Vienna: Beautiful City, Challenging Program Past Review

Academic rigor, intensity, resources, etc.

The Wellesley in Vienna program encouraged us to sign up for large lecture classes in German, since our German conversation skills were not good enough to facilitate participation in the smaller, discussion based classes. The large lecture classes I attended were abysmal - poorly taught, with no required reading or assignments to speak of, and not intellectually stimulating in the least. Unsatisfied with these large lecture classes, I signed up for a few seminar classes in English, which provided a more rigorous (and engaging) academic experience.

On-site administration of your program

The program did a good job of providing us with necessities and setting up our living situations before we got there. At the same time, the program director was often disorganized and irresponsible. When one student had a medical emergency, she was unreachable and did not get back to the student until days later. When I requested a German language tutor (twice), she never got back to me. Fortunately, Sarah Teetor was an incredible source of support and information, and really an indispensable resource during the course of this program.

How satisfied were you with your living arrangements?

Our program provided us with sheets and cookware, which was very helpful. My dorm was in a great location (very close to the university). Unfortunately, the dorm facilities left a bit to be desired. The washing machine and dryer did not work for four of the five months we lived there, so we had to take our laundry across town to a friend's dorm. The dorm supervisor failed to fix this problem until three months after being made aware of it. The dorm supervisor was consistently rude and irresponsible, often failing to show up at office hours. In addition, some of the students in the dorm were quite prejudiced against Americans, and one student actually spit in the face of another program participant without provocation (because of her nationality).

I cooked for myself in the dorm kitchen. It was a good way to meet people in the dorm.

How integrated did you feel with the local culture?

Our program director arranged guided tours of Vienna, as well as dinners and visits to the theater. Many of her theater choices were extremely bizarre. The trip to Berlin was a great experience, although a bit museum-heavy (even for me, and I have been to just about every museum in Vienna).

How well were health issues addressed during the program?

A fellow student could not reach the program director during a medical emergency.

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

I found Vienna to be a difficult environment in which to learn or practice German. Every time I tried to use German during everyday interactions, my accent immediately gave me away, and other people would automatically speak English to me (even when I continued to speak in German). Most of the students living in my Studentenheim also spoke English, and would speak English to me. Many of the Austrian students refused to speak German to us, because they would only speak to each other in dialect and found it easier to speak to us in English than in High German (at least many students expressed this sentiment to me). Many students either wanted to avoid speaking High German by speaking English to us, or wanted to practice their English through conversation with native speakers. This made it very hard to practice speaking German, since the other students would speak only in English or Austrian dialect. In addition, we were only enrolled in a German language course for our first month in Vienna. I found my German improving markedly during the course, but once it ended, my improvement very much leveled off. I think it would have been very helpful for me to be enrolled in a German course my entire time in the country, or to have a German tutor. Unfortunately, despite the fact that I requested a German tutor multiple times, I never received one.

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• Dorm

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• International Students
• Local Students

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• Local Students