Ich bin mit den Klausuren fertig!!!

As of July 16th, I am officially on vacation. I had my last two exams that day. Even though I've been working on my MBA for the past couple of years, I had completely forgotten the excitement following the end of finals as a full-time student. I must admit that having been removed from college since 2002, I had underestimated the amount of work and stress that comes with it, having to study for several exams within days of one another.
Now, at Carlson, I have been taking two, maybe three courses at the time, but the American system is much more practical in terms of dividing workload throughout the semester. In Germany, well at least at the University of Cologne, the final exam accounts for 100% of your grade. In fact, it was pretty interesting to see the class size increase by 50% on the day of the final. It is a common occurrence that students sign up for exams but never attend any lectures. Now the obvious questions is then: what do these people do for 3 and a half months then if they don't go to class? I'll let you figure that one on your own(Hint: most don't work and if they do it's max of 20hrs/week).
Over the last month I became friends with a few German students. It is very interesting to hear their opinions about the school system. Those who have studied in the US agree with me that the German system is inefficient and students memorize entire tests to only forget everything 5 minutes after the exams are over with. Others really believe in the system, and apparently the University of Cologne's strategy is to fail a lot of students. It is generally accepted that a high fail rate means that the school is offering a high quality education. Obviously, this is the complete opposite of the US. Our screening is conducted by the admission process, and students who fail are kicked out of school.
Needless to say I am glad majority of my MBA degree comes from taking classes at Carlson; this experience has thought me a lot about the German system and the mentality of German grads. Also, I think we take too many things for granted in the US. Here, the professors are hard to reach (each lecture starts with: "please don't email me directly, but contact the TA"). In the US, the professors are rated on the level of customer service they provide, and most are eager to establish a good rapport with students. But again, we're comparing apples and oranges here: German students pay 500 Euros/semester (about 800 USD), while I pay about $1000/credit.
Anyway, my semester in Cologne is over. Next for me is 3 days in Paris and then 10 days in the sun in Naples. The real life is about to resume.