Semester at Universiteit Leiden Past Review

Academic rigor, intensity, resources, etc.

The academic expectations of my host university were laughable--a 500 word paper and a test, and reading one text book, for one of my harder classes, but they were all ridiculously easy. I did enjoy them, and learn from them, but can't really say that I learned that much. It did present positive opportunities in that I had much more time to travel and meet other international students.

On-site administration of your program

Don't get me started--all they did was charge us for paperwork, make us complete paperwork, and require ridiculous things from us. They were ornery and unhelpful at EVERY STEP and I intend to speak to my international office at W&M when I return to tell them to apply some pressure to their offices. For instance, although I brought plenty of extra passport photos for such banal necessities, they required me to get new ones--because they said they needed ones that were done by a Dutch photographer. They tried to charge me 20 euros a class to register for the exams, because you must register for the exams separately from the courses, idiotically enough, and I'd done it five days after a late April deadline for an exam that is in early June when no one had mentioned the deadline or the paperwork to me until a Dutch classmate casually asked me about it. (Apparently it's on the website--in Dutch) All the other classes have deadlines of registration for the exam of one week before the exam, but not this one, inexplicably, but are they forgiving and helpful? Never.

How satisfied were you with your living arrangements?

We chose housing based on price range, and I chose the lowest price range, which put me in the incompetent hands of DUWO, housing intended for immigrants as I'm given to understand. It's understandably rotten housing with no frills at a low price and with terrible maintenance. It's also 15 minutes bike ride from the city center, unlike all but one other housing unit which is inside the city center, and the only one without free laundry. They are also in the midst of a huge construction project literally not 2 meters from our window, as they build more terrible housing, so that's a loud pain as well. It is, however, great to meet the other int'l students here.

I enjoyed cooking for myself. There isn't really another option here, so I hope you're competent to do that.

How well were health issues addressed during the program?

If I had died, no one in either of my attending Universities would have heard about it for months. I was in a minor bike accident and went to the ER to have it looked at, because my hand was very swollen. They still haven't billed me.

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

Just from travel and exposure to other international students and people.

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• Dorm
• Other

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• Americans
• International Students
• Local Students