USA, 2-year program
Master Program
September-June
2017 - 2019 Academic years
I've greatly enjoyed my experience thus far at RANEPA. The administrative process of arriving in Moscow was easy and smooth. Margarita Zelenina (my Russian student helper) was great in helping me get settled in, and went above and beyond the call of duty to make me feel welcome. Interactions with administration, albeit seldom, have been helpful and easy. I was admittedly a bit nervous to attend school in such a faraway country but have found it quite easy to adapt to life within Moscow. The city is both exotic and familiar, with new and exciting sights, sounds and smells. I've greatly enjoyed diving in to all the city has to offer a student like me.
Academically the program has met my expectations in many ways. Visiting professors have been great and have actively engaged all of us students in many ways in and out of the classroom. I've really enjoyed working with such a diverse group of international students. There really isn't a similar domestic opportunity to get so much foreign exposure. The questions and discussions that I have in such an international program have been really great in broadening my horizons and management capacity. There was a bit of a learning curve for me in terms of classroom rules and expectations, as things are quite a bit different in the United States. At this point I'm well adjusted in terms of managing expectations. My favorite part actually has been my Russian language courses. The professor is really engaging and pushes us aggressively to learn this difficult language.
The only other thing that would be cool to add to the program would be to engage some of the international students in a further manner across the RANEPA campus. I know a lot of us would love the opportunity to further engage with Russian students by helping out or interacting with courses that relate to our countries or languages. RANEPA students have been enthusiastic in asking French/English speakers for help in their courses and it would be cool if we could participate in a more integrated manner.
