Academic Travel

Transferring

VS.

I transferred from San Diego State as a sophomore to Franklin

College. The obvious difference is the size. Contrasting 34,000 students at SDSU with a student body of 450 at Franklin College, it's incomparable. Yet the incentives of both colleges is vastly different. At Franklin College I'm studying International Management with an emphasis in Finance, and I may possibly double major in International Banking and Finance. The curriculum is considerably different as well. At SDSU I would be in 500 people lectures, and at Franklin I am in 20 person classes at the most. The largest difference between attending college in the states vs. in a foreign country is overcoming the language barrier outside of our school. Going into town and buying groceries which is usually a simple task requires me to dive into my knowledge of the italian language in order to simply tell them that I want bananas. Yet it's a challenge that has good consequences.

While finishing my undergraduate degree here I will be exposed to international people, traditions, and customs that I would not have the delicacy of obtaining in the states. Yet while gaining this knowledge I have to compromise being close to my family and friends. With a 9 hour time difference from the Pacific, and acknowledging the 5773.728 mile distance between us, it makes it difficult to keep up with everything going on at home. Yet compensations must be made to take my studies abroad. And the transition is made easier with skype and international text messages. A luxury that wasn't heard of 30 years ago, I'm very grateful. Well, that's the lowdown of the transferring that took place this last year. Yet the most common question is Why Switzerland? My response... Why not?

Switzerland

I could discuss for hours how beautiful Lugano, Switzerland is yet a picture is a thousand words. This is the view from San Salvador which is a mountain that accents our campus. The bridge between the two lakes is the Italian border.