Warwick vs Queens

I'm now 4 weeks into my exchange year at Queen's University in Canada and I thought I'd briefly go through some differences between here and my home university!

1. School 'Spirit'

You've seen the classic films that depict North American universities in all their style and glamour, yet being here definitely does seem similar to that vibe! There's a great deal of 'Queen's University' spirit across campus and the town of Kingston both in terms of the campus and also the sports here; whlie I'm yet to watch a game live, I'm looking forward to watching the American Football very soon! While Warwick does have elements of school spirit, in particular the varsity competition with Coventry, it's yet to really build it to this level.

2. Coursework...!

Warwick Economics has a general habit of being very exam focused, with often modules having 80% of the assessment based on a written exam in May. Yet here, the focus is fairly different! Assignment, mini-class tests, participation and attendance marks (Seriously, you can get sometimes 5% from just always showing up). This different style is something that makes sense, especially for students who need a bit of help staying on track and not leaving work/revision till days before the exam, yet it does at times feel like you've constantly got work that needs to be done!

3. Clubs/Societies

While Queen's does push its clubs and societies quite heavily, it does seem that Warwick has the edge in terms of how many events and how active some of them are. I've tried joining a few here at Queen's but often it seems like there's hardly any events on, whereas at Warwick you've often got a few every week!

4. No lecture capture

A BIG difference compared to Warwick is that lecture aren't recorded here, meaning you are somewhat stuck if you do happen to miss a lecture and will just have to catch up on the notes from your friends. I didn't realise how much I relied on this as a resource at Warwick, yet it does at least encourage you to turn up!

5. Exchange bubble

As probably expected, being an exchange student means you're often socialising with exchange students the majority of the time. Not necessarily a bad thing, but it sometimes feel a bit odd that you're on the other side of the world yet your best friends here are all from Europe!

There's the biggest 5 reasons so far but I'll be adding to this list no doubt!