An American on the Emerald Isle Past Review
By Zachary S (History/ Philosophy, Loras College) - abroad from 01/09/2012 to 05/08/2012 with
IADT - Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology: Dun Laoghaire - Direct Enrollment & Exchange
How to be more independent and to plan for traveling. I learned about the places I went to all around Europe and met some cool people along the way. It was worthwhile.
Review Photos
Personal Information
| How much international exposure did you have prior to this program? | 2 weeks - 1 month |
Review Your Program
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* Overall educational experience
Academic rigor, intensity, resources, etc. |
The classes at IADT were not that hard. While I was taking Sophmore classes as a Junior, they were still really easy. the assignments were simple, really short and there were very few of them. A majority of the grade for the Irish students came from the final exam at the end of the semester but we were exempt from this exam and required instead to do a different, fairly simple paper. |
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* Host Country Program Administration
On-site administration of your program |
I liked the professors that I took classes from while in Ireland. They knew their topic and taught well. I didn't interact with any of the other administrative staff. |
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* Housing:
How satisfied were you with your living arrangements? |
The apartment that we stayed in was really nice, we even had a maid that came in and cleaned every week. However, it was a 45 min commute into school which made it difficult for social and cultural integration (see below) |
| * Food: |
we were not provided with any sort of food plan, we were all on our own so that is why I rated this poorly. |
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* Social & Cultural Integration:
How integrated did you feel with the local culture? |
I had a really hard time with this because as I mentioned above we were 45 min away from the school so we were a long way from the other students, and the public transportation that we were dependent on closed down around 11:00 so we couldn't stay anywhere too late. In addition, we only took two classes at IADT with other Irish students. This made it difficult because we had very limited interaction with the other students at the school. I tried to get involved but it was difficult and was not overly successful. |
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* Health Care:
How well were health issues addressed during the program? |
I didn't have any health problems, there were not any major health problems that I ran into while abroad and I wasn't required any special immunizations. |
| * Safety: |
Sandymount was a very safe place. We didn't run into any sort of crime and it was very safe. There was an issue with pick-pocketing, but that happened in Dublin which is a large city and those things are bound to happen. |
| 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) |
Ireland is very expensive. Travel and food were really expensive and if you add in the price of the housing it was not cheap. |
| * Was housing included in your program cost? | Yes |
| * Was food included in your program cost? | No |
| Not including program expenses, about how much money did you spend on food and other expenses each week? | I don't know for sure but probably around 80 euros a week |
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? | 0 |
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? | How little interaction I was going to have with the Irish students. That way I could do a better job at the beginning of the trip meeting people. |
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 Avid AdventurerThe wardrobe you packed was better suited for a semester of camping than club hopping. Outdoorsy, you might forgo a crazy night out for an early all-day adventure. You'd rather take in the rich culture of an old town than the metropolis of a modern city, but for you getting off the grid is ideal. |
