School, friends, and travel: you can have two but you can't have three! Past Review

Academic rigor, intensity, resources, etc.

Queen Mary gave me the basic resources to have an education, a classroom, library, professors and textbooks but that was all. The learning energy of the student body was low and class dialogue was lackluster. Attendance was slim and you often felt very unmotivated to put in any effort, as none of the Queen Mary students were.

On-site administration of your program

QM study abroad office gave us the basics but nothing else. They organized no outside of orientation programming and were unhelpful when it came to academic issues, and never picked up their phones when they were called. I wish they put in more effort into programming with us and helping cross the bridge between us and the local London students.

How satisfied were you with your living arrangements?

Satisfactory!

Dining hall was gross, so I was appreciative of having a kitchen in my dorm to cook my own food.

How integrated did you feel with the local culture?

It was really hard to meet with local students. QM is a commuter school and a school of 2,000 people, so when you show up mid year, nobody really takes an interest in you. I signed up for a plethora of clubs at the activities fair, and I think only two ever emailed me. QM abroad students basically just end up hanging out with each other since we all had a hard time making british friends.

How well were health issues addressed during the program?

I was really frustrated by the health care at QM. Before being able to see a doctor on campus, you had to fill out an online form and have a physical. The online form was very unclear, asking for various numbers and codes we did not have and the physical was impossible to scheduale with the university because the doctors were always so booked. You had to make an appointment about four days in advance if you wanted to see anyone, which is frustrating because if you are really sick at school you can't wait that long. I had to pay 200$ out of pocket to see a London doctor because Queen mary couldn't see me when I had a horrible stomach bug, and had to take a very ill friend to the hospital due to QM being able to accomodate us.

Not a very safe neighberhood, especially if you are a women.

I'm not so sure really. I wish I was more academically challenged and had an easier time interacting and forming friendships with British students. But I think Queen Mary is a good program if you mainly want to travel and just enjoy your time in London+Europe. Queen Mary provides you with nice housing for essentially six months, one of those months is a vacation, and the workload isn't too heavy so you can really enjoy yourself. While I liked the direct enrollment aspect, and even the location of my Uni, I do wish there was better programming from the abroad office and also just the overall academic experience.

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

It's defenitely hard to budget, especially if you want to fully enjoy London culture (see shows, eat out, etc.). My parents gave me 3,000$ before I went abroad and that was easily spent, and with an extra 4,000 I was still spending a lot of my own money to pay for things.

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• Dorm

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• Local Students
• Americans
• International Students

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• Local Students
• Americans
• International Students

• Location
• Direct enrollment
• The play I was in

• QM study abroad office
• Health services
• Academic engagement

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