What Classes at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona are Really Like

I ended up taking:

• E-Commerce and Online Business
• Entrepreneurship and New Venture Creation
• Spanish Civilization and Culture
• Barcelona Architecture

I am an Advertising Management major with a minor in sales leadership so I wanted to take courses that aligned with my career and I wanted to challenge myself academically.

I wasn't planning on taking an architecture course but Barcelona Architecture ended up being one of my favorite classes. If you are going to Barcelona or really any place abroad architecture is a huge part of these major cities and the history behind them, but more specifically Barcelona which is known for its beautiful buildings.

From the Sagrada Família to Casa Batlló, Antoni Gaudí is in my opinion the most unique architect with some of the most distinctive buildings I have ever seen. This course gave me a deeper appreciation for how much the history of the city has changed throughout time and how society adapts to new generations through architecture. This is a must-take class in my opinion, I found it genuinely interesting and wanted to know more and more.

Spanish Civilization and Culture was also a very fun course that I took and taught me how Spain came to be from wars to politics. I learned more about the history of Spain's origin in the short span of time than in years here. What I noticed about the schooling abroad was how differently they conduct the way students learn their course information. In the U.S. or at least at my university, they are huge on testing you by exams, quizzes and lectures, but in Spain they wanted students to show what they have learned through oral presentations and class participation.

At first I really disliked this because I don't like public speaking and I'm not used to it here at home, but I began to realize how much more I retained the information they had taught when I was forced to explain it to the class. I had several classes where tests simply just didn't exist, and I liked it because tests don't make me learn the information for long periods. I usually only learn it then forget it right after the exam. I think that the way schooling is enforced in Europe made it more beneficial to what I was actually preserving knowledge wise and helped me learn vital skills for my career path.

Another course I took was Entrepreneurship and New Venture Creation. I disliked the amount of speaking we had to do and the teacher was strict on grading. But I loved it because it genuinely helped me succeed and since it was a hard course with hard grading it made me want to do better and I ended up doing very well. It challenged me to exceed my own expectations and for that I'm grateful! Any course you take at this university you will learn something from, whether it is about yourself, your career, or your future.

Check out all of CIS Abroad's programs in Barcelona here!

Blog by Katerina Ontko, Michigan State University