I felt so lucky and grateful inside me to receive the North2North scholarship and a tuition waiver which paved the way for me, so I could study in the USA for one semester.
When I arrived at the US and the time there was just about to begin the semester, the first two weeks were held online, but after this we were allowed to meet in person and attend the school regularly. I truly enjoyed meeting my new classmates. The professors at the university contained a huge amount of knowledge and it was clear they had a great experience in their field. All professors I had in my four classes had acquired a PhD title and even one of them had begun her second PhD studies.
The University of Southern Maine (USM) offers a lot of different exciting classes in all thinkable areas. I chose four extremely enriching classes which stretched a little wide in the engineering field. The classes were:
- Introduction to robotics
- Advanced topics in Engineering: Antennas
- Physical Electronics
- Artificial Intelligence and Datamining
The stay at USM showed me some very unique insights in how the high level of academic knowledge can be acquired in other ways than I was used to at my own university. Some of the difference, compared to what I was used to, were that grading is done throughout the whole semester. Tests, midterms, homework, laboratory work, attendance/attention in classes and your own personal diligence are graded throughout the whole semester. Of course, there is a final exam in the end of the semester and the result from this, combined with the other work you have done are accumulated to one final grade. This way of grading gives a good image on how you are working through the semester and can also show how your learning curve has been.
Maine is a beautiful place in all seasons of the year. I arrived in January, so it was just in the middle of the ski season and I had some wonderful nature experiences on the slopes. When the weather became a little warmer, I went to a couple of hikes on some of the many beautiful mountains of Maine. The state of Maine is also very well known for its large amount of tourmaline, so one day gem and crystal hunting was on the program.
I met some amazing friends in the US and these friendships still last even after I have returned home to Denmark.
If you have the option in your academical program to attend another university, I strongly recommend you pursuing this opportunity to apply for an exchange stay. You’ll see your program from another perspective because you’ll get multiple professional inputs from more than one educational institution. Do it now, because once you are settled you don’t know when you’ll have the opportunity to go abroad or to another country for a longer stay. Here you can explore other cultures, innovative mindsets, inspirational people, how and why people do what they do, and you can experience so many exciting things, also outside the classroom.
Published in 2023.