Higher education in the United States is more "exam-oriented" than that in China. On average, students in the United States study harder than those in China. For international students, admission is only the beginning of their study abroad career, and it is a brand-new and higher challenge. Only after several years of hard work can they graduate smoothly.
Academic pressure is more obvious for excellent students. Many depressed patients are excellent students, mostly from peer pressure. They are bent on maintaining excellent grades, which is even more stressful.
First of all, studying in an elite university is really a heavy academic burden. Homework and quizzes followed, followed by the laboratory and then the test. I thought I was relieved to find that there was still a lot of paper to write, but then I thought I could relax a little and found that it was the final term again!
For the students of famous schools, the GPA of calculating grades is like a "tight hoop" on their heads. The competition between classmates is fierce, and everyone else goes to bed at 1. If you don't want to be at the bottom, you have to go to bed at two or three or even later. Failing the course is even worse, and you may not get a degree certificate with a low score.
Secondly, everyone is a top student in high school. When applying, they got high marks and stood out from tens of thousands of peers with rich extracurricular activities and excellent academic awards. Breaking through many difficulties, I entered the dream school and found that it is a world-class elite gathering place. The only thing I don't lack is "talents from all walks of life". There are people behind the scenes, and the existence of top student, who I thought was a great man, is eclipsed, because there are always people who can reach heights that you can't reach, and all you can do is fall into a new round of "breaking through barriers and fighting monsters" and have to squeeze yourself and use yourself.
On the surface, everyone is carefree and so excellent, but in private, they are struggling secretly, balancing internship, extracurricular activities and various social activities under heavy academic pressure, and always maintaining self-confidence and fighting spirit. Inside, they may have experienced collapse again and again.
It is true that there will be no pressure like the yearning for "abandoning those who have learned deeply and simply for the sake of graduation certificates".
In fact, as an international student, due to the great cultural differences between China and the United States, apart from the language barrier, academic subjects themselves are also difficult to deal with, and some study habits will make you feel at a loss. For example, the teacher won't remind you what you need to do in class and what you usually record. Many important notices and homework are sent by mail, and you will miss many important things if you are not careful. In China, it takes a long time to get used to students whose parents and teachers do everything. As an adult, when you enter school, the school will give you the rules and regulations of the school. You need to know it carefully and do it step by step.
For another example, on weekdays, we not only have to finish a lot of reading and writing research homework, but also carefully prepare for preview. Otherwise, you can't get in touch with the class discussion, and your participation is poor, which will lead to the risk of failing the class. This is a common problem faced by Asian students. If you can't keep up, you will fall behind more and more. The content of all classes adds up to a mountain of things to do every day. In addition to schoolwork, students have other projects to complete, such as program required by some schools, and what other projects need to be completed with other students, so they may have to stay "nervous" for a long time.
Difficulties may come from the following points.
1, lack of clear academic plan:
After entering school, I don't have a clear plan for my future, I don't know what I need to do, or I am too sloppy in my studies.
There are always various activities or parties at school, and many students skip classes more often, and their homework is finished. Over time, I lost my principles in the colorful university life, and I was suspended from school or expelled from school because of failing the exam, low attendance rate, low GPA and academic dishonesty. Therefore, it is suggested that students find their real interests according to their courses or activities, determine the direction as soon as possible, consult academic tutors, professors or alumni, and get out of confusion quickly.
The undergraduate course in America is very difficult. First of all, different majors have different majors. For students in China, the most prominent thing is neither work nor reason. It's liberal arts.
Because the way of studying liberal arts in the United States is really different from that in China.
Most of the liberal arts assessment methods in domestic universities are the memory of knowledge points. But in American liberal arts, in addition to reading a lot of documents thicker than bricks, you need to participate in interaction and discussion in class and write dozens of papers.
Everything requires you to be very independent and devoted.
Science and engineering, in fact, is more of a curriculum pressure. Unlike the persistence of children in China, most children in the United States play hard and study hard. They are used to this kind of high-intensity pressure. China's children have just passed, and it is often difficult to adapt.
