London - not quite what I expected, but amazing overall Past Review

Academic rigor, intensity, resources, etc.

Like I said, any classes taught by Central College (British Experience Seminar, Contemporary Britain, Shakespeare on Stage, etc.) is a complete joke. You don't have to put much effort in your work to get a good grade. The only thing I really didn't like was that most of your grade depended on two big assignments and what I hated even more was that our professors wanted to talk to us individually about our papers a week AFTER we turned them in. I also took 2 fashion design classes at London College of Fashion - Corsetry and Design and Make a Leather Bag. Both of those classes were very demanding and took up a huge chunk of my time. I liked the structure of my corset class much better than my leather bag class because it was more structured and the professor was able to help us much more. As a whole, I would say that any fashion design/construction classes are structured and the professors are helpful (except leather bag).

On-site administration of your program

I think the biggest weakness is that there isn't great communication between the students and the director, but I personally think it's because the students didn't go about telling the director their concerns in a good way. I think a strength is that because the academic work is somewhat of a joke, you get more time to explore the city of London and you could always ask the director or assistant director what there is to do at that time. The director is also very good with telling you what activities/events there are, what to do and what not to do. The program size is a good size of people - around 35 students. Like I said, I didn't get an internship and they told me this a week before I left, so my expectations were not met in those terms.

How satisfied were you with your living arrangements?

Our program owns a hotel that's placed literally in the center of London. Everything is very accessible and I couldn't be more happier with that location. I also thought the location was safer in comparison to other parts of London. A bit of an inconvenience was that I wanted one roommate and I got two instead. One of them was definitely not what I asked for in a roommate. But we got lucky and got one of the larger rooms for three people. A problem in the dorm/hotel was that the temperature was either too cold or too hot. They didn't really do a good job of keeping a normal. It took about 20 minutes to get to Contemporary Britain class from our location. In regards to London College of Fashion, they have several campuses. If you took a marketing LCF class, it would take you 10 minutes. If you took fashion design/construction classes like I did, it would take you 40 minutes to get to class. They provide you with a kitchen that has stoves, ovens, grills, microwaves, toasters, refrigerators, utensils, cooking supplies, pots, pans, plates, bowls, cups, sinks, a sanitizer and storage space. They also have a machine that dispenses milk, coffee, hot water, cold water and hot chocolate and they have tea bags as well. I ended up buying plastic baggies and tupperware to store my food in. They have a continental breakfast every morning, but they start cleaning up around 9:15 am on weekdays and 9:40 am on weekends. They have laundry facilities in the hotel/dorm and the washing machines already has laundry detergent loaded in them, so you don't need to buy laundry detergent. The internet is definitely not the best. If everyone is on the internet/skype at the same time, quality drops dramatically. Every week on a specific day, housekeeping will vacuum your floors, clean your bathroom sink and change your sheets. Make sure you don't have anything on you bed or else they won't change the sheets. I never had a problem with theft from my room. We always kept our room door unlocked and no one stole anything. Of course, people will steal your food in the kitchen so watch out for that.

You basically had to buy your own food, but like I said they have a kitchen you can cook in. Depending on which store you go to, the food can be very similar to cheap, American frozen food. Also, if you like Indian food, the director takes everyone in the program out to eat at a really nice Indian restaurant in the middle of the semester. The restaurant was really nice, the food was amazing and the director pays for it all. I HIGHLY recommend anyone in that program go to that excursion. Other than that, the director will tell you good places to eat if you ask him.

How integrated did you feel with the local culture?

We took a few trips here and there. We spent the weekend at Stratford, which was nice but there was nothing to do. My favorite special event was when the director took us out to eat Indian food, but an excursion I liked was when we went to Bath for a day. Nothing special otherwise.

How well were health issues addressed during the program?

Lots of people told me beforehand to really watch out for my purse. The first day of orientation, I literally held onto my purse for dear life, but I realized that what others told me was wrong. From then on, I didn't feel like any one was out to pickpocket me. However, it's still a good idea to not watch your purse when you're at a table or a cafe.

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

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