Cape Town Conundrum

With only five more weeks of classes left, I’m eagerly awaiting the end of my semester at the University of Cape Town. I am not very excited to return to the States, however. When I tell this to my friends back home, they are confused. They equate the school and the country as the same experience, and find it interesting that my love of South Africa is so starkly contrasted with my dislike for UCT.

Back home, I attend Bowdoin College, which I can proudly say is ranked 6th in the nation for liberal arts colleges. Needless to say, I am used to a heavy workload filled with hundreds of pages of reading, long essays and rough tests. Coming to UCT, I expected slightly less work, but was aware that UCT would not be easy – as it is the top university in Africa.

Unfortunately, I was in for an unpleasant surprise. The workload is twice as much as Bowdoin, but at the same time I feel like the assignments are not as mentally challenging as the ones I receive at Bowdoin. For example, the essay topics are quite broad, such as “Describe the events of the Cold War,” as oppose to the more complex topics I received at Bowdoin.