The college system is a lot different here than in America. For starters, college here is A LOT cheaper. I’m talking 10s of thousands of dollars cheaper. Students in Ireland are able to enjoy the privilege of attending most public colleges for similar prices. Since Ireland is about the size of Nevada, the students use testing to determine which colleges they attend. In addition, the academic structure is slightly different. And like most things, I found out through a funny story. It started with a professor giving out a group assignment to our class. The assignment was straightforward, and my group was pretty confident when handing the assignment back to the professor. After about two weeks the grades were posted online. I was the first one to check the grades and I was shocked that we received a 67. In America, 67 is barely passing. So when I told my group we did horribly they were shocked. Another member of my group checked the grade and said we did pretty well. At this point I was confused about what she thought doing well was. Then she told me a perfect score in Ireland is 70. Their scale runs from 39-70. There are rare occasions where a student gets over a 70. I assumed that because it was a percentage, that the grade was out of 100. This was shocking and relieving at the same time. A 67 on our assignment was actually a good grade. My mom would never believe me.
The first semester of my masters seemed to fly by. I’ve already met so many new friends and soaked up a bunch of information from my new professors. I’m currently pursing my masters degree in Marketing and Entrepreneurship and it has been challenging and rewarding at the same time. Last semester we enjoyed the privilege of working with German students through DKIT’s Erasmus program. The Erasmus program is an exchange program that sends German students to Ireland for a semester or an entire year. Last semester my course also participated in the MBS’s annual residential. The residential is a week where students from Germany fly over to be paired up with Irish students. Then, in groups of five, the students are tasked with creating a company and competing against other groups to increase their market share. The residential was an experience I will cherish as it was one of the most challenging tasks I’ve been assigned. However, I’ve come to find out challenging situations and growth go hand in hand as I learned many things from competing against others for the week. Second semester has just started and I am now getting back into rhythm after enjoying a nice break from a tough first semester. This semester I will have to dedicate a lot of time to finishing up my thesis which is due in August to complete my masters. I am writing my thesis on “Analyzing the individual Athlete as means for Corporate Social Responsibility”. Exciting times lay ahead. I want to cherish every minute of this experience and I look forward to reflecting on this journey in the future.
