As an INTO Mason pathway student at George Mason University, this course gave me many good experiences and cherishing moments. As this is my first time in the United States, this pathway semester helped me in socializing and overcoming most of the adjustment issues faced by me. I belong to the eastern culture and hence matching with western lifestyle was difficult for me. There are many positive as well as negative experiences I faced in this semester.
In my pathway course, I have to complete 13 credits in one semester consisting 2 INTO classes and 2 classes from my degree specification i.e. Computer science classes. According to my matriculation requirement, I have to take GRE again in this pathway semester and match the required score. As mentioned above, I have a huge academic load in this semester. But doing this helped me to manage my time. One of my INTO course is EAP 508. That is Graduate communication across the disciplines. This course is designed in two parts. First part is GCLP i.e. Graduate Classroom Language Portfolio. In GCLP, we read 5 articles relating to adjustment issues of international students. Those articles helped me to overcome some of the issues I faced as a student. Second part of EAP is MCP i.e. Multidisciplinary Colloquium Project. In MCP we have to select our research topic and then we have write a report and present it using poster. While doing this MCP project, I learned how to write a research paper, how to review, how to do citation and many other academic things. This course give me the confidence so that I can learn, understand and share the knowledge in coming semesters.
My second INTO class is PROV 504 i.e. Accelerated Introduction to Graduate Study. This course is designed basically for us to match with the western culture, introduce us to graduate study and helps in socializing. I learned the concept of plagiarism and its seriousness in this class. Time management, my plan of study, research paper etc. assignments helped me to understand the difference of eastern and western culture and match the difference. My other two classes are CS classes which helped me to understand the fundamentals of system programming and mathematics and logic required in CS.
Along with my academic courses, I managed to socialize with this western culture. Before coming to GMU, I stayed at my brother’s place in Columbus, Ohio for 20 days. He helped me to adjust with this culture and told me many tactics to face the problems. As I got the guidance from him, I faced less adjustment problems after coming to GMU. Because of my friendly nature, I did friendship with many peers. I am a chess player and hence I joined the GMU Chess Club in the first week. Now I have many Americans and students from other nations as my friends with whom I can hang out and take help.
Travelling is an interesting area in which I have many experiences. My first ride in metro to DC, roaming using Zipcar, managing the timings of CUE bases and shuttles all those are very cherish moments and I will remember all of those for lifetime. Cooking food for the first time after coming here was bad experience but after practicing of many days, now I cook better.
All those experiences are very unique and it helped me to be a good person and to develop my abilities. I am looking forward to the next semester when I will concentrate on my discipline and I will get to know many more things and with more experiences.