beautiful Edinburgh, a bit difficult to meet people Past Review
By A student (Middlebury College) - abroad from 01/15/2018 to 05/25/2018 with
University of Edinburgh: Edinburgh - Direct Enrollment & Exchange
Go out and explore on your own! Push yourself to try new things and meet new people, but also remember that abroad does not have to be the best semester of your college career, and you still need to take care of yourself! I met some great people, but also spent a lot of time exploring alone and learned a lot about myself.
Personal Information
| How much international exposure did you have prior to this program? | 0-2 weeks |
Review Your Program
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* Overall educational experience
Academic rigor, intensity, resources, etc. |
Lecture classes weren't the most helpful, mostly learned from the readings. Tutorials were also often not very stimulating discussion-wise. I got the most out of my seminar class. The strike a third of the way through the semester didn't help, either! |
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* Host Country Program Administration
On-site administration of your program |
All good, except for the strike which wasn't helpful! At the beginning I had to shuffle around some classes, though, and the people working there were very helpful. |
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* Housing:
How satisfied were you with your living arrangements? |
Living with mostly freshmen, but the arrangements are fine. Room size varies a lot and unfortunately depends quite a bit on how much you're paying. |
| * Food: |
Unless you chose catered housing, you aren't on a meal plan so it's all up to you! They give you a kitchen and some basic supplies (pots, knives, etc.) |
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* Social & Cultural Integration:
How integrated did you feel with the local culture? |
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* Health Care:
How well were health issues addressed during the program? |
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| * Safety: |
Very safe. |
| If you could do it all over again would you choose the same program? |
No
I found that because the university was so big, it was really difficult to meet people without being anchored to a program. I enjoyed the material from my classes, but many students didn't take the classes very seriously and there was a strike a month and half in which meant that my time there was very unstructured. |
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? | About $75 |
| Do you have any general money-saving tips for future study abroad participants? | LIDL's is by far the cheapest grocery store! Tesco and Sainsbury are often more convenient but if you're buying a lot, I recommend LIDL's. |
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? | Direct Enrollment |
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? | 0 |
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? | Go out and explore on your own! Push yourself to try new things and meet new people, but also remember that abroad does not have to be the best semester of your college career, and you still need to take care of yourself! |
Individual Course Reviews
| Course Name/Rating: |
Histories and Theories of Photography |
| Course Department: | Art History |
| Instructor: | Dana |
| Instruction Language: | English |
| Comments: | This class was certainly challenging, but so so interesting. Dana is extremely passionate, and engaged the students in some great conversations. She was easy to talk to and very understanding. We have a field trip to a museum and to a cemetery to see relevant work. The class only met for three hours once a week, so the hours were bit less than I was used to. We had an optional midterm essay that we weren't graded on (which I did because I had no idea what was expected of me), and then a final paper and final exam. All very fair, on topics we'd discussed quite a bit. |
| Credit Transfer Issues: | No issues. |
