Potential to do anything want-remember to budget! Past Review
By Tom B (Loras College) - abroad from 01/23/2012 to 07/08/2012 with
University of Pretoria: Pretoria - Direct Enrollment & Exchange
It is a completely different world in South Africa and you have every opportunity to make it the best 6 months of your life. You could literally go on a trip every weekend if you planed it out because traveling is so cheap and renting a car is cheap and easy to do if you just remember to bring your drivers licence(and someone has to be 23!)
Review Photos
Personal Information
| How much international exposure did you have prior to this program? | None |
Review Your Program
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* Overall educational experience
Academic rigor, intensity, resources, etc. |
Very unorganized as far as communication between professors and students, the variance of intensity between classes was extreme and the grading system was hard to convert fairly back to US credits. |
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* Host Country Program Administration
On-site administration of your program |
Very nice, the ISD was very helpful, but it would have been nice to have someone walk us through registration because it was a complicated process that not one person had all the answers we needed to get registered within a reasonable time. |
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* Housing:
How satisfied were you with your living arrangements? |
The accommodations were nothing to write home about, but it was nice have a cleaning lady come in every week day to do the dishes and clean the kitchen/communal area which was roughly 15'x15'. The cleaning ladies were very nice. |
| * Food: |
Prices were about the same as American prices at about half the places and some of the other places were slightly cheaper, with about 10 percent of the places (Restaurants, groceries stores, other food establishments) being quite inexpensives (half chicken dinners for $3 and chinese food for about $5 full meal. |
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* Social & Cultural Integration:
How integrated did you feel with the local culture? |
The local people were great, they made the trip for me! |
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* Health Care:
How well were health issues addressed during the program? |
My docter was quite rude, but getting blood drawn twice and then faxed back to the US was quite easy. |
| * Safety: |
Pretty safe, though you don't walk around at night by yourself, especially women. |
| 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) |
$100 could support groceries, going out twice a week (dinner and bar included), and $5 a person split among 8 guys for beer at home with too much worry about going over, though sometimes going out to places that have covers and then any travel expenses increase this by a lot. Traveling was fairly cheap though. |
| * Was housing included in your program cost? | No |
| * Was food included in your program cost? | No |
| Not including program expenses, about how much money did you spend on food and other expenses each week? | $100 |
| Do you have any general money-saving tips for future study abroad participants? | plan for going on small trips about twice a month and then 2 or 3 larger trips (5 days+) over the course of your 6 month stay over there. There is also a possibility for staying there about a month-6 weeks longer depending on how your finals are scheduled so that could be budgeted as well. |
Language
| * Did your program have a foreign language component? | No |
Other Program Information
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* Where did you live?
Select all that apply |
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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? | pack for cold weather, don't let it fool you that it's in Africa. budget for your trips like a said before, that would have made it a lot easier to figure program costs before going. I way over spent what I initially thought because I didn't figure in any traveling. get international drivers license or bring your american one (if it's in English then it is acceptable). Also, you need to be 23 to rent the car but only 18 to drive so hopefully someone you know can go with or rent it for you! |
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 Nearly Native or Trail BlazerCraving the most authentic experience possible, perhaps you lived with a host family or really got in good with the locals. You may have felt confined by your program requirements and group excursions. Instead, you'd have preferred to plan your own trips, even skipping class to conduct your own 'field work.' |
