I’m going into my 3rd week of classes here at NOVA Universidade and they are going swell! Class sizes are much smaller than what I am used to at Northeastern. Being a Communications major at NEU, class sizes are usually large and taught in a lecture style. Here at NOVA my classes are a max of 20 students but are mostly lectures. Classes are each 1 hour and 45 minutes long except for a 2 of my classes that hold 2 ½ -3hr long sessions once a week (longer class sessions are usually spent going on fieldtrips). Majority of the time spent in class the teacher lectures about a specific topic, usually with little to no engagement from the students until the last 30 minutes of class which are spent as a discussion period. This way of teaching in Portugal is commonly unheard of. CIEE understands that most US students are used to active engagement in a course therefore teachers allow time for there to be a discussion.
If you direct enroll in courses at NOVA, most if not all, of your courses will be lectures. Use of laptops during class is allowed when using them to take notes. I would recommend bringing a laptop to certain classes as the teachers tend to move through their PowerPoints rather quickly! Unlike the States where students may bring food and drinks into classes, it is frowned upon here in Portugal. Students are not allowed to bring any liquids or food (except for water) into class. Students also don’t show up to class in sweatpants and sweatshirts. Europeans usually care more about their everyday appearance, so you rarely will ever see a student walking around in sweatpants and a sweatshirt.
TEXTBOOKS, TextBooks, textbooks! Literally the amount of money I waste on textbooks in the USA at the beginning of a school year is absolutely absurd. I feared that I would have to spend a ridiculous amount of money here in Portugal on text books too; however, I didn’t direct enroll in any courses at NOVA. This semester I am only enrolled in CIEE courses, and thus far the only course I needed a textbook for was my Portuguese language course. This text book only cost me about 25 Euros which is around $30. For those who would like to direct enroll in courses I recommended budgeting about $200 (US$) for textbooks. I don’t believe you will use it all on textbooks but I would over budget rather than under. Plus, the extra cash you can use on purchasing school supplies that way you don’t have to bring it all on the plane with you.
