Speaker 1: Hello, my favorite English language learners. It is your favorite English teacher here, Amy Joy. And if you don't already know this about me, I have been a university ESL instructor for the last seven years, working with international students and teaching them English. And during this time, my students have shared with me things that have confused them, surprised them, and even frustrated them about studying in the United States. So today's video is for all of my future possible students who are thinking of coming to the U.S. to study abroad, and for anyone simply interested in American higher education. In this video, I'm going to teach you eight things you need to know about studying in the United States before you arrive. First, we will talk about campus life and where you can live and eat. Second, we will talk about how to get social in college and make friends. Third, I will discuss campus resources. Fourth, we will talk about majors and minors and GE courses. Fifth, I'll discuss academic and classroom culture. Then we'll talk about grading, teacher evaluations, and lastly, how to interact with your professor. And make sure you stick around all the way till the end, because lastly, I will tell you how you can become your professor's favorite student. And before we discuss these eight topics, I just want to highlight that in American English, the words college and university mean the same thing. I know in some other countries, they have different meanings. So don't be surprised or confused when you hear me use these words interchangeably in this video. Okay, let's go ahead and get started. First, I want to talk about campus life and where you can live and eat. There are really only two options for where you can live if you attend a university in the U.S., on or off campus. If you live on campus, this means you will live in a dormitory or residence hall on campus or very near it. And living in the dorms is a super classic American experience. And I really recommend this for my international students because of how easy it is to meet people and make friends. When you live in a dorm, you will usually have one to two roommates, unless you pay more to live alone, but this can be very expensive. So most people decide to have roommates. Now you can either choose your roommate or ask the university to assign you one. Now if you are coming here with the expectation of improving your English, I strongly recommend that you request a roommate from the U.S. or another country that does not speak your first language. One of the biggest mistakes or regrets I see my students make is living with someone from their home country. While it is nice to have people at home who understand you and speak your language, you will definitely meet people from your home country anyways. But I notice it is harder for my students to make friends with Americans. And so by living with someone from here or another country, this creates the need for you to speak English on a daily basis. And overall, from what my students have shared with me, they love when they can room with people from other countries or the U.S. because they really feel like they are getting that study abroad experience. Now when living in the dorms, you will also have what we call an RA, which stands for a resident advisor or resident assistant. This is usually an older student who will plan fun events for the people in your dorm, give you academic advice, and yes, maybe even get you in trouble if you break the dorm rules. And I actually was an RA for two years, and I made a ton of friends with both my residents and the other RAs in the building. And overall, living in the dorms was one of the most fun experiences of my life and time in college, so I really recommend this experience for my international students. And also when you decide to live in a dorm, you will often be required to pay for a meal plan so that you can eat in the dining commons or cafeterias. And as a side note, I have often heard my students call the cafeteria a canteen, and I actually never knew what they meant by this word, so just a heads up or a warning that we don't really use the word canteen to mean cafeteria in the United States. Now if you don't live in the dorms, then the other option is to live off campus, either in an apartment or a shared house. This takes a lot more research and knowledge of the area, but it might be cheaper than living in the dormitory. Also, you will not be required to buy a meal plan, and so this may be cheaper for you as well. Okay, and the second thing I want to talk about is how to get social and make friends in college. For Americans, college is so much more than just a place to get a degree or study. It is a place to explore your interests, become a better person, experience new things, network, and become involved in your community. So there are a lot of different ways to get involved and fun things to explore that you should absolutely take advantage of. For example, there are a ton of organizations and clubs you can join, from photography to cultural clubs to dance clubs to chess clubs. And if you play any sports, you can even join what we call an intramural sports team. Intramural just means a casual club for a sport, and you are not on the official sports team of the school. So you don't even really have to be that good. Also, you will find that most college students go to the gym, also called the rec cen, which is short for recreation center. And speaking of sports, many American universities have official sports teams, like basketball, football, soccer, volleyball, etc. And going to a sporting event at an American university is a really American college experience that I highly recommend doing. Oftentimes, we dress in our school colors, maybe even paint our faces, spend time with friends and cheer for our team. Overall, if you really want to experience a part of American college culture, definitely attend a sporting event at your school. And one last way to get involved with your community and make friends is actually by getting a job. Getting a part-time job in school is very common, and it can really help you make friends, meet new people, practice your English, and even earn a little bit of extra money. And all of my students who have gotten jobs have told me how much it helped them improve their English. And the third topic I want to talk about is the campus resources that are available to you. I actually think this is one of the reasons why college in the United States is so expensive. There are many services on campus to help you physically, mentally, and academically. And they are all free in the sense that they are included with your tuition that you already pay. So you might as well take advantage of them. For example, most schools have the following types of services. Psychological and counseling services for your mental health, career services to help you find a job or edit your resume, writing centers to help you with your writing assignments, tutoring for all subjects, DSP, which stands for the Disabled Students Program, and many campuses will also have an office for international students. And