University is a different experience
2024-12-15
It might just have been 2 weeks so far for me at university (the Baden-Wuerttemberg Cooperative State University (DHBW) Stuttgart to be specific), but I can already tell you that it is a completely different experience than school and there are several key things to keep in mind in order to get successfully through it. So, let's take a look at my early insights into the life of a university student together...
Before we get right into it, I want to make it clear that I know a Cooperative State University differs quite a bit from a "normal" university. We have quite small learning groups of 20 to 40 people, usually stay in "our" room the entire day with the professors coming to us instead of the other way around and there's quite an open "question culture" with the ability to ask anything during the lectures. Most of these are clear benefits over a regular university and more closely resemble the experience you know from school, but this doesn't impact the validity of the insights I learned. In fact, I even believe it makes them even more relevant for a normal university, since its concept is even more open and provides less enforced structure. One prime example of this managing to complete your studies within the standard period of study: At a Cooperative State University you basically have no other choice and need to pass (almost) all exams in order to get through, while at a regular university you have quite a few more attempts (depending on your field of study), but each of them costs you time. So, if your plan is to finish in the standard period of study, you have to force yourself even more in a regular university, since the system is much more open and less strict.
With that out of the way, probably the number one thing I immediately learned on the first day is the much higher standard and speed at which you move through the topics . Almost every lecture slide introduces a new specialty term or concept and you are immediately required to get used to it and even work with it throughout the rest of the lecture. As someone who had a relatively relaxed time in school with no trouble to understand concepts, this is a welcome change right now as it somewhat challenges me and makes the lectures more interesting. But I also clearly see that it makes it much more difficult to keep up - especially for those who already struggled at school - and will get annoying quickly. In that regard, I can highly recommend working with flashcards to familiarize yourself with the terms efficiently, since this makes your life much easier and ensures you can indeed follow the next lecture.
The much higher speed already implies my next insight, which is that there's basically only ever new input for you and you don't really do exercises in class like you used to in school. Sure, after a complicated topic the professor will likely go through a few examples with you to make the topic less abstract and easier to come to terms with, but that's a best case scenario and about it. To keep up with the new topics introduced every day, you definitely need to rework the topics at home - equally to just memorize the facts and to do some exercises. Especially this last part is crucial to prepare for the exams and also know how to use the abstract concepts introduced in real world scenarios. This constant learning besides the time you spent at university, is definitely something new for most people and absolutely mandatory to pass the exams. They are all in a single week, making it really hard to prepare for them, if you don't already have a solid knowledge foundation to work with.
Speaking about the time spent at university, this is another topic I find quite interesting. Most days are quite manageable in terms of the total workload, but there also certainly are days during which you spend 10+ hours at university or somehow have to get through 4+ hour lectures . Most professors are luckily so kind to integrate short additional breaks into the schedule in these situations, but without them (and they can't be taken for granted) getting through these days would be almost impossible. Personally, I don't drink coffee or any kind of energy drinks, but those who do all have noticed a drastic increase in their consumption and that's no wonder under these circumstances. After such a day all you realistically can do at home, is to prepare a nice meal, maybe exercise a bit and most importantly relax to fill up your energy levels again.
Overall, I certainly notice that university is much more exhausting than school and requires a completely different level of self-discipline to constantly familiarize yourself with the topics on your own at home. This includes both just memorizing concepts and definitions as well as working with them without any extrinsic motivation to do so except for passing the exams. Getting through university and ultimately receiving a degree in your field isn't a sure-fire success and certainly requires a lot of self-motivation. But I can also tell you that it is much more rewarding than school , since you almost exclusively work in a field you're interested in and get in-depth knowledge that satisfies your curiosity - or at least I feel so.