Australian Woes Past Review

Academic rigor, intensity, resources, etc.

Workload was quite light until the second half of the program. The first half of the program was spent doing classes. Many lectures were held out in the field rather than a classroom. Student do need to remain diligent about staying on top of the homework. It is less about the quantity of work, which is retrospect is quite small, and more to do with a limited amount of time to do homework. Classes are in secession from 8:30am - 5:00pm five days a week. The second half of the program classes are finished and the rest of the time is spent doing individual research projects. Students are generally left to figure out what they want to research, but professors are available whenever students need help. The goal is for the student to do as much of the research themselves as possible.

On-site administration of your program

SFS is a very small University that only accommodates 32 students and about 9 staff members. There is only one building that is divided into several compartments. It contains the classroom, computer room, common room, kitchen and offices. Internet is difficult to access when there are too many people on it, due to the location of the center in the rainforest. The three professors were all very knowledgeable in their fields and avaibale whenever you needed to talk with them.

How satisfied were you with your living arrangements?

Students at SFS live within a regrowth rainforest about 20 mins away from the nearest town, Yungaburra. Student live in cabins withing the rainforest with about 5 - 7 other students. Generally females will be living 7 to a cabin and males generally live in a cabin of 4 - 5 individual. This is because more women choose to attend the program than men. I attend my program during the dry season and decided to sleep in a tent, provided by the center, for the duration of the program.

We have a single cook, cooking for 23 students and 7 staff. She makes fantastic food and accommodation dietary restrictions easily. Those who are vegetarians will have no problem finding fantastic tasting food. In fact they may have to fend off non-vegetarians because these dishes are so good.

How integrated did you feel with the local culture?

There is very little ability to experience Australia outside of school time because the center is located 20mins from the nearest town. Due to several policies set in place, students cannot drive anywhere only staff. Also every student must agree on a single place to visit or no one is allowed to go anywhere. However, to try and make up for this SFS tries to incorporate several day trips to different locations around Australia. You get to see different sites, but it does not help get a sense of the culture and social aspects of Australia.

How well were health issues addressed during the program?

If you want to be safe this is the program to go on. In fact SFS tries to be too safe, it is the biggest problem I had with this program. The policies they put in place to keep use safe were too limiting it what it allowed up to do. It kept us from experiencing Australia properly.

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

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• Other

Select all that apply

• Americans

• The location of the center

• More leniency on the policies
• More time to explore the country