Academic Differences

In the Netherlands, like in many European countries, class schedules, structures, and credits are vastly different than in the United States. In the Netherlands, course credits are labeled European Credits or ECs, and the ratio of ECs to United States credit hours is about 2:1. It seems that a full-time student is expected to take either 30 or 40 ECs minimum each semester (as compared to our 12 credit hour minimum), and most classes are either 5 or 10 EC classes. At my particular school, the year is divided up into two semesters, Fall (September-February) and Spring (February-June), and each semester is divided into two blocks. In the Fall, block one classes may cut off around the end of October when block two classes begin, and block two class run until the beginning of February. (Or so it would seem, although I can't find an academic calendar that confirms this.)

Courses can have vastly differing schedules, but many seem to meet only once or twice per week. Most of the courses seem to have similar requirements to some of my social science courses here at MC, with exams and papers constituting the majority of graded work, and normally there seems to be only one exam per class, two at the most. The learning expectations and prerequisites seem to be very similar as well, and classes that covered the same topic as MC courses tended to be fairly easy to exchange, according to my adviser and division chair. Grading is drastically different, however, as the grading scale in the Netherlands ranges from a 1 (very poor) to a 10 (outstanding and unlikely to achieve). Usually an 8 or above will translate to an A in the U.S.

While no specific resources are listed for exchange students outside of the usual language programs (for non-English speakers), Leiden does have a program called the "Leiden Study System" wherein students and faculty work together to create a comprehensive study plan for students, with regular academic feedback from advisers. This leads me to believe that there would be other resources available to me should I need academic support during my time abroad. However, the Dutch method of education entrusts students with a high-level of personal responsibility and independence during the course of their studies, so I'm not sure Leiden will have its own Noah Bowman.