Last Friday, I submitted the last take-home exam on trade policy classes, and my first semester in the U.S. finished. I would like to write down several thoughts after finishing the fall semester.
1 Intensive Reading and Writing
Since I graduated from Japanese graduate school, I can compare graduate school education in Japan and that in the U.S. I feel that U.S. graduate school is an institution which provides intensive training of reading and writing a massive amount of English. As for reading, I had to read 30-50 pages of reading per class. Since there are two classes per week for one course, and I took four courses, I had to do reading which amounted to 240-400 pages every week. This number will increase more than double if I take more high-burden courses. In Japan, there were fewer reading assignments, and students did not have to read all of them. By contrast, in the U.S., all classes are conducted on the premise that every student has read the reading assignments. In addition, students cannot neglect the reading because active class participation is reflected on the students' grade.
There were a lot of writing assignments, too. For example, I wrote 4,000 words in the final report of energy policy classes and wrote 1,500 words within 24 hours in the take-home exam of trade policy classes. In negotiation classes, I had to submit a prep sheet and a debriefing sheet when I did weekly negotiation exercises. In energy policy classes, I had to write approximately 2,000 words of a policy memo and three problem sets. In the beginning of the semester, I had a psychological resistance against writing this amount of English. But now I feel less resistance against writing English and have confidence that I can write as much as 1,000 words in one day. Through the U.S. graduate education, I feel that I am receiving intensive training in reading and writing a large amount of English.
2 The Importance of Professors
When I select courses in the beginning of a semester, I tend to put importance on the name of subjects, but I now feel that focusing attention on professors is the most important thing. In particular, it is important to look at not only the professors' reputations and influence in the area, but also how much eagerness to teach the professors have. For example, Professor Robert Lawrence, who taught me trade policy, was an economic adviser to President Clinton and has a strong voice in international trade fields. In addition, he was very supportive to students' learning and conducted classes with a strong zeal to teach the value of free trade to students from all over the world. Professor Barbara Kellerman, who taught me leadership, was not only recognized as a top scholar in the leadership area, but also had strong convictions and conducted classes with a strong eagerness to teach the concepts of leadership and followership. Now, as I am thinking about what courses I will take in the next semester, I would like to pay more attention to who teaches the class than the name of the subject.
3 Courses Which Give Me a New Way of Thinking
Reflecting on my course selection this semester, I regret that I selected classes from the narrow perspective of how much directly useful knowledge for my career I can learn through the course. For example, I selected energy policy classes just because I will be engaged in formulating energy policy in the near future. The classes were useful because I could learn the overview of oil and natural gas markets as well as other energy such as renewable energy. But, to be honest, I am not sure that the knowledge I learned in the classes will be as useful as it seems. There will be a possibility that new innovation will take place, and most of the knowledge in class might be seen out-dated in future. On the other hand, some classes taught me a new way of looking at things and a new framework for thinking. For example, in negotiation classes, Professor Julia Minson taught me the new perspective that "Everything is negotiable", which totally changed my mindset. In the leadership classes, Professor Barbara Kellerman provided me the new perspective that it is difficult for leaders to lead organizations using power and authority as they did in the past. Instead, leaders should pay attention to followers, who have increasing influence. Looking back at my graduate school days in Japan, I see that I have forgotten much of the technical knowledge I learned in classes, including finance and intellectual properties. Similarly, I will probably forget the technical knowledge I learn in the Kennedy School in several years. By contrast, for many years to come, I will definitely remember new ways of looking at the world and new frameworks for thinking which I learn in class.
Thus, I would like to take courses that will give me a new framework of thinking and change my fundamental way of looking at the world. So far, I plan to take a highly regarded leadership course, a course about democracy which I think is the basis of U.S. people's philosophy, and a course taught by Lawrence Summers, who served as an economic adviser to President Obama.
1 Intensive Reading and Writing
Since I graduated from Japanese graduate school, I can compare graduate school education in Japan and that in the U.S. I feel that U.S. graduate school is an institution which provides intensive training of reading and writing a massive amount of English. As for reading, I had to read 30-50 pages of reading per class. Since there are two classes per week for one course, and I took four courses, I had to do reading which amounted to 240-400 pages every week. This number will increase more than double if I take more high-burden courses. In Japan, there were fewer reading assignments, and students did not have to read all of them. By contrast, in the U.S., all classes are conducted on the premise that every student has read the reading assignments. In addition, students cannot neglect the reading because active class participation is reflected on the students' grade.
There were a lot of writing assignments, too. For example, I wrote 4,000 words in the final report of energy policy classes and wrote 1,500 words within 24 hours in the take-home exam of trade policy classes. In negotiation classes, I had to submit a prep sheet and a debriefing sheet when I did weekly negotiation exercises. In energy policy classes, I had to write approximately 2,000 words of a policy memo and three problem sets. In the beginning of the semester, I had a psychological resistance against writing this amount of English. But now I feel less resistance against writing English and have confidence that I can write as much as 1,000 words in one day. Through the U.S. graduate education, I feel that I am receiving intensive training in reading and writing a large amount of English.
2 The Importance of Professors
When I select courses in the beginning of a semester, I tend to put importance on the name of subjects, but I now feel that focusing attention on professors is the most important thing. In particular, it is important to look at not only the professors' reputations and influence in the area, but also how much eagerness to teach the professors have. For example, Professor Robert Lawrence, who taught me trade policy, was an economic adviser to President Clinton and has a strong voice in international trade fields. In addition, he was very supportive to students' learning and conducted classes with a strong zeal to teach the value of free trade to students from all over the world. Professor Barbara Kellerman, who taught me leadership, was not only recognized as a top scholar in the leadership area, but also had strong convictions and conducted classes with a strong eagerness to teach the concepts of leadership and followership. Now, as I am thinking about what courses I will take in the next semester, I would like to pay more attention to who teaches the class than the name of the subject.
3 Courses Which Give Me a New Way of Thinking
Reflecting on my course selection this semester, I regret that I selected classes from the narrow perspective of how much directly useful knowledge for my career I can learn through the course. For example, I selected energy policy classes just because I will be engaged in formulating energy policy in the near future. The classes were useful because I could learn the overview of oil and natural gas markets as well as other energy such as renewable energy. But, to be honest, I am not sure that the knowledge I learned in the classes will be as useful as it seems. There will be a possibility that new innovation will take place, and most of the knowledge in class might be seen out-dated in future. On the other hand, some classes taught me a new way of looking at things and a new framework for thinking. For example, in negotiation classes, Professor Julia Minson taught me the new perspective that "Everything is negotiable", which totally changed my mindset. In the leadership classes, Professor Barbara Kellerman provided me the new perspective that it is difficult for leaders to lead organizations using power and authority as they did in the past. Instead, leaders should pay attention to followers, who have increasing influence. Looking back at my graduate school days in Japan, I see that I have forgotten much of the technical knowledge I learned in classes, including finance and intellectual properties. Similarly, I will probably forget the technical knowledge I learn in the Kennedy School in several years. By contrast, for many years to come, I will definitely remember new ways of looking at the world and new frameworks for thinking which I learn in class.
Thus, I would like to take courses that will give me a new framework of thinking and change my fundamental way of looking at the world. So far, I plan to take a highly regarded leadership course, a course about democracy which I think is the basis of U.S. people's philosophy, and a course taught by Lawrence Summers, who served as an economic adviser to President Obama.
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