College in Spain

One thing that surprised me when I came here was how attitudes about school are different. The whole university system is different. People generally go to the local university and live at home. If you already live in a city, this is easy. If you live in a suburb, then you commute or live in a residence hall. Residence halls are not owned and maintained by universities. They are owned privately. This is the situation I am in. The residence I am a part of is owned by a woman named Juani. She maintains a large residence hall and several small student apartments. I am living in one of the apartments. She hires other people who cook and clean the residencias. Students who stay in them pay her directly (except for PRESHCO people like me. Our program has a contract with her and pays her).

The Spanish girls that I live with do not live in Cordoba. My roommate is from Madrid. One girl is from Sevilla. And the other is from a town outside Cordoba. They do not attend the university. Two of them attend a music conservatory and one attends a dance conservatory. I get the impression that it is very rare for students to go somewhere far away for university unless they are going to a conservatory. These students generally enjoy a privileged socioeconomic status. The girls I live with also go home every weekend. I get the impression that this is common for university students as well. When I told Irene, my roommate, that it’s common for Americans to attend universities that are far away from home, she was shocked. She said “but they go home a lot, right?” and I explained that usually, students only go home for vacations. This was surprised her a lot.

My views of college are obviously completely shaped by my experience at Smith. Smithies like to work hard. They like to challenge themselves. Our number one priority is school: going to class, being prepared, doing our reading, studying for tests, preparing presentations, writing papers. We want to do our best and push ourselves to be the best we can be. Our lives revolve around that. I know that there are many other students like that in the U.S. who attend different schools. The general attitude in the U.S. is that the purpose of college is to get a good education that will prepare you for a career. You try to figure out what you want your future career path to be. College is also fun, yes but that is not why your parents pay for it.

Spaniards are not about hard work. They really don’t like it. The Spaniards in my classes freak out about having tests or homework. Classes here generally include some reading that is not strictly required and a final. It’s rare to have any other test or assignment. Maybe two or three homeworks. There is barely any reading assigned. Spaniards tend to have a cavalier attitude toward school. It’s perfectly acceptable to miss a class because you don’t feel like going or you have a slight headache. The Spanish girls I live with who attend the music conservatory hardly ever practice. My roommate plays her piano 2 hours a week max.

This kind of attitude is also reflected in what professors expect of their students. Papers are generally really short. Spanish students never cite or include reference sheets. They frequently plagiarize; copying and pasting whole paragraphs with no repercussions. They sometimes insert pictures into their paper to make it longer so that they meet the page requirement. This is considered acceptable. Students hardly ever include their own ideas in their work and are rarely asked to think critically. It’s really all about memorization and regurgitation here.

Yesterday Emmalie (one of my Smithie housemates) and I explained the Smith workload to Irene. We told her that it’s common to have 100 pages of reading a week per class and we have four classes. We told her that we have multiple tests, papers and presentations a semester. They pretty much only have assignments during finals time. Irene was confused as to why I am currently taking an art history class if my concentration is psychology. Once you have a concentration here, you pretty much stick to it and take nothing else. We also explained that students who take science class have more hours of class because they have lab sessions. And that it’s common for American students to have jobs while they attend college. It was mind-blowing for Irene.