I Miss Carleton but Have No Regrets Past Review

Academic rigor, intensity, resources, etc.

In general, the workload and grading system was similar to that at Carleton. The tests were harder than at Carleton, and all of the ones I had were in class. However, there was almost always a curve. The teachers were overall very good. Out of the four professors I had, tow of them were fabulous, but the other two were a lot harder to learn from. One of my professors did not follow any book, and I feel like I didn't cover all of the standard material that I would have at Carleton. I still learned a ton in that class, but I would be uneasy taking a higher level course in that topic. Another of my professors did not really give us examples in class and just went through every proof in our workbook. That alone would not have been a problem, but when the midterm came around, he tested us on problems we never covered in class. After the whole class did really bad on the midterm, he gradually changed his teaching methods, so that at the end of the semester, he was doing a better job. I also am unsure if I covered the material I needed to cover in that class. All of the professors speak English fluently. Some of them have thicker accents than others, but it did not hinder my learning. Overall, I think the academics at Carleton are superior, but not by a large amount. I learned a lot and was still adequately challenged. One thing I loved is that for the first two weeks of school, you are allowed to sit in on any and as many classes as you want. You only have to enroll after the two weeks. This is great because it gives you a chance to "shop around" for courses and make sure you like the class. I wish Carleton did this.

On-site administration of your program

The director Marianne was very helpful and always accessible. She was great, and I felt confident that she would help me with any problems that came up. I had no problems with the administration.

How satisfied were you with your living arrangements?

I didn't need to buy anything for the house except tupperware and a measuring cup. It is pretty much random where you get placed, and I just lucked out to get one of the nicest apartments in the program. It was really close to school and public transportation. Our landlady was very nice and was willing to answer any of our questions. No neighborhoods were perfectly safe, but I ran into no problems were I lived. In general, you don't walk alone at night, but during the day I felt perfectly safe. I even ran in Budapest outside and was fine (although some people did look at me funny).

You can't find everything that is in the US, but I am a very healthy eater and was able to find food that I enjoyed. There isn't as big of a green movement as there is in the states, but there are a couple of grocery stores that are all organic. The best part is that there are fruit and vegetable stands everywhere and there are small grocery stores on every corner, so the people buy fewer groceries but more often (they don't really have the same idea of "bulk" items as in the states; Costco-type stores don't exist here). The prices are cheaper than in the states. The couple of things I missed were certain brands of gum, yellow mustard (they have mustard here, but it is different that in the US), and root beer (the main sodas are coke and fanta and sprite). I will miss grapes (they have seeds) and yogurt and the fresh bread at every store.

How integrated did you feel with the local culture?

They didn't really have much planned. There was one day trip to a nearby city and a scheduled tour of a museum. Oh, and they did have a Christmas party with the other school in our building, but I don't think many people went.

How well were health issues addressed during the program?

Overall Budapest was safe, but you had to be smart. There were a couple brake ins (two of them when the tenants left things unlocked) but no one was hurt. One of my friends got her wallet stolen, but she didn't have it on her all the time when she was studying at a cafe. When it gets really late, it's not smart to walk around by yourself, especially as a female, but I never heard of anything dangerous happening. There were more homeless people hanging around, but they never interacted with you. In general, it is pretty safe here. I even ran outside by myself in the morning (as early as 6am) until it got dark.

(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

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• Americans

• Taking all math courses
• Being an adult and having to buy groceries

• Orientation
• Standardizing the courses to meet the standards of the US