March 28th, 2016
I’m going to talk a little bit about the academics of IAU. I feel like that is something that I didn’t know very much about when I went into the program. IAU is an American university institution here in France. In my particular case, I chose to take classes that would count towards my major rather than take general education classes that would only count as electives at Rollins. The professors at IAU are a diverse group of scholars that range from different backgrounds. In the area of Political Science (which is my area), I’m taking a class with a US foreign official who is very knowledgable about Mediterranean politics. His teaching style is traditionally American, using powerpoint and lecturing; his examination methods are also typically American and what I was used to at Rollins, he gave a written exam with 4 questions that he chose out of a list of questions that were given to us beforehand. Our final will be a mock debate, and we will not have a formal exam. My other professor is not an American, he studied in various European institutions and grades the French way (a harsh grading system that accumulates points out of 20 and somehow calculates a letter out of that). His teaching style doesn’t utilize any visuals and involves him sitting there speaking in circles. My French language class is extremely comprehensive and I believe it to be the best. IAU has many problems in terms of its academics in the sense that it is not comprehensive to the fact that the school itself is a conglomeration of students from many American institutions both public and private. It is difficult for them to create a class that is essentially an intro class that starts at the same level that everyone is at. IAU’s classes coupled with the change of being abroad and the many distractions involved with being in a new place further stress the circumstance of an educational system that does not necessarily meet every kind of student half way.