Tales from Abroad is an ongoing section in which Gustavus students share the highlights of their study abroad experiences.

My name is Dasha Terenteva. I am a junior Biology Major and an international student here at Gustavus. I come from a small city called Gus-Khrustalniy, Russia. One of the many things that surprised me when I came to the United States was how differently high schools and colleges are organized here. Since I have never gone to college in Russia, I wanted to compare my high school experience back home to my experience here in U.S.

My home city is relatively small for Russia, with about 80,000 people. So my high school was very small. Typically we have a large number of smaller schools scattered around the city, rather than having one larger school for a large area. Schools in my city are usually three-floor buildings housing all the grades from first grade to eleventh. Thus the word “school” for me means elementary, middle and high school together.

People are confused when I say we only have eleven grades in Russia, but that is the truth. It’s normal for people to graduate high school at the age of seventeen, which is early in the U.S. I was also shocked to hear how large graduating classes are in America and that it is impossible for people to know everybody in their high school. Back home it is completely different. We know almost everybody who goes to our school. Another important thing is that from the first grade until the end of high school, all grades are usually separated into 3-4 groups (A, B, C, D), not based on their performance. For example, we can have 1A grade, or 11B grade. These grades usually consist of 25-35 people, depending on how large the school is. Once you have been assigned to a certain letter, you stay with the same group of people for all eleven years. This way, by the end these eleven years, you become really close friends and almost one big family. That is my favorite thing about Russian school.

Unfortunately, we don’t get to decide which classes we want to take in Russian school, and all people in a grade have to take the same classes, which are determined by the curriculum. The number and complexity of classes usually increases with the grade. We also do not have the same schedule everyday, like students in American high schools do. In Russian schools, students have different classes every day, although basic classes such as Math and Russian are scheduled every day, or at least four days a week. My least favorite thing about Russian school is that we have classes on Saturday starting from ninth grade, although there are usually three classes compared to seven or even eight classes during the week. Other interesting fact is that schools do not have athletic teams. People who want to do sports join sports clubs in the city.

There are many more interesting things that I can tell about Russia, but only a certain amount of space in the paper. I would be glad to share more if people are interested, feel free to ask questions if you see me around.

-Dasha Terenteva