Finding myself in Denmark Past Review

Academic rigor, intensity, resources, etc.

I only had three classes, because that is all you needed to be a full time student. So, i had class monday, tuesday, and wednesday, and then had the rest of the week off. It was great to be able to travel but it was really boring that you had such few classes. As for the classes themselves, they were kind of like the American system. Our professors would lecture and sometimes we would have group projects, but not often. On their syllabus, they had a lot of reading for each class, which no one ever read because we never discussed it or used it in anyway. For example, in our one class, each week we had assigned to read about 50-100 pages in text just for the one class. There were never discussions over the things we read and you did not ever get graded over if you read it or not. So, this was the regular week throughout most of the semester for all of the classes: a whole lot of reading for nothing. Their grading system is crazy. Your grade is made up of one assignment, which is your final exam. So, if you don't do to well on your final exam, then that is your grade for that class. The exams are quite different as well. For two of our classes we had to write 15 page papers, almost like theses, for our final exam. That wasn't too bad, but it seemed like a big paper for a undergraduate level class. our last exam was an oral exam. 24 hours before you are scheduled for the exam you have to go to a specific room and get your question from an academic personnel. From the time you get your question, you have 24 hours to study for it and prepare for your exam. In the exam, there are three professors and you and you have to give a oral 10 minute presentaion on answering the question you received, then after you are finished you have 20 minutes where the professors can ask you questions concerning you question. Then, you wait outside the room while they figure out your grade. You walk back in and they tell you your grade and tell you where you needed to improve. Completely different from any exam i have ever took.

On-site administration of your program

I felt like whenever i went and asked the international centre on aarhus university, they didn't know the answers. For example, we had our health card for being in Denmark and i went and asked if i was suppose to receive a residence permit card, because they don't put it in your passport, and they didn't know. They said they though the health card was enough but that i should probably check with the foreign police or go to the town hall and ask them. Question that you think they should be able to tell you, you have to go and figure it out for yourself, which i think is an unnecessary stress.

How satisfied were you with your living arrangements?

First, we lived in dorms, which was you lived on a floor with 15 other people where you shared a kitchen and sitting area. You had a room with a bed, desk and your own bathroom. You had to buy everything for a bedroom (i.e. sheets, cleaning supplies, and anything else you wanted in your room.). The kitchen was shared so you didn't have to buy any supplies, but it was always dirty. We lived in a suburb of aarhus so we lived far from campus and the city center. (which is fine but as a foreign student it would have been nice to be a bit closer)It was a 40 minute walk to the very northern point of campus, and probably an hour or more to the city center. Using their bus transportation, (which was inconvenient because the buses using came only twice an hour) it was probably a 15 minute bus ride to get to campus and 20-25 minutes to get to the city center from where we lived. Location wise i didn't think it was that convenient but it was safe, so that makes up for that, i guess. My sister and i were the only ones not Danish on our floor, so that wasn't that fun. They aren't the friendliest people out there.

I think it is probably because we are used to America where you get alot of food and it is not that expensive, but i felt like if you did go out and eat somewhere is was expensive and not great portions. Groceries were expensive and even there you couldn't buy big portions. (unless of course you wanted to pay more)

How integrated did you feel with the local culture?

We did all of our travels separate from te university.

How well were health issues addressed during the program?

They give you a health card that should pay for any time to go to the doctor. Never had to use it thankfully.

(1 = not very easy/$200+ on food & personal expenses/week, 2.5 = $100/week, 5 = very easily/minimal cost)

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• Dorm

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• Local Students

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• Experience in a different country

• more help given to the student so it is not so stressful