Aaron S. – Industrial Engineering
Many things are different about the University of Montevideo and University of Pittsburgh. First, UM has multiple campuses, which are quite far away from each other and are both in different boroughs of the city. In contrast, Pitt only has one large main campus with all classes on it. The academic setting in UM is quite different than Pitt- All their classes are a more lecture style, whereas at least in Pitt engineering, our classes are all lecture based. This produces a much more social classroom environment between the students as well as the teachers. The teachers will wait for confirmation of understanding and posing questions to the class to make sure of it before continuing. Many of the professors and students interact like friends outside of the classroom as well. The whole environment in academia at UM is much more informal than at Pitt because of the assumed distance between professors and students. At UM, I’ve observed professors fraternizing with students out in the common areas in between classes just like students do with their peers. They greet each other, talk about their days, and more shocking, even their personal lives. At Pitt, I would never imagine professors and students to fraternize as much as they do here. I believe that as a result of the social academic atmosphere here, students are much more likely to reach out and ask for help instead of being stubborn and pay attention in class instead of doing something else, because there is no level of disconnect between students and professors and students are much more encouraged to pay attention to the professor when they have a friendly relationship with the professor.
Another observation from an academic standpoint is the class scheduling. While not incredibly relevant for us, many of the classes are later in the day than ours are. Our window of classes is generally between 8:00 am and 6:00 pm, while theirs is between noon and 10:00 pm. Furthermore, their daily schedule is just different. They tend to wake up around the same time, work the same hours, but instead of eating dinner at 6 or 7, they start eating from 8-10 usually. This creates a large window which I cannot peg the purpose of because it is after the workday has ended, but before the night begins, so in my eyes it seems like a sort of siesta like Spain has. The only difference is that it isn’t always treated as a rest hour- the city is still bustling. It’s almost as if the time from about 6-8 is a dedicated errand running time.
Although Uruguay is small in population and GDP, it is the highest GDP per capita in Latin America. Uruguay has a very similar feeling of consumerism that I am used to in the states. Although they are more spaced out, they have malls, shopping centers, convenience stores, the whole nine yards. However, differing from the US, Uruguay does not have much of a culture of investment. In the states, investment and innovation is what makes the world go round, the American Dream ideology. However, the same aggressive, risk-taking investment is simply not a factor in the culture in Uruguay. Uruguay exports only agricultural products, and imports just about everything else. There are not really any factories in Uruguay, and none making equipment or machinery, all is imported. Uruguay imports almost all its products from automotive, gas, construction equipment, raw materials, etc. Low investment culture could be attributed to a few reasons in my mind: too small a market and complacency. In the US, we have a culture of always wanting bigger and better products that work faster and more efficiently, this drive towards perfection and comfort of living. Uruguayans tend to seem much more content with what they have, and although more and bigger would be better, I think they almost have a culture which leans towards look how far we’ve come and being grateful and enjoying their current means. As opposed to America it’s not so much look how far we’ve come, but how much further can we go. It’s a similar observation I’ve made in my time in Israel and Switzerland, that the main goal of the people in the country is not to be the richest or most powerful, but just to be happy. It’s a culture that I love observing and trying to incorporate into my own life when I travel that I feel like many people miss out on in America.
Swanson School of Engineering 