I am going to miss it! Past Review
By Sarah b (German Education, Illinois State University) - abroad from 03/04/2013 to 07/18/2013 with
Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms Universität / University of Bonn: Bonn - Direct Enrollment & Exchange
I enhanced my German skills and I learned how to live all by myself. It was worthwhile.
Personal Information
| How much international exposure did you have prior to this program? | None |
Review Your Program
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* Overall educational experience
Academic rigor, intensity, resources, etc. |
I had a overall good experience. I was enrolled in a intensivkurs and i was enrolled in a Landeskunde kurs. I feel like it really enhanced my german. |
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* Host Country Program Administration
On-site administration of your program |
My host country administration of my program was not very good. They were not very informative and did not help us out often with our problems. They simply did not have answers to questions they should have. We would go to them with issues and they just wouldnt help us or send us in the right direction to someone else we could talk to. Especially in the beginning when we had no clue where anything was. However I can not complain about the bunch of trips they took us on. They gave us alot of informational tours (one being a 5 day trip to Berlin). They also gave us free coffee and cookies twice a week. The school arrangement was also a disappointment, because they did not properly place us in classes that acknowledged our full potential. For example the intensivkurs i was placed in was basically a review. |
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* Housing:
How satisfied were you with your living arrangements? |
Housing was terrible the first day I walked in. The kitchen I was supposed to use had milk that had been sitting on the counter that had expired 3 years ago, had expired eggs, old flat pop, and my stove was completely rusted over. Everything was grose. The fridge has old moldy sauce in it. It was awful. The room i slept in was a nice size but it had a dust problem. There was layers of dust always in my room regardless of how many times i cleaned it. It was a far from the uni about a half hour walk. It was nice living with fellow americans though, because it was easier to make new friends. |
| * Food: |
Food it takes getting used to but you can easily find something you like. I cant complain about the food. It was pretty cheap. |
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* Social & Cultural Integration:
How integrated did you feel with the local culture? |
I totally felt like an outsider no matter how hard i tried to fit in. However it is not terrible. I just dont think they could understand my german with an english accent. I had a lot of german friends so that helped a bunch. |
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* Health Care:
How well were health issues addressed during the program? |
They gave us health insurance cards, however I never had to use mine. They never even told us where any hospital locations were. |
| * Safety: |
I felt so safe in my city, nobody bothers nobody. I could ride my bus at 4 in the morning and I would feel just as safe as riding it at 12 in the afternoon. |
| If you could do it all over again would you choose the same program? |
Yes
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Finances
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* 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) |
It was really easy to live on a student budget. All you really had to pay for was weekly groceries. All the planned trips through the international office were free and they gave us a bus ticket so we didnt have to pay for any transportation in our state. The reason I did say it was difficult to have a budget because living in Europe you constantly want to travel. But there are cheap websites to find transportation. I ended up traveling to france, switzerland, spain, italy and london. |
| Not including program expenses, about how much money did you spend on food and other expenses each week? | Spend about 12 euro on food a week, but i would spend an average of 200 euro on my trips I took out of the country. |
| Do you have any general money-saving tips for future study abroad participants? | I would say when planning a trip search on sky-scanner which is for RyanAir flights. We found a flight to London there and back only cost 30 euro. When looking for hotels look on websites like last minute, hostelworld, imbiss hotels. When traveling buses could be cheaper than trains most of the time, mitfahrgelegenheit is also a good website. |
Language
| * Did your program have a foreign language component? | Yes |
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How much did the program encourage you to use the language?
0 = No encouragement, 5 = frequent encouragement to use the language |
Both my classes were all in german. |
| How would you rate your language skills at the beginning of the program? | Intermediate |
| How would you rate your language skills at the end of the program? | Advanced |
| What was the highest level language course you had completed prior to departure? | Intermediate German 213 |
| How many hours per day did you use the language? | |
| Do you have any tips/advice on the best ways to practice the language for future study abroad participants? | Constantly use it and do not be afraid to speak it. It is okay to make mistakes. People dont mind helping you out. |
Other Program Information
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* Where did you live?
Select all that apply |
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* Who did you live with?
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* Who did you take classes with?
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| About how many local friends did you make that you will likely keep in touch with? |
A Look Back
| * What did you like most about the program? |
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| * What could be improved? |
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| * What do you know now that you wish you knew before going on this program? | To pack my own shampoo, face soap, body wash, deoderant, Q-tipps, Razors, and Tampons everything is much different here than in the US |
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 LinguistYou 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: |
Intensivkurs |
| Course Department: | International office |
| Instructor: | Osterhus |
| Instruction Language: | German |
| Comments: | This class was semi challenging because it was mostly a review of everything I have learned before. We had to meet 4 days a week and had class for 3 hours. My teacher was not very interactive the students who struggled with the language had a difficult time with her. I did like how she tried getting everyone involved. I did participate pretty ofter. We had homework every night in either our Textbook or our Grammar book. We had one presentation we could talk about any topic we found interesting. I chose to do mine on German festivals. My teacher was usually prepared and chose good activities to help us improve. |
| Credit Transfer Issues: |
