Really great, but could have been even better. Past Review

Academic rigor, intensity, resources, etc.

Had I known more about the workload and the professors when I arrived, I would have chosen a completely different set of classes. I happened to pick the most demanding class -- spectral theory -- and it consumed my entire Hungarian experience. I lost sleep and I missed out on bonding with the other students, many of whom took more classes than I did but still had more free time, simply because of the excessive workload of the spectral theory class. Also, several of the instructors are lousy lecturers.

On-site administration of your program

Anna Foti, the coordinator for all the non-academic parts of the program, is completely wonderful! She helped everybody have the best possible time there. She gets five stars. The academic administration gets three -- hence the overall rating of 4 -- because it was a bit of a goat rodeo. There was not enough information about the classes to make wise choices at the beginning of the semester, and scheduling was all very ad hoc. On the other hand, the academic administrator did go out of his way to make my independent research project possible -- he even brought in his daughter to serve as the project advisor since nobody in the faculty had the necessary background.

How satisfied were you with your living arrangements?

My fiancee and I had a very cute little studio together, right in the middle of one of the best restaurant districts, for about 400 USD/month before utilities. It was cramped -- some of the other student apartments were downright palatial by comparison -- but perfect for our needs.

Hungarian food is awesome. It's a bit like tex-mex, very heavy (I gained 20 pounds) and strongly spiced. Try the lángos. Seriously. You will thank me.

How integrated did you feel with the local culture?

There were a couple of coffeehouses and bars I'd frequent, and I got to know the staffs pretty well. On the whole, however, there was a big wall between me and the local culture. Half of the wall was the language barrier: Hungarian is not a language you can learn in your free time. The other half was my utter lack of free time, which was due to insufficient information and bad luck when registering for classes.

How well were health issues addressed during the program?

Buying pharmaceuticals in Hungary is a little tough, as there are no medicines stocked on shelves: you have to ask the clerk for whatever you want, and making yourself understood is often difficult. Ibuprofen was easy enough to get, but bring Nyquil with you.

Budapest is very safe; certainly safer than any American city of comparable size and density. My fiancee was creeped on on the subway once, but she too reports feeling very safe in Budapest 99% of the time. I walked home after midnight more than once and never sensed danger.

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

Budapest is cheap :-) I did a lot of shopping and came home with some fabulous leather goods. You can easily eat out for less than $10, or less than $5 if you know where to go.

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• Apartment

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• Americans

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• Americans
• International Students

• My fellow students!
• Cheap eats, cheap beer.
• The research project

• The quality of instruction.
• Information about classes at the beginning of the semester.

The Academic or Linguist