Studying at SKEMA: French vs. American Classes

The first thought I had when it was time to create my schedule for SKEMA was, “Wow, they have so many time slots for classes.” It turned out I wasn’t the only one who had this misunderstanding, because a clarification email was sent the next day. The time slots did not indicate two separate 1:15 classes, but one three-hour class with a 15-minute break in-between. A three-hour class seemed daunting, considering I'd never taken a class that lasted that long. However, I was surprised at how quickly I adjusted. 

Because of my humanities major, I took the classes Intro to Theater, History and Culture of France, Business and Professional Writing, Ethics, and Intermediate French. It was a little tricky as an English major to find classes that counted toward my degree at a business school, so only the first three classes mentioned went toward my Bachelor's.

I thought that because I had to take 15 credit hours to keep my scholarship, my week would be full. My schedule was surprisingly doable: no class on Monday or Friday, an 8 a.m. class Tuesday, and then classes Wednesday and Thursday with a two-hour lunch break between them. The day seemed longer before daylight savings, because sometimes I would get on the bus to school and the sun would just be coming up, and it would be setting when I got on the bus back home. 

I'm naturally an introverted person when working on schoolwork, and the type of class environment at SKEMA was very group-oriented. We hardly worked on classwork individually and were always encouraged to work in a group or with a partner. Each class had a group project and/or presentation, which pushed me out of my comfort zone.

I found going to school with a different academic to be very enriching. I felt like I had plenty of time to complete homework and projects since it was spread out over a week. I also noticed that I was much less stressed about my schoolwork than I would be at Clemson. Whether it was because of the academic structure or simply because I was studying in the Côte d’Azur, I don’t know.

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