Informative life experiences in Scotland and beyond January 12, 2025

By A student (Psychology, Middlebury College) - abroad from 09/16/2024 to 12/16/2024 with

University of Edinburgh: Edinburgh - Direct Enrollment & Exchange

What did you gain/learn from your experience abroad? Was it worthwhile?

YES! I learned just as much about people, meal prep, budgeting, sharing living spaces, making friends, travel, European culture, and Scottish culture as I did anything from my classes. I think thats why I like abroad: only part of the education comes from the classes, and so the whole time you are learning since the experience of being there is educational itself.

Personal Information

How much international exposure did you have prior to this program?	0-2 weeks

Review Your Program

* Overall educational experience Academic rigor, intensity, resources, etc.
* Host Country Program Administration On-site administration of your program	Edinburgh Uni is helpful in regards of rescheduling one's classes and placing into new classes at the start of the semester. Otherwise, the administration's presences is not really prevalent nor helpful.
* Housing: How satisfied were you with your living arrangements?	I was in a six person apartment and while it was small and old, I lived with some of the coolest students from around the globe who are now my friends.
* Food:	I cooked all my meals myself, no dinning hall plan. This was a change from Middlebury for sure, but I enjoy cooking so I really loved it. Meal prep and cooking with others in a shared kitchen was a new set of skills I was able to gain from this abroad experience.
* Social & Cultural Integration: How integrated did you feel with the local culture?	The Scottish people are nice and friendly, and the lack of a language barrier makes it all the easier to fit in culturally.
* Health Care: How well were health issues addressed during the program?	NA
* Safety:	The city feels safe! I never once felt unsafe or in danger, even at 2am when wandering the city.
If you could do it all over again would you choose the same program?	Yes I really enjoyed Edinburgh as an institution and as a place. While I didn't LOVE all my classes, two of the three were educational, rewarding, well taught, organized, and informing. Moreover, the city is walkable and friendly. It's easy to make friends, to explore the city, enjoy both aspects of city life and the natural world all in the same day, and the pub scene is rather fun.

Finances

* 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)	Living in a city and buying one's own meals costs money and is not cheap. However, besides money for daily meals, I maybe spent $20 a week on myself and so if one plans for weekly grocery bills to be a lot of their budget, it's not too bad.
Not including program expenses, about how much money did you spend on food and other expenses each week?	$140 USD
Do you have any general money-saving tips for future study abroad participants?	SHOP AT LYDL! Don't go to Tesco and Sainsbury as much as possible.

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

* Where did you live? Select all that apply	Dorm Apartment
* Who did you live with? Select all that apply	Local Students Americans International Students
* Who did you take classes with? Select all that apply	Local Students Americans International Students
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?	The people! Cooking for myself! Traveling on the weekends!
* What could be improved?	Trauma in Society was not a great class, I would not recommend.
* What do you know now that you wish you knew before going on this program?	It's never too late to make friends. It feels like after the first three weeks of the semester are over people have formed their clicks and are set into friends groups. But with a month left in the semester I met and became friends with two people who ended up being my closest companions. So don't close yourself off to people and don't stop trying to make friends, regardless of how much time is left in the abroad semester.

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 Avid Adventurer The wardrobe you packed was better suited for a semester of camping than club hopping. Outdoorsy, you might forgo a crazy night out for an early all-day adventure. You'd rather take in the rich culture of an old town than the metropolis of a modern city, but for you getting off the grid is ideal.

Individual Course Reviews

Course Name/Rating:	Religion and Nationalism
Course Department:	Divinity
Instructor:	Sneha Roy
Instruction Language:
Comments:	I thought this course was educational and well taught. The instructor has real world experience with most of the seven countries reviewed in the course when analyzing the effects nationalism has on religion. The course connects not only different histories and geographies, but also different forms of religion and nationalism to give a nuanced perspective of these similar yet conflicting phenomenon.
Credit Transfer Issues:	Process has yet to begin. Still need Edinburgh transcript

Course Name/Rating:	Sociology of Medicine
Course Department:	Sociology
Instructor:	Fadhila Mazanderani & Gill Haddow
Instruction Language:	English
Comments:	The lectures and readings for this class were academic and time consuming. With that said they were also rewarding and engaging. Seminars also followed lectures and this was the most enjoyable aspect of the course as discussing and debating with classmates, especially those from the UK who have experienced public healthcare through the NHS rather than private healthcare like in the US, gave me a better understanding of how medicine operates in all western societies, despite systematic medical differences between countries.
Credit Transfer Issues:	NA, still need Edinburgh transcript.

Course Name/Rating:	Trauma in Society
Course Department:	Counseling
Instructor:	Jessica Beglieri & Abigail Finnegan
Instruction Language:	English
Comments:	Trauma in society was a large lecture style class covering broad aspects of the impacts of trauma on society and how aspects of society - such as gender, age, and race - affects the prevalence of trauma people experience. This classes was assessed based off one single final paper, which I thought was not only difficult to write but also creates unnecessary pressure since the whole course is based off one summative paper. This makes the knowledge gained from the class feel less important since not all the information can be incorporated into the final paper. Also the instructors felt unorganized for the first four weeks of the semester, which did not help.
Credit Transfer Issues: