American College of Thessaloniki Differences from MC- Blog 7

Academic Differences

            Workload- I was not able to find information about the workload for the American College of Thessaloniki (ACT). I will most likely have to ask a past student what the workload was like comparative to American standards.

            Classroom- There is a small student population, allowing the environment to foster an intellectual, emotional, and physical growth in the students and nurture leadership potential in the student population that challenges and supports them.

            Semesters- Fall Semester: September 15^th to January 23^rd, Spring Semester: February 2^nd to May 29^th, Summer Semester- June 16^th to July 18^th.

            Expectations- They seem to expect a great deal from the students, not really differing too much from the MC life here on campus. Since the student population is so small, the faculty and staff are able to keep better tabs on you and therefore, have higher expectations for the students.

            Faculty/Staff- It is a small school, similar to MC, therefore, the faculty and staff are able to give more attention to each student individually and expect the student to engage in intellectual conversations.

Credits

            The typical classes, that I found, were three credit hours, some were one—similar at MC. My credits, I have been told, will completely transfer from ACT to MC. I did not find any further information about credits such as, if credits and workload are valued differently from ACT to MC or how many times a week classes will meet. ACT are not 100% on the course schedule yet, so I do not know when classes will be meeting.

Grades

            Grades are in number form in most of Greece. From a scale 1-20, 20 being the highest and 1 being the lowest. 20 is equivalent to getting an A and 1 is equivalent of getting an F. The college I will be attending however, will have a similar grading system as in the U.S. because it is an American college.

Support

            At ACT there are numerous student services such as, a Writing Center, Academic Advising, Business Liaison/Career Services, Graduate Education Counseling, Housing, and Study Abroad Opportunities for ACT students. The majority of these services are closed when I will be attending ACT—during the summer term.

Full-Time Status

            I am almost 100% positive I need to take two courses for the summer term and for them to add up to 6 credit hours to be considered a full-time student at ACT. For MC, I know I will need to be enrolled for six credit hours to be a full-time student.

There are a lot more similarities than differences it seems. This is perhaps because ACT is an American institution of sorts, which will model after American colleges and universities in the U.S.