In this blog post I would like to discuss academics at HKU, specifically registering for classes, professors, and my experiences in the first week of classes. Although my GEO coordinators warned me that registration at this University is keen, I did not expect the process to be so complicated.
There is an initial registration process for classes but this only lists a student as pending for a class. This means that you have a temporary spot in the class but you can get denied or approved during the add/drop week. After you have been approved for each individual class, you are officially registered. Unfortunately, approval is far from guaranteed. I was denied from a multitude of classes forcing me to find new classes that fit both Northeastern and HKU’s criterions. Luckily, I was able to accomplish this and finalize my schedule all in the first week. Some of my flat mates had a tougher time getting approved for classes that met the requirements of their European Universities too. I only ended up going to one class that I did not have to, so it was not too much of an issue looking back. If I could offer some advice to future students that will attend HKU I would say to try and stay calm during this process and save as many electives as possible to give yourself some flexibility in course selection. I had four electives going into my study abroad experience allowing me to have a myriad of options in course selection. If this were not the case, I do not believe I could have found classes that fit my schedule.
My professors all seem very nice from my first impressions. Interestingly two of my four professors are American, one of which is from my home state of New York. My classes also appear to be a similar difficulty and course load to Northeastern classes with the exception of my business law course. This law course is going to be my hardest and most demanding but I am excited for the challenge and learning experience. The professors for my classes assign lots of readings but not to much homework. There is a major focus on exams, midterms and finals. I think Northeastern tends to have more incremental forms of grading as opposed to a few items that account for a big chunk of your grade. The professors have already indicated that it is common for exchange students to travel during reading week in October. This is good because I already have tickets to go to Japan this week (will be another blog post) and they will not assign a ton of work that week.
I made lots of friends in my first week of class, but the students I met coincidentally have been mostly exchange students as well. I think it is because most of the local students already have friends in each class. There is lots of group work in my classes though which will give me an opportunity to meet some local students. They will probably be good group-mates because of their familiarity with academics at the University. I also have not been able to become too close with my classmates since classes are only once a week but each class is very long which will help me get to know them better as the semester continues. It has been such a pleasure to meet people from all over the world and countries I’ve never met residents of such as Russia and Estonia. Learning about their home countries and cultures has been such a privilege. My classes seem pretty interesting but it looks like the business law class will be my favorite because of the professor’s enthusiasm and course topics. My geography class also has great potential to be exciting and informative.
I also acquired my student card for the University during this week. This was imperative because of all the uses the card has. It has your student ID on it which is required for almost everything you do, and grants you access to facilities like the dining hall, athletics building, and the library. Unlike at Northeastern, you actually have to apply for your student card and cannot receive it without having your passport as identification proof. Additionally the student card has many other perks such as discounts at restaurants (50% off at Classified, a delicious Western brunch place) and the MTR (50% off on every subway ride). I have been trying to monitor my spending as much as possible but it has been made easier by these convenient discounts.
Once I had my student card I started visiting the library somewhat frequently. It is a great place to get some work done in addition to hanging out with friends because of the air conditioning, comfortable chairs, highly-reliable wifi and relaxing environment. There is also a starbucks right outside which is a must for coffee drinkers such as myself (Also 50% off with a student card, which is a dangerous proposition for my wallet). I also found reserved study rooms in the library which will be a major asset when I am interviewing for my co-op position later in the semester. The ascending noise level that can be associated with Snell Library does not exist at HKU’s library though. Each floor seems to be relatively quiet, and it is never as noisy as the first or second floors of Snell. The library is a convenient place to print for a reasonable price, although you are not given printing dollars like at NEU. This was instrumental in filling out all of my paperwork that I had this first week. Taking out books from the library is easy too, with tons of collections on the lower floors of the library. Self-checkout machines make it easy to do this quickly and efficiently. The computers are quite slow though, so I recommend bringing your laptop whenever possible.
Overall, my experience gets exponentially better with each passing week. I meet more and more lovely people and it is fascinating to go through the experience of starting at a new university all over again.
