编者按：拿到美国大学录取并非难事，美国有四千多所高等院校…,你懂的。难的是如何真正获益于你的大学学习和生活。举例说，如果维也纳金色大厅允许你举办一场个人演唱会，你觉得你准备好了吗？在这篇文章中，通过对美国大学课程学习的介绍，瑞知教育留学顾问、俄亥俄州立大学全奖硕士林欢老师将中美两国课程教育的教学差异呈现出来，比如美国学校对师生互动的重视，并提醒中国学子将学术的追求放在海外求学目的的首要位置。原文为英文，此处不作翻译。

Many universities in the US are located in small towns. Though small, the environment is beautiful and clean, filled with fragrance evaporating from books.

Different from China, it is a common phenomenon in US schools that interaction between professors and students is highly valued, attached great importance to and encouraged. The interaction emphasizes students’ proactively raising questions in class, actively being involved in discussion during their meetings with professors and frequently participating in lectures and seminars. All of these are forms where interaction exists. The most important of all is exchange and echo in thinking. Personally, I reckon such exchange and echo in thinking are helpful to enhance the ability of understanding and research. It is like a student’s walking into a maze of academic world and meeting someone that navigates him though the maze.

The rhythms of courses are tight and fast. Some courses have a quiz every week, a mid-term examination and a semester final. Sometimes, the exam questions require additional knowledge beyond your class learning. Therefore, the more exercises you do, the better. For some courses, the professors demonstrate a succinct and subtle lecturing style even if the textbook is a bit abstract and systematically organized. This requires good listening comprehension and patience.

Though difficult, familiarity with course materials prior to class may be of some help. For courses like linear algebra and econometrics, bringing Chinese textbooks of the same subjects will enable you to closely follow the class teaching and be better prepared for exams. Sometimes, in certain courses, assignments come in the form of group projects and individual projects. In group projects, the ability to cooperate with students from US and of other ethnic backgrounds also counts.

Regardless of what courses you take, understanding the materials and knowing the materials are different. This is an issue of how deep you probe into the textbook and how high your panorama of class learning goes. Though learning methods vary, it is the same to make up for weaknesses and accommodate yourself to teaching.

On campus, exposure to foreign culture may be exciting or perplexing. Regardless of conflicts of culture and value views, we should always remember the goal we pursue and never get lost.