Past Review

Academic rigor, intensity, resources, etc.

Not only is the campus in a terrible location, but the teachers are closed minded and grade based on their own opinions, and the students are rich stuck up and lazy. For teachers would treat the students like they were middle schoolers, not allowing them to leave for the bathroom after class started. And on my midterm for one of the courses, I wrote some good essays (on material I knew quite well) and got a 50 percent on the exam. The reason, I didn't take a pro-Palestinian side in the Israeli Palestinian debate. The fact that I took a NEUTRAL stance was not good enough, because I didn't agree with the teachers opinion, I did not deserve a passing grade. This happened for other classes as well, for essays it wasn't important that you came up with a thesis and backed it up with concrete examples, it was important that you just repeated what the teacher wanted to hear. Not only that but when I refused to submit my paper to a website called turn it in, therefore relinquishing my intellectual property rights over said paper, I was punished, even though I had no prior knowledge of such a system being used at Koc, knowledge which would have changed my decision to study in Turkey at all. I would give Koc 0 out of 5 if I could. Also I feel no need to rate my courses individually, they were all terrible save for International Law with Harry Tzimitras (who happens to be a guest professor from a different university...coincidence?? I think not)

On-site administration of your program

This one actually deserves 1 out of 5. Because while the program director was ill informed, never knew how to handle anything, did nothing, organized nothing, and was not helpful at all (mostly due to her lack of knowledge about the program and the school.) She was at least nice, and took me to the hospital when I was sick. As a middle school nurse, she would be perfect. But as a program director in a foreign country, she is not fit for the job at all. To her credit, she at least spoke the language.

How satisfied were you with your living arrangements?

Housing was pretty standard. Dorm room with bathroom, and a Turkish room mate. I liked my room mate a lot. However, his English was not great and so I didn't talk to him much. Therefore, I helped him with his English much more than he helped me with my Turkish.

Turkish food is really good. But after about the first two months when I had tried everything it gets really really boring. Not to mention the food on campus was awful and unhealthy. And because the campus is so isolated, it takes about half an hour to get food that is actually of good quality, is good for you, or tastes good.

How integrated did you feel with the local culture?

Koc University might as well not be in Turkey. Its in the Middle of no where and is surrounded by woods. And it takes at least half an hour to get anywhere. I would have had the same experience if I went to an American school in the middle of no where, and all of the students were part of an exclusive club (that had its own exclusive language that they preferred to use over English) that I was not allowed to join. Many students were very stuck up and would simply ignore you and not bother speaking English. Other than that, it was so uncultured and isolated that I might has well have been in the woods of Pennsylvania, not Turkey.

How well were health issues addressed during the program?

The doctors at the health center did not speak English. So when I went in there (twice) with acute gastritis, they did not understand what was going on and refused to give me a doctors note for missing an exam (they said I was perfectly healthy.) Even though I later on went to see an actual doctor (not a quack) and he determined that I was in fact not healthy and that those acute stomach pains and inability to keep any food down wasn't just me faking to try and get out of an exam.

(1 = not very easy/$200+ on food & personal expenses/week, 2.5 = $100/week, 5 = very easily/minimal cost)

Again I would give it 0 out of 5 if I could. The turkish teachers was terrible and played favorites. If a student (like myself) was struggling, then she would do nothing to help and focus on the students she liked (the ones who were quick learners.) When I had a legitimate excuse for being late to the exam (the room being in a different building than what it said on the official exam schedule and not being labeled at all) I was not given extra time to finish the exam. I would say I learned next to nothing in class, and the only reason I learned any Turkish at all was because I went to bars and made friends with the Turkish speaking bartenders.

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