The Introduction Day of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences took place on August 25, 2009. New students were provided with information about the study program; they got to know their PBL-groups and the student association Concordantia introduced itself. But my favourite moment of the day, besides the tasty lunch and the free beer in the end, was when I got my schedule.
First I could not believe my eyes, but after speaking to other freshmen, it was clear that I really have only eight hours of class per week. Being used to the German system, where students can be happy if they have one day per week without lessons, this seemed to me like a miracle. Of course I could not resist writing my friends back home an email, making them jealous of the fact that I have to attend University only two days per week. It turned out, that this was not clever, because now they think that I am the laziest student they ever heard of.
Reality destroyed this impression as soon as I had my first lecture and became aware of the amount of work I will have to do at home. I am curious to find out which system works better, having a lot of compulsory lessons like in Germany or doing self-study at home. In the end it is probably a question of whether you are disciplined and well structured enough to handle the liberty the UM-system gives you.