Philippines: the land of smiles. Past Review

Academic rigor, intensity, resources, etc.

The workload was very light compared to the amount of work normally done in classes at Oklahoma State. The biggest adjustment I had to make was getting used to participating in class when all of my classmates were 2-4 years younger than me, (the Philippines has a 10 year school system, so all students graduate from high school at 16 or 17 and attend college directly after, so most college seniors there are 20ish). Overall I didn't feel like I learned much academically, (specifically from my classes, that is), although I did feel I learned more about life/other cultures/ myself (personal development), in this semester overall than any semester I have had at Okstate.

On-site administration of your program

I felt that the OIL office for exchange students was very well staffed and the staff memebers available were always friendly and happy to help--but often they didn't know much about my actual questions. They were usually able to point me in the right direction, though. They were not very good about communicating with our study abroad office prior to our arrival, so there were alot of things I didn't know or wasn't really prepared for immediately upon arrival.

How satisfied were you with your living arrangements?

I chose to stay in the dormatory reserved for exchange students. Before we left for the Philippines, we were told that we could stay in the dorm for a week or two at first and then move to a different location if we chose. Upon arrival, the housing office tried to hurry us into signing contracts to the exchange student dorms and did not explain our other options to us--we had to talk to other Filipino students to find out information about the other dorms. This made it difficult to make the right decision for ourselves on living arrangements, and made it very uncomfortable to deal with the housing office in general. The exchange student dormatories were very expensive comparitavely to other housing options, particularly the other dorms where we also would have had more interaction with Filipino students. I ended up choosing to stay in the exchange student dorm, and I made some very close Japanese, Canadian, and Korean friends in the process and truly enjoyed my time there; however, I paid a very high price for my time there and if I had to do it again I would resist the pressure from the housing office and take my time deciding where I would choose to stay.

There is very little food on campus. Most students eat off campus. Its pretty cheap and a decent variety to almost anyone's taste.

How integrated did you feel with the local culture?

Overall UPLB was a great place develop friendships with Filipinos and learn about their culture. Filipinos are very enthusiastic about hospitality so I often spent time at my classmates homes and going places with them. I had a great time learning about Filipino culture, as well as the cultures of the other exchange students in the dormatory.

How well were health issues addressed during the program?

Our program didn't focus much on health issues such as Dengue Fever and other tropical diseases that it might have been nice to be "formally" informed about upon arrival. Otherwise, I felt very safe in our college town. The campus is very well lit.

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

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• Dorm

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• International Students