Mr. Ryohei Suda, a first year student of the Master's Program of the Graduate School (during the program) had returned from his one-year research from August, 2012 at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in Indiana, USA on the Mid-Term Overseas Study Programs for Academic Year 2012.
Here is his report on his research, internship and daily life in USA.
A regular report from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology (January, 2013)
I went to Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology (RHIT) for one year as an exchange student. The reason why I went for one year is so I could experience an entire academic year. RHIT is a top ranked undergraduate engineering school in the US, so I wanted to study in this high educational environment. Also, before this program, I had been there for three weeks by short-term study abroad program. Therefore, I already had some friends and sgot used to the campus. These two reasons are why I chose RHIT. During my study abroad, I had three main purposes: to get credits for exchanging with the University of Aizu, to improve English, and to intern in the US.
RHIT has a quarter system: Fall term, Winter Quarter, Spring Quarter, and Summer School. Because Summer School has only intensive classes, I was planning to intern instead of taking intensive classes in this quarter from the beginning. In other quarters, I took 3 classes respectively. You may think that 3 classes are only a few, but it was too much for me. Even ordinal RHIT students take 3 to 5 classes in one quarter because one subject is held 4 times in a week basically, and there are tons of homework. Since Fall Quarter was my first quarter, I focused on getting used to RHIT classes and improving my English. So, I took College English, which is for English as second language students. However, just this class was very hard, so I didn't have time to do other classes' homework. Unfortunately, I failed some credits in this quarter, but I could get all credits after this.
Through this program, I achieved all three purposes. I learned the differences between RHIT and the University of Aizu, so I would like to feedback these to improve our university. Moreover, I experienced a lot of US culture, and it reminded me the importance of Japanese culture. I would like to learn not only foreign culture but also Japanese. What I experienced in this program must be useful in my future.