if you are unsure what resources your university offers, it can be really easy to find. Simply Google the name of your university and then campus resources, and you should be able to find a long list pretty easily. Okay, and before we move on to talk more about academics in the United States, I do want to remind you that if you are studying for the TOEFL, the IELTS, or just want to expand your advanced vocabulary, then you might be interested in my ebook. In this book, I teach you 75 advanced C1, C2 level words that I think are pretty useful as a native English speaker. In this book, I also teach you the grammar and collocations of these words, so you not only understand them when you hear them, but you can also use them yourself, either in your everyday conversations or on that next language exam. So after watching this video, go to my website, yourfavoriteenglishteacher.com, and buy my book today to expand your advanced vocabulary. Okay, now let's talk about academics in American universities. Let's start with majors, minors, and GE courses. Now remember when I said that Americans view college as a place to explore your interests and become a more well-rounded person? Well, this American value is clear in our options of majors, minors, and GE courses. In American universities, you have the option to declare a major or your field of study. For example, you can major in computer science, philosophy, or linguistics, like I did. And if you want to major in two subjects, then you can actually double major or choose two main fields of study. Now if that seems like too much work, you also have the option to add a minor to your major. Think of a minor as like an extra mini degree. For a minor, you take a set of courses in a field, but not as many courses as you would in a major. And then when you graduate, your diploma will say that you majored in one subject and minored in another subject. And you can put your major and minor on your resume or CV. And having a minor can be great for several reasons. First, if you have many interests, you can just explore a variety of subjects. I see a lot of students add a minor that is simply for their enjoyment. It might not apply to their career path, but they are interested in that field and want to learn more about it. Minoring is also a great option if you have interests that complement each other. For example, my best friend majored in international relations and then minored in German. And learning German helped her in her future work in international relations. And then sometimes minors are actually so specific that there are not enough courses to create a major, but there's still enough to learn about. For example, I majored in linguistics, but my minor was TESOL or teaching English to speakers of other languages. Now, besides the courses in your major and minor, everyone is required to take what we call GE courses. GE stands for general education. And again, this really reflects Americans' value about learning about a wide variety of things and becoming a more well-rounded person in college. So for example, if you are majoring in computer science, then you also might have to take classes in history, sociology, biology, art history, etc. And sometimes I have noticed that these GE courses have caused frustration for my students because they feel like they are wasting their time and money on courses that they don't feel will help them in their career. And I definitely see this point of view and their frustration, but again, this is simply an American value and a cultural difference that you should be aware of when coming to study in the United States. And since you will have to take GE courses, whether you want to or not, I recommend taking advantage of the opportunity and researching courses that you are interested in. Some of my favorite GE courses were Introduction to Acting, Gods of India, where I learned about all the different Hindu gods, and Introduction to Sociology, which I had never studied before. And if I'm honest, I learned so much about the world from taking these courses that I wouldn't have learned in just my linguistics classes. And so I'm actually really happy that I had to take these classes and I actually really enjoyed them. And one thing that might surprise you is if you are entering university and you are really unsure about what you want to study or what you want your career to be, you can actually enter American universities undeclared. If you are undeclared, this means that you have not chosen a major yet. And then once you have taken some GE courses and tried out a few different subjects, then you can actually declare your major at a later time. So that is one more benefit of having GE courses, it lets you get a little taste or sample of other subjects before you make a decision about what you want to study. Okay, now that you know what types of classes are offered in American universities, let's talk about academic and classroom culture. Okay, one of the biggest differences between American education and education in other countries is in class participation. This is one of the things that surprises and intimidates my students the most. In schools in the US, it is often expected that you will participate in the course by speaking in class. And this might mean answering or asking questions, working in small groups, or giving oral presentations. And if English is not your first language, and you come from a culture where this is not common, this can be super scary. So before coming here, I do recommend trying to improve your spoken English as much as possible, either by joining a speaking club, getting a conversation partner, or using an app to practice your spoken English. The more confident you feel speaking in English will really help you academically here, as well as make friends and integrate into the community. Now participating and working with others is so ingrained in our culture and important to us that it actually affects the structure of our courses. For example, if you have a big lecture with 500 students, then there also will probably be a smaller class that meets once a week with only 15 to 30 of the students in that class. So be sure to register for the big lecture, as well as the smaller discussion section. This class will usually be taught by a TA, or a teacher's assistant, or a GSR, graduate student researcher. And these class meetings are dedicated to reviewing the material taught in the lecture, along with discussing your ideas in small groups, asking questions, and yes, maybe even giving presentations. And another aspect of our academic culture is our value or priority of critical thinking, or in other words, using what you've learned and showing mastery over a subject. And this is often in contrast to other countries that really value memorization. And you can see here in this graphic from Bloom's Taxonomy that there are different levels of understanding. And in many of your college assignments, instructors are really wanting to see that you can achieve these upper levels of understanding, like creating something, or evaluating something, or saying whether something is good or