Abroad101: Study Abroad Reviews

Living it up in the Land Down Under Past Review

By (Business, Berea College) - abroad from 01/12/2015 to 04/25/2015 with

CISabroad (Center for International Studies): Gold Coast - Semester on the Gold Coast

What did you gain/learn from your experience abroad? Was it worthwhile?
I learned that I love traveling and that I want to go back to Australia and do more traveling. I learned the similarities and differences between the U.S. and Australia

Personal Information

How much international exposure did you have prior to this program? None

Review Your Program

* Overall educational experience

Academic rigor, intensity, resources, etc.

Personally, I don't think I learned very much from the academics at this university. To me it seemed that Bond University's accelerated courses require students to memorize rather than to truly learn and understand since it moves forward so quickly. I hear it is quite a challenging school, but since classes did not count as an actual grade, academics were not as stressful as it is in the United States.

* Host Country Program Administration

On-site administration of your program

I loved the on-site administration. She was always busy for sure, but she was pretty good at keeping up with her emails.

* Housing:

How satisfied were you with your living arrangements?

I loved the housing at Bond. I was not a big fan of getting in trouble because of other drunk students breaking things in the dorm such as the elevator and the fire extinguishing the common room. Everyone on my wing ended up with a 200 fine because they were unable to identify the culprits. However, I suppose that is a risk that you take when living in a shared environment, but I think Bond Uni needs to invest in better security cameras to prevent these issues.

* Food:

The food at the Brasserie was okay. Most of the workers were not very pleasant when trying to remove things off of the regular order. The food tended to stay the same the entire semester and sometimes I would feel sick from the food.

* Social & Cultural Integration:

How integrated did you feel with the local culture?

I would have preferred meeting more Australians. Living in the Accommodation Center--there were literally only a handful of Australians. Most were Americans. I would have liked to meet more Australians.

* Health Care:

How well were health issues addressed during the program?

This is not really applicable.

* Safety:

I would say that I felt pretty safe on campus.

If you could do it all over again would you choose the same program? No

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)

Not including program expenses, about how much money did you spend on food and other expenses each week? 50
Do you have any general money-saving tips for future study abroad participants? Share among friends. For example, if you buy 200 qtips because it's the best value, split it with a friend. There's no way that you need 200 qtips for 4 months.

Language

* Did your program have a foreign language component? No

Other Program Information

* Where did you live?

Select all that apply

  • Dorm
* Who did you live with?

Select all that apply

  • International Students
* Who did you take classes with?

Select all that apply

  • Local Students
  • Americans
  • International Students
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?
  • Excursions
  • Meeting People
* What could be improved?
  • Excursions--I wish there were overnight excursions
  • I would prefer a different application and scholarship process. It seems rather disorganized the way it current is.
* What do you know now that you wish you knew before going on this program? I wish I knew more about direct enrollment, I think I might have done that.

Reasons For Studying Abroad

To help future students find programs attended by like-minded individuals, please choose the profile that most closely represents you.
The Networker
An active student leader, it was important for you to network abroad as well. Once overseas, you sought out student clubs, volunteered with local organizations, or attended community events. You encouraged your friends join you, and often considered how you could reflect your international experiences in a resume.

Individual Course Reviews

Course Name/Rating:

Managerial Planning And Controls
Course Department: Business
Instructor: Jan Hollindale
Instruction Language: English
Comments: Jan was a nice professor, but I did not really feel challenged in this course. In fact this course reminded me of a combination of a management and marketing course. This subject would be better off being combined with another subject because a lot of it was just repetitive from other courses.
Credit Transfer Issues:
Course Name/Rating:

Australian Pop Culture
Course Department:
Instructor: Jane Hunt
Instruction Language: English
Comments: This is an easy course. You have a 3 hour lecture one day and then a tutorial the next day. There is always an attendance quiz from the lecture so always be sure to have your laptop or a device that you can pull up the quiz on to complete in class. In the tutorials, there are about 5 or 6 reading quizzes. Honestly, I don't understand the point of them other than to add points to your grade. The reading quizzes you just need to have a ctrl + f function to find the fill in the blanks. Then there may be a couple of concept and understanding questions. Furthermore, the subject only requires two papers and a short 10 min presentation. However, don't be fooled, the grading is a bit strict. For example, out of a class of 100 students, only 4 students made a high distinction (which is an A) on a 1000 word paper. The topic is interesting, but the main focus of the class seems to be on the Australian Legend.
Credit Transfer Issues:
Course Name/Rating:

Sustainable Tourism & Indigenous Culture
Course Department: Sustainability
Instructor: Harald Zeuss
Instruction Language: English
Comments: It was a German Professor that came to teach this course. He was absolutely awesome! The course was very interesting and two tests we were given were very reasonable. I enjoyed the content and it made me think. However, a lot of the information was already evident, but still very interesting to learn the theories behind tourism. I would have been more interested in trying to do more field trips of indigenous culture and learning more about that. That chapter we seemed to have spent the least amount of time in, but overall it was still a really great class. It forever changed my view of tourism, that's for sure. We discussed airplanes, cruise ships, animal rights, human rights, and a few of the tourism theories. Overall great class and great professor. I wish I could go to Germany and have him teach again!
Credit Transfer Issues: