choice.
1pm to 215pm My marketing and promotion class. Today we talked about rebranding, and had a quiz (which went surprisingly well).
2:15pm to 345pm Teaching. Today we discussed their major group project. The project is about a complex issue they want to explore. When I took the class my group did ours on whether or not individualized education could combat the achievement gap in the Twin Cities; it was 33 pages long. They got into groups and decided on their project subjects.
3:45pm to 5pm: Some free time. Ate a quick snack of hummus and carrots, while finishing 4-page essay due next week.
5pm to 630pm Sales/networking meeting. A center for sales has just opened up on campus. You can get your certificate in sales, learn how to sell, and compete nationally in the sales team. There are also networking events, and I am chairperson of the networking committee. In todays meeting, I welcomed the newbies, and we mainly discussed venue options and cost for our upcoming network event for 200-300 people. Surprisingly productive meeting.
6:30pm to 8pm: Walked back to my apartment, ate dinner, and checked social media.
8pm to 930pm Went over to a friend’s apartment, hung out there a bit, and started drinking for the night.
9:30pm to 10pm. The plan for the night was to go to a club downtown. The club offers free drinks Thursday nights with a university ID. We ordered our Uber to go downtown.
10pm to 2am. Spent four hours there, drank a lot, had a lot of fun. We had a pretty big group; around 12 of us went down. We also put ourselves on the guest list before to avoid cover charge. They also had confetti, but for some reason used real money that night. I caught a couple of dollars, so I actually profited (my business education at work there). Lost track of many of my friends, and three of us decided to Uber back around
2am to 2:45am. While ubering home we decided it would be a fantastic idea to go to McDonald’s, so we got our drunchies. Made a McGangbang (Double cheeseburger where you put a McChicken in between the two patties).
2:45am to 3am. Stumbled back to my apartment, drank some water and got into bed.All in all a busy day, but a lot of fun.
Hopefully this gives a bit of insight what it’s like to study in America, and Minnesota in particular. Feel free to ask any and all questions!
I attend the University of Minnesota, a large public university in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. The cities are about 10 minutes from each other, and are separated by the Mississippi River (our campus sits on the banks of the Mississippi). We have an enrollment of about 52,000 students, with about 30,000 undergraduates. I am a third year student (junior), majoring in Business and Marketing Education; I also have two minors, one in leadership and one in management. This was last Thursday
9am to 11am: Wake up, make breakfast and get ready for the day.
11am to 1130am Walk to campus, while stopping by Starbucks. One of my roommates works there part time, so I stop by to annoy him and to get my caffeine fix.
11:45am to 12: I am a teaching assistant in the leadership minor, meaning I help a professor teach a class. The class takes place twice a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and I have a meeting with the professor those mornings to discuss the lesson plan, what to adapt from last time, grading assignments etc.
12:30pm to 1pm: Lunch. I stopped quickly at our student union, and grabbed Panda Express, a fast food Chinese chain in the US. Never a bad choice.
1pm to 215pm My marketing and promotion class. Today we talked about rebranding, and had a quiz (which went surprisingly well).
2:15pm to 345pm Teaching. Today we discussed their major group project. The project is about a complex issue they want to explore. When I took the class my group did ours on whether or not individualized education could combat the achievement gap in the Twin Cities; it was 33 pages long. They got into groups and decided on their project subjects.
3:45pm to 5pm: Some free time. Ate a quick snack of hummus and carrots, while finishing 4-page essay due next week.
5pm to 630pm Sales/networking meeting. A center for sales has just opened up on campus. You can get your certificate in sales, learn how to sell, and compete nationally in the sales team. There are also networking events, and I am chairperson of the networking committee. In todays meeting, I welcomed the newbies, and we mainly discussed venue options and cost for our upcoming network event for 200-300 people. Surprisingly productive meeting.
6:30pm to 8pm: Walked back to my apartment, ate dinner, and checked social media.
8pm to 930pm Went over to a friend’s apartment, hung out there a bit, and started drinking for the night.
9:30pm to 10pm. The plan for the night was to go to a club downtown. The club offers free drinks Thursday nights with a university ID. We ordered our Uber to go downtown.
10pm to 2am. Spent four hours there, drank a lot, had a lot of fun. We had a pretty big group; around 12 of us went down. We also put ourselves on the guest list before to avoid cover charge. They also had confetti, but for some reason used real money that night. I caught a couple of dollars, so I actually profited (my business education at work there). Lost track of many of my friends, and three of us decided to Uber back around
2am to 2:45am. While ubering home we decided it would be a fantastic idea to go to McDonald’s, so we got our drunchies. Made a McGangbang (Double cheeseburger where you put a McChicken in between the two patties).
2:45am to 3am. Stumbled back to my apartment, drank some water and got into bed.All in all a busy day, but a lot of fun.
Hopefully this gives a bit of insight what it’s like to study in America, and Minnesota in particular. Feel free to ask any and all questions!
(edited 8 years ago)
How many classes are you taking?
Your typical day seems kind of light on class-time compared to what I understand to be the average. My students tend to take 4 or 5 classes* per semester, and with each meeting 3 times a week, they are in class an average of 12 - 15 times a week. Obviously you have other commitments, and are a senior, but can you say a bit about how typical this type of load is?
*four would be low - a full load is considered 5 classes; and some students take 6.
Your typical day seems kind of light on class-time compared to what I understand to be the average. My students tend to take 4 or 5 classes* per semester, and with each meeting 3 times a week, they are in class an average of 12 - 15 times a week. Obviously you have other commitments, and are a senior, but can you say a bit about how typical this type of load is?
*four would be low - a full load is considered 5 classes; and some students take 6.
(edited 8 years ago)
Original post by madamemerle
How many classes are you taking?
Your typical day seems kind of light on class-time compared to what I understand to be the average. My students tend to take 4 or 5 classes* per semester, and with each meeting 3 times a week, they are in class an average of 12 - 15 times a week. Obviously you have other commitments, and are a senior, but can you say a bit about how typical this type of load is?
*four would be low - a full load is considered 5 classes; and some students take 6.
Your typical day seems kind of light on class-time compared to what I understand to be the average. My students tend to take 4 or 5 classes* per semester, and with each meeting 3 times a week, they are in class an average of 12 - 15 times a week. Obviously you have other commitments, and are a senior, but can you say a bit about how typical this type of load is?
*four would be low - a full load is considered 5 classes; and some students take 6.
Because I'm higher up now, I have more flexibility when I make my schedule. I prefer to make my week heavier at the beginning, so most of my class time is towards the beginning of the week. For example, Mondays I have class at 9 am for 2 hours, 1pm for 2 hours and night class from 4:40 to 7:20pm. 15 credits is the average load, and I am taking 14, with 4 online credits too, so I can work them around my other stuff. Each credit is an hour of class time, so an average load with no online classes spends about 15 hours per week in class.
Original post by aston006
Because I'm higher up now, I have more flexibility when I make my schedule. I prefer to make my week heavier at the beginning, so most of my class time is towards the beginning of the week. For example, Mondays I have class at 9 am for 2 hours, 1pm for 2 hours and night class from 4:40 to 7:20pm. 15 credits is the average load, and I am taking 14, with 4 online credits too, so I can work them around my other stuff. Each credit is an hour of class time, so an average load with no online classes spends about 15 hours per week in class.
Yeah, that sounds more like what I'd expect. I find my students are very busy, especially those who aren't seniors, and have such full schedules. I am pretty impressed with their ability to juggle it all, compared to my couple of hours scheduled time per week as an undergrad in the UK.
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