My time in Beijing Past Review

By Autumn G (International Business., Trinity University) for

Beijing Foreign Studies University: Beijing - Direct Enrollment & Exchange

What did you gain/learn from your experience abroad? Was it worthwhile?

The travel was one of the best parts. I loved my teachers and got to know them on a personal level. My mom got to come visit me after my program and that definitely was a highlight of my abroad experience, showing someone close to me what I had learned over the semester.

Personal Information

How much international exposure did you have prior to this program?	6 months+

Review Your Program

* Overall educational experience Academic rigor, intensity, resources, etc.	The workload was pretty steady throughout the year. I'm used to having my workload for my home University to be mostly around test and big projects, but the IES language program has a steady amount of studying everyday as you will have a quiz and hw everyday. At first it seems overwelming, but it gets easier as you find a routine. My language skills definitely made a drastic improvement after going through this progam. Even though there was a good amount of homework, I was still able to have a lot of free time and explore the city and have a social life. So don't let the workload scare you!
* Host Country Program Administration On-site administration of your program	This program has an amazing staff. This is due to an excellent program director who gets to know each student individually. The staff love the students and really values helping them learn.
* Housing: How satisfied were you with your living arrangements?	I lived in a dorm filled with people in my program each of us lived in a room with a chinese roommate who also attended the university. I got really lucky with my roommate who was very flexible. She was from beijing so I got to know her family to a go to her home sometimes. We had a choice between homestay and dorm and I choose dorm for more freedom. I'm glad I did because the homestay students sometimes got in trouble with their homestay families for going out. If I was staying for a year I would do dorm again for the first half and then homestay for the second half for the cultural experience.
* Food:	There are a lot of good restaurants close to campus. The program staff was good about introducing us to a lot of places.
* Social & Cultural Integration: How integrated did you feel with the local culture?	We had an amazing two week trip provided by the program. We got a few three day weekends where we were allowed to travel. IES would often organize events were we could explore different aspects of beijing. My favorite event was biking through beijing. I got to see the city in a way I never had before and I wouldn't have done that if my program didnt organize it.
* Health Care: How well were health issues addressed during the program?
* Safety:	I always felt safe. Even being out late as a woman. I was generally always with a group though.
If you could do it all over again would you choose the same program?	Yes

Finances

* 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)
Do you have any general money-saving tips for future study abroad participants?	Think in Chinese yuan rather than American dollars.

Language

* Did your program have a foreign language component?	Yes
How would you rate your language skills at the beginning of the program?	None
Language acquisition improvement?	This program had a language pledge. Which was something that was hard to get used to. Some of my classmates took this as a silence pledge since they didnt feel comfortable talking Chinese to classmates. There were definitely a few student who took it very seriously though, so it was easy to communicate with them although sometimes it was a little awkward.
If applicable, to what degree did your living situation aid your language acquisition?