If I can study in the Czech Republic by myself, I can conquer anything. Past Review

Academic rigor, intensity, resources, etc.

Teaching methods at Masaryk University were more hands off. I find that the teachers at KSU get more involved with the students and make more effort to interact with their students. At Masaryk, many students did not attend class at all or they were late but the teachers were not concerned or didn't really notice. In each class, I only had two or three grades with no homework except for readings. No worksheets or anything, so the workload consisted of readings and what ever you chose to do on your own. Another interesting thing, and this doesn't have to do with the education system exactly, but Masaryk University is spread out all through town. Whereas KSU is mostly on one campus in one location, Masaryk's buildings are all over the place and that made it difficult to find class at first.

On-site administration of your program

Overall, it was okay. The classes that most of the international students enrolled in, including myself, were designed specifically FOR international students. So classes only met one time a week, and never on Fridays. So that left us a lot of time to travel. Access to certain facilities, such as computers, libraries, copiers, etc., were a little bit harder to come by. You had to have your ID card with you to get into these places and in order to access a computer, you had to have a completely different set of login information. So it's different, but not bad.

How satisfied were you with your living arrangements?

While the dorm was very different from any other place I've lived, I have only positive things to say. It was located in a safe place; I never heard of anybody having any problems. It was about a twenty or thirty minute walk to my classes and the city center, where all of the main attractions were, but I find that I didn't mind the distance at all. The dorms were decent, very different from the dorms in the United States. It was great living with all of the other international students, including other Americans. The only problems we ever had were with the receptionists, because they were not fluent in English (which made no sense because you had to speak English to live in the dorm), so things did not go smoothly all the time.

The food in the city was great, but the cafeteria was only open from 11am to 2pm! It was absolutely ridiculous! Cafeterias at KSU are open almost constantly, but here you really had to scrounge for food.

How integrated did you feel with the local culture?

I met so many people through this program and became friends with so many people, so that was really great. We went on trips almost every weekend, to places like Munich (a.k.a. Oktoberfest), Prague, Berlin, Vienna, etc. The school also had a program called BIG Tours that set up trips for students with a tour guide and everything. Through that program, I went to Slovakia, eastern Bohemia, Krakow & Auschwitz, and Budapest. I really enjoyed ALL of those trips. My host city of Brno was just as great. There were so many festivals going on ALL the time and it was a very lively city; there was always something to do. It was neat to interact with all the local people.

How well were health issues addressed during the program?

I never had any health issues and I always felt safe throughout the city, partly because I used my own common sense to get myself places. I had a friend who had an infection and was taken to the hospital in Brno, and she said she received adequate care. Regarding safety, I never had any trouble. A few friends, however, were pick pocketed or were approach by unfriendly people demanding money or things of that sort. But those instances were rare.

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

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• Dorm

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• Americans
• International Students

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• Americans

• Traveling; the Czech Republic is in the perfect location for students to travel to other places, there's so much around it.
• Just being out of the United States was so refreshing. I liked being immersed in this new culture where I wasn't being bombardered with all things American.
• I liked meeting students from all over the world and getting to learn about their traditions and their way of life.

• Perhaps the quality of the classes.
• The cafeterias should be open longer.