Nothing can take away from Istanbul! Past Review

Academic rigor, intensity, resources, etc.

In general courses were much easier than my courses at Georgetown, and the grading was much more lenient. The structure of classes and the types of assignments given were basically the same as those I have experienced in the US, though usually easier. Far less work was required to earn the same grades, which was great for a semester abroad. Unfortunately, the Turkish students did not take their academics seriously at all, and the professors usually did little to try to change this behavior. I found this academic culture extremely off-putting, and adjusting to it was one of the most difficult parts of studying abroad. Despite these problems, I felt like I still did learn a lot from my classes when I did try to do the work, even when none of the other students did.

On-site administration of your program

Honestly terrible. There was an embarrassing amount of red tape. The director of international programs is under-qualified and incompetent. She was extremely unwilling to listen to students' concerns and did not take responsibility for the inadequacies of orientation. No office at Koc communicates with any other, and so if you don't know exactly who you need to solve your problem you will spend hours trying to accomplish a simple task. Koc is also pretty new to hosting exchange students so they're still not really quite sure how to run the program in general. Additionally, most European student were part of Erasmus and most Americans part of CIEE, so if you were not involved in either of these programs and just directly enrolled, you had even less support from the school. Basically, you're completely on your own at Koc and you need to continually bug people to get them to help you if you need something done. And don't expect it to be done quickly either.

How satisfied were you with your living arrangements?

The dorms were really nice and right on campus so it was easy to go to class. Unfortunately, this meant they were a million miles away from anything interesting in Istanbul that you would want to do, so you're going to spend a lot of money on cabs and transportation and waste A LOT of time on buses. Also, you're randomly assigned a Turkish roommate, which turned out great for some people, but mine was really strange (beyond cultural differences) and it was an uncomfortable situation.

I love Turkish food! In the city food was cheap anywhere not catering to tourists and really delicious. On campus, we had a cafeteria, fast food places, and a grocery store that were all relatively affordable. I would note that it's really hard to find non-Turkish food in Turkey so if you like variety be prepared to cook a lot. Also, while the campus cafeteria catered to vegetarians, most places in Turkey don't, and it seemed like a lot of work for vegetarians to keep to their diet.

How integrated did you feel with the local culture?

Istanbul is amazing!!! Great history, culture, and nightlife. Traveling around Turkey is also pretty spectacular. There's something for everyone in Istanbul and Turkey, and I can't even begin to describe all the great things to see and do. Unfortunately, Koc is really far away from downtown Istanbul, making it hard to sight-see on a whim. Also the school organized virtually no day or overnight trips after the first week so if you weren't part of CIEE you had to figure everything out for yourself.

How well were health issues addressed during the program?

I never personally had any health problems so I don't really know of the quality of the school's health services or the country's in general.

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

The Turkish class offered by Koc was good, but moved at kind of a slow pace and was far too easy for a course offered for college upperclassmen. We were also assigned peer tutors who worked with small groups once a week. Most people did not attend this session but my tutor was awesome and taught us a lot of useful grammar and vocab. Being at Koc was not very condusive to language learning: the Turkish students in general didn't befriend the exchange students so it was hard to learn from them. When we did talk to them, it was usually in English. However, going out into Istanbul, especially in non-touristy areas, was great because almost no one speaks much English so we really got a lot of opportunities to practice.

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• Dorm

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• Local Students