My Dublin Independence. City fantastic, school not so good. Past Review

Academic rigor, intensity, resources, etc.

I left early to go to Ireland to partake in the schools 10 day trip to Italy for an art history course. I absolutely loved that trip. It was the best course I have ever done in my entire life! After the trip we then started our regular classes that were in 3 small buildings. The only fun fact that I enjoyed was that one of the buildings was Oscar Wildes child home. My counselor's office was Oscar Wilde's fathers doctors office. You could see his instruments that he worked with! The buildings were located in the heart of Dublin so it was an interesting and enjoying walk through the city centre. I did not enjoy the subjects that I took in the buildings other than my World History class. The methods of grading were slightly different which were later translated back into American grades when they sent the school sent them back to my school. It did take all summer to finally get my grades back which I did not like either. The teaching methods were not too different, however there were no tests until the final test and for each class I had to write two papers for each. c

On-site administration of your program

Strenth: Location! My apartment they set me up in was great! Right in the city centre and a mile walk from school. Also, the art history course was my absolute favorite. Weaknesses: It's a very small school and I was looking more for a big city school type feeling.

How satisfied were you with your living arrangements?

The apartment was great. St. Patricks Cathedral was my backyard. I wish I lived with international students and not American's. I wanted more of a cultural feel with that. One of the guy roommates decided to never clean up his messes or help out buying food. He also took the television and played video games all the time. He never left the apartment and took the whole living room space to himself. No matter how many times we complained about him, nothing happened. We even told the counselor and the counselor brought him out to lunch and even paid for it to explain that he needed to shape up. The guy never did improve and all his clothes and trunk were still in the living room and made the whole living situation bad. The guy even did drugs and brought it to the apartment. We even complained many times about that, however, he continued to still do it.

The school has no cafeteria and we had to go out and shop for ourselves what we wanted to eat. That was fine with me though.

How integrated did you feel with the local culture?

There were no field trips arranged by the program, even though a club said they were going to plan a few trips to different countries (which they never did). However, the art history course was amazing. We also did independent traveling.

How well were health issues addressed during the program?

Never go to the north side of the city (North of the Liffey River) at night. Bad sections up there.

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

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• Apartment

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• Americans