Russia: When you go, make sure Moscow isn't on fire Past Review
By Elizabeth W (Linguistics., The University of Texas at Austin) for
American Councils (ACTR): Advanced Russian Language & Area Studies Program (RLASP)
For how expensive the experience was, I and many of my classmates were extremely unprepared for the situations we were going to expect. Part of this is the fault of the SAO, and part of this is because of the extreme weather conditions we experienced in our study time. I really feel like the SAO could have done a better job planning with ACTR. There was another group there, also from America. Their program, including air fare and spending money and insurance, cost around 7000 dollars (3000 less than the program the UT Moscow Plus students were in). They were there for 10 weeks, spent a week on a cruise in St. Petersburg, and had a 3 day excursion in Washington, DC prior to their trip to Russia, so that they could all relax, spend time together, and fly to Moscow together, rather than on multiple different flights like our group did. They were an ACTR program as well, so the shortcomings of the UT program compared to theirs falls completely on UT.
Personal Information
| How much international exposure did you have prior to this program? | 2 weeks - 1 month |
Review Your Program
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* Overall educational experience
Academic rigor, intensity, resources, etc. |
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* Host Country Program Administration
On-site administration of your program |
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* Housing:
How satisfied were you with your living arrangements? |
The dorm is right next to the university, so the location was good, but I would have rather stayed in a housing situation. |
| * Food: |
I am a vegetarian, so I was limited to eating eggs and bread. From what I heard from my friends that eat meat, it was really difficult to find food that they liked also, and people often got sick. |
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* Social & Cultural Integration:
How integrated did you feel with the local culture? |
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* Health Care:
How well were health issues addressed during the program? |
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| * Safety: |
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| If you could do it all over again would you choose the same program? |
No
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Finances
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* Money: How easily were you able to live on a student's budget?
(1 = not very easy/$200+ on food & personal expenses/week, 2.5 = $100/week, 5 = very easily/minimal cost) |
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| Do you have any general money-saving tips for future study abroad participants? | There was a 400 dollar fee they told us about two weeks before it was due. The entire program, including the recommended 1000 dollars spending money, was around 10,000 dollars. The SAO lists the program as being around 5000. This is extremely misleading. I also feel like the SAO should have booked air fare for us, so that everyone was not so confused getting over there. |
Language
| * Did your program have a foreign language component? | Yes |
| How would you rate your language skills at the beginning of the program? | Intermediate |
| What was the highest level language course you had completed prior to departure? | Year 2, part 1 |
| If applicable, to what degree did your living situation aid your language acquisition? |
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| Language acquisition improvement? |
Everyone. We were in class all the time. Most people did not speak English, or at least did not want to. |
Other Program Information
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* Where did you live?
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* Who did you live with?
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* Who did you take classes with?
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A Look Back
| * What do you know now that you wish you knew before going on this program? | Try to anticipate the weather as much as possible. Pack for all sorts of climate. |
