I’m currently doing my exchange in Madrid, Spain at Comillas Pontifical University. Having been here since January, it has been a truly enlightening experience. 

My school has 2 main faculties- ICADE(Business and Law), and ICAI(Engineering). School life is much more relaxed here, with each module split into 2 sessions per week- one 90min and one 2 hour class. I end most days before 2pm, and i rarely feel tired in class thanks to the short sessions.

Classes are kept to smaller groups like SMU tutorials, and the grading structure is pretty similar to SMU with participation, individual assignments, group work, and finals. However, most classes have either mid-terms or group work and not both, and finals can be replaced by take-home papers depending on your professor. I’m lucky to have zero mid-terms and just 2 final exam papers!

Most of my classes enjoy working in groups on a daily basis, changing groups so that you work with people of different nationalities each time. This really gives you the opportunity to learn more about other cultures and interact with different styles of people while building new friendships. I also travel on most weekends since my classes end on Thursday morning, leaving me room to travel from Thursday through Sunday. 

Also, the fact that exchange is not counted in your GPA does make the learning much more stress-free. You concentrate more on actually learning what is interesting from the class rather than what you “need” to learn, and it makes the process much more enjoyable.

Being abroad broadens your mind in a lot of aspects, and you may (will likely) experience some unexpected situations.

But your perspective changes a lot of things-take everything with a light heart, be open and flexible, and see the positive in all of it, it really makes this whole exchange a much better opportunity than you thought it’d be.

Chantelle, from Singapore Management University, currently on exchange at Comillas Pontifical University

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