Abroad101: Study Abroad Reviews

Great place to study Past Review

By (Middlebury College) - abroad from 09/12/2016 to 06/05/2017 with

Middlebury - Dartmouth Engineering Dual Degree: Domestic Exchange in New Hampshire

What did you gain/learn from your experience abroad? Was it worthwhile?
Engineering courses, yes

Personal Information

How much international exposure did you have prior to this program? None

Review Your Program

* Overall educational experience

Academic rigor, intensity, resources, etc.

Very intense, learned a lot too

* Host Country Program Administration

On-site administration of your program

Jenna does a fantastic job

* Housing:

How satisfied were you with your living arrangements?

Not the best place on campus

* Food:

Dartmouth food, okay

* Social & Cultural Integration:

How integrated did you feel with the local culture?

Focused more on study

* Health Care:

How well were health issues addressed during the program?

Dartmouth has a mandatory health insurance if that's what's being asked

* Safety:

Pretty safe

If you could do it all over again would you choose the same program? Yes

Despite the fact that I want to study abroad in Spain so much, I think the stuff I learned from the exchange program at Dartmouth (plus an engineering degree) is more important

Finances

* 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)

Meal plans are tricky to play with

Not including program expenses, about how much money did you spend on food and other expenses each week? 40
Do you have any general money-saving tips for future study abroad participants? Actually don't go for the 20 meal per week meal plan, do the 14 or 10 one

Language

* Did your program have a foreign language component? No

Direct Enrollment/Exchange

* Did you study abroad through an exchange program or did you directly enroll in the foreign university? Exchange

Other Program Information

* Where did you live?

Select all that apply

  • Dorm
* Who did you live with?

Select all that apply

  • Local Students
  • International Students
* Who did you take classes with?

Select all that apply

  • Local Students
  • Americans
  • International Students
  • Other
About how many local friends did you make that you will likely keep in touch with? 10+

A Look Back

* What did you like most about the program?
  • Similarly quiet environment
  • Large engineering department
  • Variety of courses to take
* What could be improved?
  • This 2+1+1+1 is ridiculous
  • Credit transfer should be optional for specific courses, not all mandatory
* What do you know now that you wish you knew before going on this program? Quarter system

Reasons For Studying Abroad

To help future students find programs attended by like-minded individuals, please choose the profile that most closely represents you.
The Academic or Linguist
You went abroad with specific academic goals in mind; the program credentials and rigor of your coursework abroad were very important to you. You had a great time abroad, but never lost sight of your studies and (if applicable) were diligent with your foreign language study. Good for you!

Individual Course Reviews

Course Name/Rating:

Systems
Course Department: Engineering
Instructor: John Zhang
Instruction Language: English
Comments: Important class, again, requires a lot of work
Credit Transfer Issues:
Course Name/Rating:

Digital Electronics
Course Department: Engineering
Instructor: Geoffrey Luke
Instruction Language: English
Comments: A big part of this course is similar to Middlebury's CS202, the professor's teaching style is, let's say, eccentric
Credit Transfer Issues:
Course Name/Rating:

Intro to Engineering
Course Department: Engineering
Instructor: John Collier
Instruction Language: English
Comments: Not taught very clear, in my opinion unnecessarily large workload
Credit Transfer Issues:
Course Name/Rating:

Algorithms
Course Department: Computer Science
Instructor: Tom Corman
Instruction Language: English
Comments: The whole course was very demanding overall, it is a hard class
Credit Transfer Issues:
Course Name/Rating:

Discrete & Probabilistic System
Course Department: Engineering
Instructor: George Cybenko
Instruction Language: English
Comments: Very easy, less challenging than Middlebury's MATH 310
Credit Transfer Issues:
Course Name/Rating:

Programming Parallel Systems
Course Department: Engineering
Instructor: Stephen Taylor
Instruction Language: English
Comments: Difficult but useful, both for Computer Engineering and Science
Credit Transfer Issues:
Course Name/Rating:

Machine Learning & Statistical Analysis
Course Department: Computer Science
Instructor: Qiang Liu
Instruction Language: English
Comments: Important class, wasn't taught very well
Credit Transfer Issues:
Course Name/Rating:

Full-Stack Web Development
Course Department: Computer Science
Instructor: Tim Tregubov
Instruction Language: English
Comments: Fun class, depending on your CS level, it could be either very easy or requires work
Credit Transfer Issues:
Course Name/Rating:

Database Systems
Course Department: Computer Science
Instructor: Charles Palmer
Instruction Language: English
Comments: A lot of materials covered
Credit Transfer Issues: