NOVA School of Social Sciences and Humanities is a well-known and renowned university in its field. It was recommended to me by my high school teachers.

First, I will mention the student community. The university is a very open and friendly place, most people will help when asked or refer you to someone who can. Even though I have not participated directly in “praxe” (a university tradition here in Portugal), I know that they are very chill about the whole thing and no one is forced to do anything they don’t want to. There are many student clubs to join and activities to participate in. There is a strong community of international students, and usually they are well accepted. Sadly, there is no accommodation in campus, it will have to be acquired through external parties.

Another positive would be the space. Although it is quite small for a university, I find it very cozy and welcoming. It is mostly clean, has clean water fountains outside and in spring we have ducks! Unfortunately, there aren’t any facilities in campus due to its small size. The sports teams play in external rented spaces.

The professors are a hit or miss. I’ve had some amazing professors who changed my view in a lot of subjects, but also some terrible ones, who made want to give up your major. I would say to just push through the bad ones, since they aren’t the majority. Some teachers may be awful people, but amazing at teaching and vice-versa. Still, they are experts in their area and some of them are extremely well-known nationally and internationally. Most teachers I had did not take attendance, but, specially in 3rd year classes, skipping class will hurt your grades deeply.

In terms of learning, there are some unnecessary classes, but most of them marked me and brought new perspectives. There is no “exam season”, tests and evaluation are usually pretty spread out and most teachers and willing to change them if something overlaps. It provides a lot of opportunities to easily participate in internships, volunteering work or investigation projects. Since this is a university mainly focused on research, a lot of the teaching methods are directed to students who want to follow this career path, but it doesn’t mean others can’t have a valuable experience as well.

The major complaint I have is about the classrooms. The auditoriums are fine and do their job, though they have small tables and there are almost no left-handed desks. The classrooms are shaped weirdly, or have random pillars and usually don’t have enough space for students to sit on exam day. In on such exam, chairs and tables had to be placed across the classroom. They also tend to be extremely hot and suffocating in summer.