Adeline Meinert, ISA Madrid Spring 2025
I studied abroad in Madrid, Spain through a partner provider called International Studies Abroad (ISA) and my classes were at a local private university in Madrid called Universidad Nebrija. The academic culture within my new classroom environment was quite different from what I am accustomed to at Pitt and these differences contributed to an interesting semester full of new perspectives on learning and deepened appreciation for diverse academic approaches.
The first and most notable difference between my university in Madrid and Pitt is their size. Nebrija has only around 10,000 students in comparison to Pitt’s undergraduate student body of over 24,000. Experiencing university life in a small school environment was very different. For example, rather than having an endless number of student clubs and activities, there were fewer options at Nebrija, often with limited space. In addition, although Nebrija is also located on an urban campus like Pitt, it did not feel as integrated into the surrounding neighborhood as Pitt is with Oakland.
Since it was a smaller university, my class sizes were also much smaller than my average class size at Pitt. While in my experience, my classes at Pitt have gotten smaller the further into my major, a class I would consider small at Pitt is around 30 students. At Nebrija, my smallest class was about 10 students. I really enjoyed having this classroom size because it made it easier to get to know my peers and it facilitated lively classroom discussions.
As for my classes, I took a mix of Spanish composition courses to improve my writing skills in Spanish, art classes to fulfill general education requirements, and culture and history courses to better understand systems of government in Spain and throughout Europe. This was a big shift from my usual semester schedule as an economics major, where I typically take multiple economics or data analytics courses. Three out of four of my classes were taught entirely in Spanish whereas at Pitt all my courses are in English since I don’t regularly take any language courses. It was really nice to step outside of my usual academic routine and explore subjects that challenged me in different ways—creatively, linguistically, and culturally.
Finally, at Universidad de Nebrija, as is common throughout Spain, final grades in classes are weighted much more heavily on midterm and final exams than on assignments completed throughout the semester, which contrasts with the continuous assessment model typically found at universities in the U.S.. For me this meant fewer assignments to manage during the semester, but significantly more pressure to perform well on a midterm and a cumulative final exam. Additionally, grades were given on a 1–10 scale rather than the U.S. letter grading system, with a 10 representing a perfect score – though it’s generally considered very difficult to achieve.
Overall, studying abroad challenged me to adapt to a new academic system, communicate in my second language, and approach learning from a more global and interdisciplinary perspective. I return to Pitt with a wider understanding of different education systems and a deepened curiosity about the world beyond my major.
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