Pros and cons of studying in Padova (Pierpaolo)

PROS

What I love of living in Padova is that Padova is a small town and it’s made of students. I mean, almost half of the population are students and it is easy, therefore, to meet people and to relate with them. If you want to meet someone who lives in the town it is probably not so difficult to do it and this person lives probably very close to you. In Padova everything is near and it is sufficient to use a bicycle to move around the town.

Padova has got a beautiful city centre and beautiful squares like Prato della Valle and it is reach of historical monuments.

The quality of teaching is very good and generally professors are good in teaching and do their job. seriously. Usually the University of Padova gives to the students good possibilities to go and study or work in foreign countries; moreover, there are a lot of foreign students who come to Padova to study and that’s a good way to share experiences and to know different cultures without going too much far away.

There are several services for students like study rooms, cafeterias or dormitories which are good managed and usually cheap. So it is not so expensive to live and study here.

CONS

The possibilities of entertainment are not proportioned with the quantity of students. Really there is not so much to do in Padova during the night. I mean, there is not variety and the choice is quite small.

University of Padova is not campus based, but this is not a big problem considering the dimension of the town. But, in my opinion, the big problem is moving through the traffic and breathe the pollution of Padova! It is impossible to breathe in certain hours of the day...

Looking at the way of teaching, I think that the approach is too much theorist and, talking abut scientific faculties, there is a lack of laboratories. Normally in foreign countries students do much more practice during their university years.

The organization in the university is sometimes good, many times bad. Many times a student doesn’t know what to do because there are no answers to his questions! I think the administration is a little bit chaotic and not so efficient.

Last thing, the relation with professors is very informal. I think there is too much hierarchy in the university and sometimes some professors think they are something very close to a god... ;)

That’s all! See you soon!