Semester Abroad: Comparing and Contrasting My Time in Spain vs. West Lafayette

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This spring semester, I am studying abroad at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) in Madrid, Spain. The classes I am taking abroad directly transfer to equivalent Purdue courses, and by completing this semester abroad, I am one step closer to earning my minor in Global Engineering Studies through the Global Engineering Alliance for Research and Education (GEARE) Program. While I am absolutely loving my time abroad and having a very culturally enriching experience, life in Spain looks much different than life in West Lafayette. I want to reflect on and compare how my academic and daily experiences abroad differ from those I have grown used to at Purdue.

Alicante, Spain

Classes and Academics

At Purdue, most of my classes are 50 minutes long, and they host office hours daily. Class grades typically consist of weekly homework and lab assignments, class participation, and two or three midterms followed by a final exam. I only have to walk 15 minutes from my dorm to reach my farthest classes, and I often make multiple trips to and from my dorm throughout the day.


At UC3M, classes are two hours long. While classes normally get out 10-15 minutes early, I still had to adjust to the longer class periods. Grades in my courses typically consist of one or two midterms worth 40-50% of the final grade and a final exam worth 50-60%. In addition to the longer classes, the commute to campus ranges from 45 minutes to an hour by train. There are no large lecture halls at UC3M, so most of my classes have between 30 and 50 students.


Madrid, Spain

Weekday Routines

At Purdue, I find my weekdays to be relatively busy, as I try to get as much work done as possible to free up my weekends. In between classes, I rotate between different study spots and work on assignments due that week. Most evenings, I either attend meetings for the organizations I am involved in or go to office hour sessions. I spend my remaining free time during the week getting meals with friends and taking trips to the CoRec.


Almost every day at UC3M, I have classes starting at 9 AM. I wake up at 7:15 AM and leave my apartment by 8 AM. Because of the long commute, I typically stay on campus only for the duration of my classes, rather than remaining there to study as I usually do at Purdue. I sometimes grab food with friends after classes, but I am normally back in Madrid by 3 PM. While I do not have regular homework assignments due, I take time in the evenings to complete provided practice problems to check my understanding and stay on track with my courses.


On days when I return earlier, I will walk around Sol, the city center, shop along Gran Vía, or take a walk in El Retiro Park. At least once a week, my friends and I cook what we refer to as our “family dinners” or go out to try a new restaurant. After our meal, we usually find something fun to do in Madrid, ranging from playing board games at a café to attending a theater production or visiting a museum. Unlike my weekdays at Purdue, which are largely structured around completing homework and attending meetings, I find that I have much more unstructured free time while studying at UC3M.


London, United Kingdom

Weekends and Travel

My weekends abroad look significantly different than my weekends on Purdue’s campus. At Purdue, I often spend my weekends attending basketball and football games, having movie nights with my roommates, and finding different ways to have fun with friends around West Lafayette. While I take the occasional trip to Chicago or Indianapolis each semester, most of my weekends are spent on Purdue’s campus.


This spring semester, I have found myself in new locations almost every weekend. So far, I have visited Barcelona, Alicante, and London, and I have trips to Marrakesh, Rome, and Florence coming up as well. On the weekends that I do stay in Madrid, they often involve friends studying abroad in different cities visiting Madrid and staying with me. With no required homework at UC3M, I can make the most of traveling without the added stress of assignments due when I return.


Alicante, Spain

While studying abroad required me to adjust many parts of my day-to-day routine, I would not change this experience for anything. Even though my classes are taught in English, I have had the opportunity to connect with international students and build relationships with people whose backgrounds and perspectives differ from my own. Through GEARE and my time abroad, I am continuing to grow into an engineer who can collaborate and communicate effectively on a global scale. Living and learning in a new environment has pushed me to become more independent, adaptable, and open to new ways of thinking, both inside and outside of the classroom. I am incredibly grateful that Purdue provided this opportunity, and I can confidently say that this has been one of the most exciting and enriching semesters of my time at Purdue so far.




Maddie French, CompE '27 

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