Study Abroad in Copenhagen January 17, 2025
By A student (Data Science and Studio Art, Wellesley College) - abroad from 08/22/2024 to 12/14/2025 with
DIS Copenhagen: Semester
The best thing that came out of the program were the people I met and the knowledge I gained in my graphic design class. My instructors were wonderful and kind at facilitating and we did incredibly cool activities like visiting actual design studios. They were also very receptive to feedback and would adapt the class to best fit our needs. I also made many good friends in that class, and people were interesting and intelligent. The Graphic Design Foundations class was definitely the best part of my study abroad experience and was the thing that made it worth it. It was also an unique experience I could not get at my home institution. However, I did not have as positive of experiences in my other classes. In one, I felt very isolated because I was one of two POC in the class and the instructor dealt with it poorly and said some insensitive things. In another class, our instructor was constantly canceling classes, and I felt like she was not very committed. For my fourth class, which was CS, I had to drop it because the material was taught unclearly and there was a lack of support in the class. I do really love the travel and experiential aspects of DIS though, and I appreciate how many museums we got to go to that were included in the program. I have very mixed feelings about this program.
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. |
I thought most of the program was not rigorous enough and sometimes the instructors felt a bit unengaged. However, my graphic design core course was the exception. The studio classes here are amazing but the electives are extremely inconsistent. |
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* Host Country Program Administration
On-site administration of your program |
DIS was good at guiding us through processes like getting our visas, which I really appreciated. My problems were usually fixed pretty quickly. |
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* Housing:
How satisfied were you with your living arrangements? |
I got a roommate I really got along with and made great friends with, and thought it was really nice to try and live in an apartment. |
| * Food: |
I wish DIS gave us a bit more money because the $600 stipend felt like a little too small of an amount, but I loved cooking for myself. |
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* Social & Cultural Integration:
How integrated did you feel with the local culture? |
Because our program was all Americans, I didn't get to know many Danes well, besides our instructors. Also, I felt like the program generally did not do a good enough job supporting people of color unless the instructors individually already knew how to deal with difference in classes, because I felt a bit isolated in my predominantly white classes. |
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* Health Care:
How well were health issues addressed during the program? |
I injured my knee during the program and was able to get to a doctor. However, it was difficult to actually get to the doctor's office because I suddenly had to figure out how to take a taxi, and then the doctor's office had stairs with no elevator, which was difficult to get up. It was a lot of independent figuring out, and the numbers DIS gave us sometimes were not very compassionate. |
| * Safety: |
Copenhagen is a very safe city, I never felt like I was in danger. |
| If you could do it all over again would you choose the same program? |
No
I would pick a program somewhere more diverse |
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) |
Copenhagen is incredibly expensive, and I didn't really understand how expensive it was until I actually got there so I wish there was more transparency with that. |
| Do you have any general money-saving tips for future study abroad participants? | Cooking is the key! Food is incredibly expensive and generally not worth the price in Copenhagen. I also come from cities with good inexpensive food options, so felt especially shocked. |
Language
| * Did your program have a foreign language component? | No |
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? | I wish I knew about the demographics before. I did not expect how undiverse it would be because the program was all American students, and my experience of the US has been in relatively diverse areas. My DIS cohort had 70% white students and over 80% straight students, so in my classes, the conversations lacked different perspectives and were predominantly from very privileged perspectives. It was isolating in my classes were I was one of very few people of color and one of my instructors managed to make me feel particularly picked out. I also experienced many micro aggressions in my day to day life in both my classes and on the street from strangers. I also wish I knew how short the add period was, because it was less than a week after classes started, and I was not able to add a class after figuring out a class was not working for me. |
