Istanbul is an amazing city with amazing night life and other options. Past Review
By Lesley D (Political Science and Government., Nebraska Wesleyan University) for
Koc University: Istanbul - Direct Enrollment & Exchange
I learned a lot about Turkey. At the end of the day the friends I made on the program balanced out most of the negative aspects.
Personal Information
| The term and year this program took place: | Fall 2009 |
Review Your Program
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* Overall educational experience
Academic rigor, intensity, resources, etc. |
I went to Turkey hoping to improve on my Turkish language abilities, this was something that my host university promised was one of it's stregnths. However, their language program was a mess. |
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* Host Country Program Administration
On-site administration of your program |
The administration of our program started out being helpful. However, after about a week we were half abandoned. Our administrator was never in her office or available if we needed help. Students would go to her for help and she would refuse to help or would not be available at all. This behavior was consistent all the way to the day we signed out of the university when she was not around to sign our exit forms. |
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* Housing:
How satisfied were you with your living arrangements? |
housing was great. <br /><br /> The only bad part of housing was that there was not wireless access in the dorms. |
| * Food: |
The food was average. |
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* Social & Cultural Integration:
How integrated did you feel with the local culture? |
Istanbul is an amazing city with amazing night life and other options. |
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* Health Care:
How well were health issues addressed during the program? |
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| * Safety: |
The university had a great medical facility, and Istanbul is a safe city as long as you are smart. |
| 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? | Meals at the university cost around 14 YTL a day. The most money we spent was on transportation. It cost around 8YTL to get to Taksim (the most common destination) and we usually went there 2 or 3 nights a week. |
| Do you have any general money-saving tips for future study abroad participants? | The cost of transportation was unexpected. |
Language
| How would you rate your language skills at the beginning of the program? | Intermediate |
| Language acquisition improvement? |
As I commented earlier. The language program instructor was very bad and though promised a rich environment for enhancing my language abilities I did not find it while studying at Koc. The students are not friendly and using Turkish on campus turned out to be very difficult. |
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? | Istanbul is an amazing city, but if you want to learn Turkish or if you want a very third world experience chose a university other than Koc. |
