when it comes to taking business courses abroad, HKUST is pretty hard to beat! Past Review
By Richard R (Bioengineering and Biomedical Engineering., Rice University) for
Hong Kong University of Science and Technology: Hong Kong - Direct Enrollment & Exchange
Totally worthwhile - If you want to know what I gained from it, find out for yourself. :)
Personal Information
| The term and year this program took place: | Spring 2007 |
Review Your Program
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* Overall educational experience
Academic rigor, intensity, resources, etc. |
Academics at HKUST are pretty much on par with most universities. Some classes were great; others not so much. I will say that, given UST's size, the opportunity to take a wide variety of courses in the sciences and engineering is at your fingertips. Keep in mind, though, that HKUST is a science and technology school so don't expect much in the way of humanities courses; however, when it comes to taking business courses abroad, studying at UST is pretty hard to beat. |
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* Host Country Program Administration
On-site administration of your program |
The administration of my exchange site remained pretty distant throughout my stay at HKUST. I found that email responses took a little longer than I liked and that very few departments at UST know what the others are supposed to do. I ultimately found myself wandering around a few times trying to settle matters with little to no help from anyone. |
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* Housing:
How satisfied were you with your living arrangements? |
Typical Dorm Room...AWESOME view of Clearwater Bay! <br /><br /> As far as dormitory housing goes, HKUST has pretty decent housing - not the Ritz Carlton, but by no means a cardboard box. Housing was arranged by UST's international student services. They give you the option of requesting the type of housing/location you would like - I suggest House 6. |
| * Food: |
The food at UST is actually really good as far as university food is concerned. At a few of the diners on campus the food is made to order so it's fresh (and cheap). Also, the really nice sit down restaurant on the ground floor of the academic building has really good dim sum once a week. |
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* Social & Cultural Integration:
How integrated did you feel with the local culture? |
I had a blast when I wasn't in class. I had a great time hanging out with people, kareoke, LKF, etc. Hong Kong's a fun city; there's tons of stuff to do. |
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* Health Care:
How well were health issues addressed during the program? |
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| * Safety: |
Hong Kong's a safe place. Like any other city, you need to watch yourself sometimes but, I still felt safe everywhere I went. |
| If you could do it all over again would you choose the same program? |
No
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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) |
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| Not including program expenses, about how much money did you spend on food and other expenses each week? | Public Transportation - probably $50 a month (I traveled around the city a lot) Food (on campus) - ~$4 a meal x 2 or 3 meals a day = ~$360 Food (off campus) = more :) Calling Home - I used Skype $5/month unlimited calls to the US Entertainment - a lot...to give you an idea a movie ticket is about $10 and a night out can run about $40-$50 Books - Far cheaper than back home...about $30-$40 per book Rent/Housing - flat rate $550 for the semester. Travel - From HKI, you can get a lot of good deals on direct flights to various places; also, another option for flights is to fly out of Shenzhen or Macau across the border in China. Warning: You will always spend money faster than you plan to spend it. |
| Do you have any general money-saving tips for future study abroad participants? | Always have extra money: you may find that one thing you want to buy or you may find a really good travel deal at one of the travel agents that only accept cash. |
Language
| How would you rate your language skills at the beginning of the program? | None |
| Language acquisition improvement? |
Language development wasn't really my goal when it came to studying abroad in Hong Kong. However, I found that after about a month of living in HK I picked up the key phrases in Guangdonghua that made living there easier. |
Direct Enrollment/Exchange
| * Did you study abroad through an exchange program or did you directly enroll in the foreign university? | Exchange |
Other Program Information
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* Where did you live?
Select all that apply |
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* Who did you take classes with?
Select all that apply |
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A Look Back
| * What do you know now that you wish you knew before going on this program? | Have fun - not everything's going to work out according to plan. That's part of the fun of going abroad. |
Comments
Terrific Evaluation! Thank you, just what we like to hear. Stay in touch, Richard.
deleted-1521742310rice November 19, 2009