Take engineering as an example. Just math classes, engineering students need to study calculus one, two and three, differential equations and statistics ... aerospace and electricity also need to study more math courses than engineering majors such as machinery, civil engineering, software and petroleum.
Such a large number of "bald" courses, students do not have enough perseverance and keen learning ability, it is really impossible to persist.
Chinese and foreign universities have "similar" learning goals, but undergraduate courses in the United States = failure.
In China, we may think that we can pass the final exam "almost", or try to get 85 points or above. But in the American undergraduate course, you must break through yourself on this basis.
In the United States, except for the basic study of freshmen and sophomores, all the courses started in juniors need you to take the initiative to promote, to integrate a lot of your personal ideas, and to know how to make a thing with all the resources of the university.
For example, many classes require you to do projects, liberal arts to write papers, and science to design projects themselves. You should take the initiative to think about what projects I should do, how to integrate what I have learned in class, how to ask the professor, how to cooperate with my classmates, etc ... They all need your own leadership and promotion.
This requires students to be clear about what they want, and to have strong initiative, leadership and expression skills in order to do these things well and achieve good results.
This seems to liberate students, but it is actually a higher requirement for students' comprehensive ability and "extreme" degree.
This is the overall difficulty of American undergraduate courses.
The difficulty of specific details makes students feel on the verge of "collapse" every day. For example:
Need in-depth preview before class. Studying in the United States, class is not the focus, the focus is on preview before class.
American courses are based on the assumption that you have learned all the courses you want to learn today before class. Therefore, under normal circumstances, only opinions and discussions are expressed in class, and you are even required to make some contributions, such as inspiring other students.
If students don't do a lot of preparation before class, it is easy to make a fool of themselves in class or get low marks from teachers. As a result, most undergraduate students in the United States have become accustomed to the concentration before class, but they are very relaxed in class.
However, students in China have long been used to listening to the teacher easily send knowledge to their ears. It's really hard to change their habits!
Many specialized courses, you may not be qualified to learn.
The curriculum of many schools in the United States is graded, and it will become more and more difficult.
For example, freshmen take basic introductory courses, and sophomores take more difficult professional courses. Professional courses may require your GPA to reach 3.0 or above, that is, 80 points or above, before you can continue your study.
If you can't get the required score in the preparatory course, you can only take this preparatory course again, and there is no way to continue taking professional courses.
If you can't do it again, for example, the GPA may be lower than 2.0, the school will advise you to transfer to another college, and it will take you longer to graduate.
Students are not allowed to "catch their breath", and the assessment forms of undergraduate courses in the United States are very diverse, running through every day of the semester.
Attendance, class performance, homework, papers, research projects, exams ... are all criteria for assessing you, not just the focus of the final exam.
This requires you to work hard from the beginning of the semester to the end of the semester in order to get a good grade.
This shows that it is really difficult for China students to study in the United States.
What's more, some universities not only make things difficult for students, but also make their "difficulties" not worth the loss. This is because in the United States: the more ordinary universities, the more difficult it is to mix diplomas.
On the contrary, the top 50 students graduated better, and many even graduated ahead of time, such as three or three and a half years.
However, if it is a university outside the top 50, especially a university outside the top 100 schools, the graduation rate of students will be lower because of the uneven ability and loose management of students.
This shows how important it is to study hard now and go to a good school once and for all!
Make dreams come true with sweat, determination and hard work. Colin Powell, an African-American appointed as US Secretary of State, said: "Dreams will not be realized by magic; This requires sweat, determination and hard work. "
According to American universities, if your courses are easy, you are not fully prepared for your future career. You need to learn powerful knowledge and be responsible for your future.
This is why American colleges and universities make it difficult for many students to struggle, with low graduation rate, but few complaints.
But the more so, the more you need to strengthen your usual study, slowly and steadily, learn the language well, lay a good professional foundation and temper your will, and finally you can walk more steadily!