like to study engineering in the US versus Italy... Okay. Honestly. I don't need

these. I have contacts on, but I was trying to make geek effect... nerd effect...

you know... Because every engineer is in a nerd, right? Sure... Ciao y'all!

NaturallyKenya here, and welcome back to my channel. Make sure to subscribe to my

channel if you haven't already. Today is going to be a fun video, because I am

talking about what it's like to study engineering in the US, where I'm from

versus Italy. As some of you may or may not know, I actually moved to Italy last

year to complete my master's degree, but I have my bachelor's degree in the U.S.

in Civil Engineering. That's a little bit about me, but I'm gonna go into a few

pointers of what it's like in the U.S. vs Italy. Number one is the format. For

example, in the U.S. if you do a bachelor's degree it is four years and in Italy the

bachelors is three years, plus the two years that you will do for your master's

degree. So in total it will be five years. Whereas, in the U.S. if you did a master's

and a bachelor's degree, it would be a total of six years. So, the calendar and

exam schedule is definitely a lot different than the U.S. here in Italy,

because in the U.S. generally the semester is fourteen or fifteen weeks long and

following that, you have an exam period... and following that, I mean three-

four- or five days later you'll start taking your exams for your four or five

classes, and the thing that's most different here is that you have

approximately two months or even three months to take these exams whereas in

the U.S. you have your 15 weeks plus three or four days of nothing, plus holiday days --

but they're "technically" not holiday days, because you have to study-- and then it's followed by

a few days of exams. Maybe two weeks or

ten days where you have to take all of your exams in that time period.

Here in Italy, I have noticed that the semester varies between 13 or 14 weeks

and then you have months to take the exams. For example, the fall semester in

the U.S. will be from the last week of August to the first or second week of

December, and then you have your two weeks or so of exams. Here, I have

classes from the end of September to around the middle/end of December

before Christmas holidays, with a period of two or three weeks break, and

then you have the option to take those two exams in January and February of the

following year, but also you have a summer session that you can take those

exams in, as well. Which I will go into more detail later in the video about. So,

to summarize, the semester in the U.S. is a bit longer by two weeks, but the time

you have to take your exams is minimal, up to approximately ten days. Where in

Italy, it's 13 or 14 weeks of the semester and you have two months + to

take your exams in that time period. In terms of admission, in the U.S. there were

a lot of things that I had to submit going from high school into University.

For example, the application fee, there was an essay, you had to obviously submit

your transcripts, there was an option to submit your resume as well, a letter of

recommendation, your SAT or ACT scores, like the list goes on and on. But for

example, here in Italy, at least in my case, I know there's different

specifications or degrees that have a limited number of entrances available,

but I just had to send my (for my master's degree), I had to send my high

school transcript and my university transcript and a passport photo and that

was it. So it wasn't like I had to do brain surgery. There were no letters of

recommendation - nothing like that for me to study here in Italy. So the process

was much faster in that sense. So you didn't have to prepare documents and

documents and have a lot of different effort, but like I said before this may

just vary between universities in Italy. So don't get happy thinking that you

might be in the same situation as I was. It could very well be quite

different. Oh, the fun topic! The money part. The tuition costs and fees... When you

compare the U.S. to Italy this is probably the most different topic. I'm

actually going to be comparing the school that I went to in the U.S. to

Italy. So, for example, if I wanted to do a master's degree in the U.S. my tuition for

the year will be approximately twelve thousand dollars. Here it is! That is a

full-time schedule and it calculates

only the tuition. That's not food, that's not water, that's not housing, that's

not breathing, that's not living, that's not socializing, that's not walking down

the street- well... okay. That could be walking down the street, as long as you

don't have to take a bus or drive your car. You're good. That would be free. It's

essentially twelve thousand one hundred and forty six dollars a year.

I actually took it upon myself to convert that into euros, so you can see that

that's one year. Here in Italy, the tuition actually varies depending on if

you choose a public or a private school. It can be anywhere from five hundred

euros from people from developing countries, to up to maybe four or five

thousand euros. But, I mean, if you go to a public university, I think it would bury

anywhere between one thousand euros and maybe three thousand. I know that it

definitely varies based on your personal income and your university. And

supposedly there are scholarships available. There are Italian government

scholarships available. The United States was not on the eligible countries list,

so I wasn't that lucky. There are definitely opportunities available for

people coming from different countries. You really just have to do your research

and look into it. Because, generally, it's not that organized. Oh, the good one! This is

also a good one. Homework, which just seems so different here. So in university

in the U.S. for some of my classes, we would have to take assignments,

do the exercises and they will be do the following class. So, if this was a Monday-

Wednesday-Friday class, you'll be assigned Monday exercises, they would be due

Wednesday. You would be assigned exercises Wednesday and then they would be due Friday and so

on. Friday-Monday, Monday-Wednesday and Wednesday-Friday so on and so on.