bad, analyzing something, or applying class concepts to new situations. These top four levels show more of a mastery of a subject than the bottom levels, which mainly require you to just repeat back information. And this is one of the reasons why many larger assignments in university are papers, projects, and presentations. Okay, and topic number six I want to explore is grading. Now here you can see the range of grades in the US, where an A-plus is the highest grade and an F is the lowest grade. And these letters correspond to points that you earn in a course. Now usually getting a C will allow you to pass the class and get credit for that course. A C-minus or lower usually means that you did not pass the class and have to take it again. However, some classes might differ slightly where a C-minus is passing. So always check the syllabus of your course to see what the minimum passing score is. Now another thing you might not know about grading is that you actually have the option to take some courses pass, no pass. Usually you can take any GE course pass, no pass, as long as it is not a course for your major. Now taking a course pass, no pass means that if you get any grade above a C or the score that is considered passing in your class, then you will get credit for that course, but the letter grade will not affect your overall GPA or grade point average. Now taking course pass, no pass can bring a little bit of relief to your heavy workload and allow you room to not perform as well as in some of your other courses. Now another thing to note related to grading is that some professors will actually grade on a curve. This means that you are not given the grade that corresponds to the point value that you have earned, but you are graded based on your performance compared to other students in the class. For example, if you earned an 85 in the class, which is usually a B, but that is the highest grade in the whole class, then you will receive an A because compared to the other students, you did the very best. Now this can also work oppositely, and if you earn an 85, but that is the lowest grade in the class, then you might not even pass the class. So make sure at the beginning of the course, you understand which grading method your professor is using. Now just like your professors give you a grade, at the end of a course, you also have the opportunity to grade your instructors in what we call teacher evaluations. These are surveys given at the end of a course where you can tell your instructor what you liked, what you didn't like, and how they can improve their class. And these evaluations are actually really important to us because they are often considered when we are up for a promotion, so it can really impact our pay and position. And we also use these surveys to make improvements and changes to our classes, so we really appreciate when you take them seriously and fill them out. Now another thing you may or may not realize exists is a website called Rate My Professor. This is a website where you can publicly post and read about others' experiences in a certain course with a specific teacher. For example, past students will usually share what types of assignments were required in the course, how they were graded, and if they enjoyed the class or not. Many students find this helpful when choosing what courses they are going to take, usually often avoiding the hard teachers. However, something I have noticed on Rate My Professor is that a lot of angry students tend to post more than the happy students. So just as with any review on the internet, take it with a grain of salt and don't be too influenced by any one review. Now for my last point, I am going to teach you how you can become your professor or TA's favorite student. And it might surprise you that it is not about how hard you try in their course or how smart you are. It is actually about how you interact with them. You have to remember that professors are people too, and one of our favorite aspects of our job is interacting with you, our students. And so the interactions we have together will either make or break our relationship. So first, of course, yes, you do have to do your schoolwork. But if you have a problem with a deadline or you need to miss a class for some reason, it's really important to email your professor and let them know. By communicating with us, we feel that you are taking responsibility. And usually, depending on your situation, we will usually give you an extension no problem. Now, the next way to gain favor with your professor is by going to office hours. Unlike in some other countries, professors at a university are not always in their office nine to five. And so we have office hours, which are a specific designated time that your professor is available in their office to chat, answer questions and help you out. And I cannot stress enough how sad I get every semester when students do not come to my office hours, even just to say hi or introduce themselves. This is a rare opportunity that you have to access experts in your field of study and maybe even get a mentor. Now, I don't recommend going to office hours every single week unless you have a lot of questions, because honestly, this could get a little bit annoying. If your professors are not busy with students in office hours, they're either lesson planning, working on research, grading or doing other work. And so you want to be careful not to waste their time. But going two to three times over a semester just to introduce yourself and maybe have them review one of your assignments will really make you stand out from others and be able to establish a nice relationship with your instructor. And this relationship is not only good for your grade in the class, but for asking for letters of recommendation later on. Remember when I said that Americans view college as a place to network? This is what I mean. Now, besides office hours, one thing my international students probably don't know is that teachers are used to making small talk with our students before class. And we love when you start conversations with us. So if you are in a smaller class or one of those discussion sections, it can be really nice to simply ask your TA or your professor how their day or their weekend was. Showing your interest in us really helps us connect with you more. And even if English is not your first language, we really appreciate the effort. I know it can feel scary to just start a conversation with your professor, but I promise you it will make you one of our favorite students. Now, if you found this video helpful, I think that you also might like one of my other videos, which is 15 words you need to know before coming to study in the United States. So go ahead and watch that next. Also, let me know in the comments, what is university like in your country? Does it seem similar or different to here in the US? Let me know. I'd love to hear from you. Thank you so much for watching this video. I hope you learned something new. If you did, make sure you like it and subscribe to my channel so you can keep improving your English with me. I'll see you next time. Bye.