Courses

After spending the last 17 years in American education including the semester I did study abroad in London (through Syracuse University), I'm going to be in for a big wake up these next two years.  There is still essentially a semester schedule (called terms), but the courses generally run for the entire year. Meaning, that I won't take finals in December and then in May. I won't have numerous papers, additional assignments over and over as I did when I was at Syracuse. I won't mind not having those weeks where I had three papers, two tests, and a project on top of everything else I did in college (yes, I know I was and still am an overachiever).  

I've spent a lot of team reading two blogs that I stumbled across while preparing for my adventure which starts in 59 days now. Wendy at Asian Polygot and Shannon at The Traveling Scholar have been invaluable with their past posts describing their transitions to LSE.  One of the things that I noticed from both of their blogs is the dedication to studying one your own as well as excellent time management. I'd like to think that having juggled numerous semesters taking 19 credits, two internships, etc. will help me with the time management. I'd like to also think that the dedication that I did to finish my capstone thesis will help me to stay motivated to work on my own. Yet, all in all, as part of my adventure for the next two years, the structure of the courses will help me to grow. I'm in a professional program in order to prepare me more for the challenges of a hard work world and economy. 

At the moment, I know three of the courses that I will be taking as part of my first year. I'm on the Public and Economic Policy track, but as with all incoming MPA students, there are three essential courses. 

1. GV478- Political Science and Public Policy
2. EC440- Micro and Macro Economics for Public Policy
3. EC455- Quantitative Approaches and Policy Analysis

I've ordered the book for the political science course to read ahead of time. As for the economics and what is perceived to have some math, I've started to review basic economic principles and math concepts.

I arrive in London two weeks prior to the general courses starting as I also have to take a pre-semester course to prepare for the academic rigors.  The other unit (must equal one) for me, will most likely pertain to political science. Some of the past courses I've noticed dealt with international institutions, the US legislative process, and the European Union. I'm really excited to see what other course I'll sign up. Registration occurs in person- something entirely different than Syracuse.

Stay tuned for more updates!