I have officially finished my first week of classes at the University of the Sunshine Coast, and it felt like I was a college freshman all over again!

Thankfully the campus is simple to understand so I didn’t have any trouble finding which block I was in. A difference from colleges in the states is that the course location is written like CG.48 – which means block C, ground level, room 48.

(USC Campus Map)

There are some more differences that have easily stuck out during studies already:

• The biggest difference that I am still getting used to is classes generally have one lecture and one tutorial. The lecture is normally one hour and consists of the lecturer speaking and minimal class participation. Then there is a tutorial (tute for short) which is normally two hours and consists of a smaller class size, lots of interaction, and hands on activities. I’m not sure I necessarily like this method yet, mainly for the fact that I have two teachers for one course, and it seems a bit unnecessary to me… but we’ll see how I feel as time goes one!
• Your teachers are not normally professors. For a lecture they are called a lecturer and tutorials they are called a tutor.
• I am also getting used to the fact that each class only has 2-3 assessments. Overall, between all my classes I only have 1 test, and the rest are papers and presentations. This is nice, but also a little scary because if I only have 2 assessments that makes up 50% of my grade for each.
• The standard grading scale is ranked as: High Distinction (HD), Distinction (DN), Credit (CR), Pass (PS), Fail (FL). I have had tutors and students tell me that credit and pass are very common and good, and that high distinction and distinction is hard to get. This probably worries me the most because my grades directly transfer back as letter grades, so I will just have to be working hard to get the high distinction (or an A).
• Students in Australia go to University (Uni) for 3 years. I have been classifying myself as a 1st Year since I am new to this campus, but that’s always followed up by why I am a 3rd Year back home.
• USC is very considerate of their large international student population. It has been so amazing how much kindness I’ve been shown as an international student.
• I found it a bit crazy how much we talked about America in all my classes. As examples or discussion points (things like 9/11, famous photographs, and Trump came up a lot). This is a bit of a relief to me sometimes because it is something I can relate to as I don’t know much about Australian history.

I have 4 classes that I’m taking at USC so I’ll just talk a little bit about each one:

• DES102: Visual Storytelling is my first class on Mondays, I have my lecture from 2-3pm and then my tute from 3-5pm. I honestly think this is going to be one of my more favorite classes. It is all about analyzing images and photography – doesn’t that sound like something I’d like? It has some sketching, which I’m not crazy about because I’m not a great drawer, but it was music to my ears when my tutor said, “I will not be grading you on your artistic abilities”.
• ENS282: Marine and Coastal Ecology is my night class on Mondays from 7-9pm. This class only has lectures since we are using our tutorial time towards a field trip to Fraser Island, the worlds largest sand island. My group’s field trip will be from March 15-17th and we are going there to do research and write a field report (mixed in with some fun, swimming, and campfires after our work is done). I am looking forward to that field trip! So far, I have been fairly interested in the lecture – which is saying something since science & I normally don’t get along. The lecturer is a great guy from Austria who has a good sense of humor. I just need to work on getting used to his accent. I also love that Erin, Luke, Alex & I all have this class together!
• DES101: The Language of Design is my only Tuesday lecture class and then Wednesday morning at 10am is the tute. Both Erin & I are taking this class as well, so that’s always nice! First impressions, I’m not entirely loving this class mainly because of all the drawing. For the majority of the two hour tutorial we were drawing, but hey – maybe it’ll help me work on my drawing abilities.
• CMN102: Creativity and Communication is my night class on Wednesdays, my lecture is from 6-7pm and tutorial is from 7-9pm. This class is right up my alley. I get along well with Communication classes. It also helps because some of the girls in my DES classes are in this as well! The lecturer said that, “By the time you’re done with this class you will see the world differently”, so I’m curious to see if that’s true.

I’m optimistic that my classes will continue to go well and I will learn a lot!

Next on the docket is a camping trip with the USC Activate club this Saturday-Sunday, so I’m sure some great stories will come from that!