India's great, the program is okay. Past Review
By R A (Dance; Sociology, Middlebury College) - abroad from 08/27/2012 to 12/09/2012 with
SIT Study Abroad: India - Sustainable Development and Social Change
It was absolutely worthwhile.
Personal Information
| How much international exposure did you have prior to this program? | 1 month - 6 months |
Review Your Program
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* Overall educational experience
Academic rigor, intensity, resources, etc. |
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* Host Country Program Administration
On-site administration of your program |
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* Housing:
How satisfied were you with your living arrangements? |
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| * Food: |
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* Social & Cultural Integration:
How integrated did you feel with the local culture? |
It was difficult to integrate with the local culture for the first two months of the program because so much of that time was spent in the classroom, or else travelling with the program. There was not a lot of time to explore independently and learn about the culture first hand in the first two months. Fortunately, the ISP Period made up for that. |
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* Health Care:
How well were health issues addressed during the program? |
There are several vaccines necessary, and healthcare is readily available in New Delhi. Unfortunately, the program doesn't do a very good job of handling student health issues, of which there were many in my time there. Sick students often did not receive extensions when they were very ill, and if they did, they were often for one day at the most. Students are largely expected to deal with health issues on their own. |
| * Safety: |
Like any city, New Delhi has to be approached with a degree of street-smarts to remain safe. There are certain areas of the city that feel safer than others, but generally daylight hours are not a problem, especially in the very populated area of South Delhi, where the program's center and the homestays are located. One thing to note is that New Delhi is not the safest of cities for women, mainly after dark or travelling alone. That said, I rarely, if ever, felt like my life was in danger while in New Delhi. |
| 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) |
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| Not including program expenses, about how much money did you spend on food and other expenses each week? | $20-40 during the ISP period (covered by the stipend though), probably $10-20 if that for the first two months. |
Language
| * Did your program have a foreign language component? | Yes |
| How would you rate your language skills at the beginning of the program? | None |
| How would you rate your language skills at the end of the program? | Beginner |
| What was the highest level language course you had completed prior to departure? | NA |
| How many hours per day did you use the language? |
Other Program Information
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* Where did you live?
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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? | I wish I had known more about New Delhi. Orientation was spent mostly learning about health and safety, and for the first month, I really had no idea where to go in the city when I occasionally had free time. |
Individual Course Reviews
| Course Name/Rating: |
Beginning Hindi I |
| Course Department: | Hindi |
| Instructor: | Prahlad |
| Instruction Language: | Hindi/English |
| Comments: | It was not an extremely challenging course, but it was effective. My Hindi improved a lot through this class, and it was fun. Most of the assessments are oral, the homework is handwritten, and there are two written exams (which Prahlad gives you in advance to study from). |
| Credit Transfer Issues: |
| Course Name/Rating: |
Field Methods & Ethics |
| Course Department: | |
| Instructor: | Mary Storm |
| Instruction Language: | English |
| Comments: | This course is a good idea in theory, but we spent most of the class going off on tangents in our discussions. We very rarely actually talked about field research or ethics for more than 15-20 minutes per class. The reading was interesting. There were only a few papers. |
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| Course Name/Rating: |
National Identity and the Arts |
| Course Department: | |
| Instructor: | Various |
| Instruction Language: | English |
| Comments: | This course is hard to review because it changed every class, depending upon the lecturer. Some of them were great and others not so much. There are a lot of papers that are of a medium difficulty. There is a ton of reading, much of it repetitive. |
| Credit Transfer Issues: |