Here, it's not necessarily like that. It's your responsibility to pick up all the

information in class. The only homework I've had so far are group projects and

that's not necessarily a homework assignment because it generally goes

over the entire semester. So, it's not like tonight you have to do THIS tonight,

it's due tomorrow. It's not like that at all at least not in the situations that

I have been in I would definitely say in the U.S. there's a lot more homework.

There are a lot more projects at least for a my a master's degree there will be

more projects I'm assuming in the U.S. There's just a lot more I guess you

could say independent work in the U.S.

So, let's talk about exams. Earlier, I mentioned how we have approximately 10

days to take all the four or five exams of a full-time semester, where in Italy

there are different exams for different dates. So, for example, if I'm taking four

or five classes and the semester ends, I have different exam dates available to

take the exam for each class. Which is also very important, because the exam

format in Italy is a lot different than it is in the U.S. specifically in the U.S.

you have one try. That means if you destroy the exam... I don't know anyone

that's that was able to redo a final exam... you essentially have one, try that's

it, and it's a written exam usually or it could be a presentation or project and

that percentage of the final exam really depends on how many exams were in the

class earlier in the semester. So if there's like a first exam or a midterm

for 20% and second exam was 20% and the rest is homework and participation and

then you get to the final exam that could be 30%, but here in Italy the exams

are a lot different than what I'm used to in the U.S. This is probably the most

difficult part of Italian University in my opinion. I know that Italian students

have taken oral exams almost their whole lives, but for people coming from other

countries it may not be the normal thing to do. For me, that's not a normal

thing to do. You definitely have to know of the theory, all of the formulas for

some classes. It's really honestly much more mentally exhausting than the exams

in the US were. The professor can ask you anything he or she wants and you have to

be able to describe that in detail. At the end of everything, I really think

that I'm going to become a better engineer for these oral exams, just

because we don't necessarily have that place for you to formally present your

ideas and topics immediately. Like, you have to think and answer the

question in two seconds. I guess it's a skill that I think everyone should have.

It is something that's definitely growing on me I definitely don't think

even after the two years in the master's program I will be completely an expert

in it because it is still new for me, but I just like to try my best

anytime I have one of these exams. The grade scale. For example, in Italy you are

graded on a thirty point scale. You have... well... I don't want to say unlimited tries.

You have more than one try. I think you could even have up to five, six, seven

eight tries, whatever the program allows you to have, just for passing one class.

Of course you don't want to use five or eight tries to pass a class, but the

opportunity is there. Whereas in the US you have one try and that's all, so it's

like hit-or-miss. In the U.S. there is a 4.0 scale for university. Actually, I'm

going to put the scale here. This is the university scale that's used by my

university in Texas. You have a thirty point scale here in Italy and I think... 18

is passing. I'm going to put exactly what the Italian system in the U.S. system

and how they align here, just for a little bit of a comparison. At the end of

your entire master's program, you're actually graded on the classwork and the

thesis for your final mark. And last but not least, the resources and

support. This is very different from me being a student from the U.S. and coming

to Italy, because it's very different in the U.S. Professors will allow you to

have open office hours Monday-Wednesday- Friday from noon to 2 p.m. or by

appointment, but it seems like here in Italy a lot of the time, if you

needed help to meet with your professor you would actually have to do it by

appointment. The time limit of office hours are very small. They're not... I guess...

published as readily as they are in the U.S. Also in the U.S., with your tuition

fees you actually get certain services. I remember there was a gym or if

you needed counseling services, certain things like that those were all free and

included with the tuition... Mmm... I say free, but I mean I hardly think $12,000 means

you know it's free...you know that's not really free. So guys, that is the overview

of what studying engineering is like in the U.S. versus Italy. There are definitely

a lot of differences- not necessarily be positive or negative- but just it's just

different. You know? If you have any questions or comments leave them for me

down below. Make sure to like this video, if I helped you in any way. Make sure to

subscribe to my channel if you haven't already and I will see you in the next

one. Ciao y'all!