Best decision I ever made Past Review
By A student (Psychology, Middlebury College) - abroad from 08/17/2015 to 12/19/2015 with
CIEE: Amsterdam - Social Sciences + Humanities
Gained so much independence, got to travel around the country and other places in Europe, learned to bike like the Dutch
Personal Information
| How much international exposure did you have prior to this program? | 6 months+ |
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 |
The CIEE staff are organized and friendly, and they provide many cultural excursions and activities to get you more involved in local events |
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* Housing:
How satisfied were you with your living arrangements? |
Lived in the De Key dorms, great location. My experience would have been very different living in the student hotel, as it is quite far away. |
| * Food: |
Great Indonesian food! You're on your own as far as meals go, though, so it would be a good idea to learn to cook or find cheaper places to eat out, as meals can get pretty expensive here. |
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* Social & Cultural Integration:
How integrated did you feel with the local culture? |
Taking classes with Dutch students helped me get to meet some locals. Everyone here speaks perfect English so there isn't much opportunity to practice Dutch, but at least there's never any communication issues. |
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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? |
Yes
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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) |
Europe in general is pretty expensive. If you're really conscious about saving money you can make it work on a reasonable budget ($100/week), but otherwise it's easy to blow through a lot of money without even realizing. |
| Not including program expenses, about how much money did you spend on food and other expenses each week? | Roughly $100/week |
| Do you have any general money-saving tips for future study abroad participants? | Cooking at home definitely saves money, or the cafeteria on campus has decent food for low prices. |
Language
| * Did your program have a foreign language component? | Yes |
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How much did the program encourage you to use the language?
0 = No encouragement, 5 = frequent encouragement to use the language |
All of my classes at the University of Amsterdam were taught in English, so there was not much need to speak Dutch other than in my begnning Dutch class. |
| How would you rate your language skills at the beginning of the program? | None |
| How would you rate your language skills at the end of the program? | Beginner |
| What was the highest level language course you had completed prior to departure? | None in Dutch |
| How many hours per day did you use the language? | 0 |
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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| About how many local friends did you make that you will likely keep in touch with? |
A Look Back
| * What did you like most about the program? |
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| * What could be improved? |
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| * What do you know now that you wish you knew before going on this program? | Even though it's a Social Sciences program, there are no Psychology classes offered. You can only take classes from the 'Faculty of Social Sciences or Humanities' at the University of Amsterdam. |
Individual Course Reviews
| Course Name/Rating: |
Contemporary Dutch Social Policy |
| Course Department: | |
| Instructor: | Bonny Wassing |
| Instruction Language: | English |
| Comments: | Really interesting course covering topics that were so relevant to my experience here. Highly recommend it! |
| Credit Transfer Issues: |
