Tag: Let’s Go to School in Belgium

You’re on Your Own, Kid depicts one of my first and most vivid impressions of grad school in Belgium. As an undergrad, I used to hang out with professors a lot. We’d cook out or go to a bar, and discuss what we were learning. In Belgium however, professors are much more aloof. One professor in particular was notorious for making students buy him a pack of cigarettes as the fee for a meeting. I quickly learned to rely on myself and my cohort in order to stay above water.

“Greek” pokes fun at the language requirements for studying Philosophy at the graduate level. Even though I went to school in Belgium, my program was in English. However, I quickly discovered that for Philosophy, they expected a working knowledge of Ancient Greek, Latin, German, and French. Thank goodness I took 7 years of Spanish…

All of my exams in Belgium were one-on-one oral exams. Each class usually had no homework or papers, so this final oral exam was 100% of the grade for the class. If you were having an off day, too bad. If you prepared for 99% of the topic, but got asked about the 1% you were unsure of, too bad. It was tons of pressure, but I loved it. It made me solid at giving presentations, thinking on the spot, and feigning confidence. Professors would start with easier questions to make sure you knew the basics. Then, once they knew you would pass, they would continue to ask you more difficult questions until you were stumped. I swear this happened exactly as depicted. I ended up with an A out of sheer luck.

One of my favorite bars in the world is in Leuven, Belgium. It’s called Libertad. The owner/bartender has amazing taste in music and because of that, my friends and I went there several times a week. As nights went on and alcohol was consumed, we would go up and request songs. It became a feat. That a man with such great taste would approve and play our requests started to mean something.

Full disclosure – I lived a bohemian life in Belgium and I loved every second of it. Tuition was cheap, student loans covered housing, and I worked part-time teaching English to help pay for groceries and drinks. My friends and I had a lot of idle time, so we often filled it with low-grade hooliganism. Case in point, I founded a fraternity my third year there. What you see above is one of the many tests we made our one initiate endure. He’s one of my favorite people and he was a hell of a sport indulging us as often as he did. This was one of the worst calls I ever saw him make and I will always love him for it.

I probably should have studied more, but I’m usually pretty glad I didn’t. I’m proud of my degrees, but I cherish my memories with friends more.

Two things to know about going to grad school in Belgium: 1) it is very affordable and 2) they accept almost anyone with a reasonably relevant background. In terms of the first point, in Belgium, education is subsidized by the government. It’s almost like they decided that they’d be a stronger society if quality education was available to everyone and as such, individuals shouldn’t need to incur crippling amounts of debt because of it. Novel, isn’t it?

Regarding that second point, I really dig their outlook. To attend grad school in the states, you have to take standardized tests, submit writing samples, go through interviews, and so on. It’s an incredible pain in the butt. And regarding standardized tests, seriously? When you hit the level of specialization of graduate school, who cares if you are generally well-rounded? It sort of misses the point of the whole thing, but it’s a hoop you have to jump through anyway. And you have to pay to do it. In Belgium on the other hand, they accept most applicants that have a relevant background. The flipside of this is they are also much more cavalier about putting you through the ringer and/or failing you. If you go this path, you will not be coddled. You’ll get in, but you’ll have to prove that you want to succeed and that you are capable of succeeding. Frankly, this approach makes a lot more sense to me.