ASU is well-known for their space science courses offered and also their geology programs. The WP Carey Business School for management majors is also very popular and definitely a strength of the college. Their football and basketball programs are definitely one of the biggest strengths, as they are in the NCAA Division 1 league and their games are often televised on ESPN. One of the best cultural experiences was going to, “tailgating”, where students turn up at the parking lot opposite the football stadium to socialise before the game. The whole college sports atmosphere was the biggest shock to me as I could not comprehend just how huge the college sports scene is in America. Players who are good in their teams become nationally famous and are often on ESPN, which was very unreal to me because they were only my age.
During the semester I studied Entrepreneurship and Value Creation (MGT360), Sociology, Philosophy and French. The biggest difference with the delivery method was that the subjects you had on Monday, you also had on Wednesday and Friday. The classes you had on Tuesday you also had on Thursday. I was very surprised that most students had class 5 days a week, unlike at my experiences at QUT. Furthermore marks were broken up, therefore it was a lot like high school where I had about 4-5 exams for each class throughout the semester, instead of the traditional 40% midterm and 60% final that I’m used to here.
Tests were mostly multiple-choice and short-answer, so I found the delivery method of assessment to be much easier than at QUT as the marks were broken up over several exams. Therefore there was less content to study and multiple-choice style exams made the exams quite easy. Furthermore, in my philosophy class, the lecturer put all possible exam questions on blackboard a few days prior, therefore all exam questions and answers were already given to students. My entrepreneurial class however was a lot more independently focused, where the teacher gave minimal input and very little help throughout the semester. The teacher explained that was the focus of the class as it concentrated on students being able to turn their ideas into a business plan on their own. Therefore I experienced two extremes of the delivery method, and I found both to be very beneficial ways to learn.
