Abroad101: Study Abroad Reviews

Beware of Tung Wah and others Past Review

By (Music and TESOL, University of Northern Iowa) for

University of Northern Iowa: Dongguan - UNI Summer Camp in China

What did you gain/learn from your experience abroad? Was it worthwhile?
I was forced to grow as a person and learn how to stand up for myself, because the people who said they would and were supposed to be there for our interest, didn't.

Review Your Program

* Overall educational experience

Academic rigor, intensity, resources, etc.

I had to deal with an F grade being posted on my transcript while I was in China that should not have been posted for the class because we hadn't finished yet. It took a long time and a lot of harassing to get it fixed.

* Host Country Program Administration

On-site administration of your program

As stated above, this program was not well organized, and at one point basically everyone at my camp wanted to go home. The students who taught at DGUT had a very different experience then those of us at Tung Wah. Everything we where told and promised was basically the exact opposite when we got to China.

* Housing:

How satisfied were you with your living arrangements?

* Food:

It was hard adjusting to the food at first.

* Social & Cultural Integration:

How integrated did you feel with the local culture?

The great wall was really awesome

* Health Care:

How well were health issues addressed during the program?

* Safety:

No comment

If you could do it all over again would you choose the same program? No

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)

Language

If applicable, to what degree did your living situation aid your language acquisition?

Other Program Information

* Where did you live?

Select all that apply

  • Hotel
* Who did you live with?

Select all that apply

  • Americans

A Look Back

* What did you like most about the program?
  • teaching my elementary class 6 and my teaching partners elementary class 5
  • seeing Beijing and Hong Kong
* What could be improved?
  • basically everything at Tung Wah, the communication,
  • the way the administration worked, and how we as students were treated during the whole trip
* What do you know now that you wish you knew before going on this program? Don't go to Tung Wah. I don't know if UNI is going back to Tung Wah, but if they are, don't do it. I can't accurately comment on DGUT because I wasn't there.