There is no replacement for going there and doing it Past Review
By Student (Environmental Economics, Middlebury College) - abroad from 09/09/2013 to 12/12/2013 with
UPCES - Study Abroad in Prague (CERGE-EI, Charles University)
What did you gain/learn from your experience abroad? Was it worthwhile?
There is no substitute for personal experience. The places you go, things you learn, and people you will meet will make it absolutely worthwhile.
Personal Information
| How much international exposure did you have prior to this program? | 1 month - 6 months |
Review Your Program
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* Overall educational experience
Academic rigor, intensity, resources, etc. |
Good balance of workload and ability to travel/free time outside of the classroom. |
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* Host Country Program Administration
On-site administration of your program |
Always open for questions and help. Great communication |
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* Housing:
How satisfied were you with your living arrangements? |
Awesome location and amenities. Great deal for the money, and had a great relationship with our landlord. |
| * Food: |
Supermarkets were difficult to navigate and far from housing |
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* Social & Cultural Integration:
How integrated did you feel with the local culture? |
Czechs are very hospitable. Met local students and families. Overall very positive experience with the locals. |
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* Health Care:
How well were health issues addressed during the program? |
Never had a health problem, but my roommates issues were handled easily. |
| * Safety: |
Never felt unsafe once. |
| 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) |
Once learned how to avoid tourists/expensive places, it became very easy to live on a budget. |
| Not including program expenses, about how much money did you spend on food and other expenses each week? | $150 |
| Do you have any general money-saving tips for future study abroad participants? | Avoid tourist attractions and restaurants/bars near those. If it has an english menu, your going to pay a premium for that. Explore outside areas |
Language
| * Did your program have a foreign language component? | Yes |
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How much did the program encourage you to use the language?
0 = No encouragement, 5 = frequent encouragement to use the language |
You could speak it if you want and was certainly encouraged, but since Prague is so international, it was not necessary at all to get around on a daily basis. |
| How would you rate your language skills at the beginning of the program? | None |
| How would you rate your language skills at the end of the program? | Beginner |
| What was the highest level language course you had completed prior to departure? | None |
| How many hours per day did you use the language? | |
| Do you have any tips/advice on the best ways to practice the language for future study abroad participants? | Go to restaurants without an english menu |
Other Program Information
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* Where did you live?
Select all that apply |
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* Who did you live with?
Select all that apply |
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* Who did you take classes with?
Select all that apply |
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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? | I now know a lot, but nothing that I wish i knew before going on the program. I thoroughly enjoyed going to the Czech Republic with zero knowledge and thus no expectations. |
Individual Course Reviews
| Course Name/Rating: |
Czechs, Americans, and Europeans |
| Course Department: | Unknown |
| Instructor: | Dan Shanahan |
| Instruction Language: | English |
| Comments: | This course provided a unique opportunity to compare cultures from a first-hand experiences as the class had students from over 8 different nationalities who were all able to bring their own perspectives to class. Through this classes interview requirements and paper, I was able to meet American expats with amazing stories about their integration into Czech culture. I very much enjoyed this class and the chance to interact with people from a wide range of cultural backgrounds. The teacher did a good job facilitating this cross cultural interaction by forming mixed student groups and as a result, I still have Czech friends from the class. |
| Credit Transfer Issues: |
| Course Name/Rating: |
Global Communication |
| Course Department: | Communication |
| Instructor: | Todd Nesbitt |
| Instruction Language: | English |
| Comments: | Was a 3-hour lecture that had a very diverse student composition- with roughly 50% non-native english speakers. Thus, class participation was essentially negligible. I was the only student that participated with any sort of regularity, so the class ended being a straight lecture for 3 hours. I learned some new principles and a lot about communication/media structure of Central Europe. However, beyond this, the class was rather dull and repetitive. The teacher could have done better to engage us with projects/participation based activities. |
| Credit Transfer Issues: | Still in approval process |
| Course Name/Rating: |
Intro. To Czech |
| Course Department: | Czech |
| Instructor: | Petra Bulejicova |
| Instruction Language: | Czech |
| Comments: | It was very helpful in providing the basics neccesary to navigate Prague on a daily basis. Rather than trying to teach us the full language, the instructors focused on things that were highly applicable to daily life. We had some tedious in class exercises but all in all, the teacher was very effective in getting students to participate. The exams and oral tests were a good test of our knowledge and make sure that you kept up with studying. |
| Credit Transfer Issues: |
| Course Name/Rating: |
CEE Economic Growth and Development |
| Course Department: | Economics |
| Instructor: | Gurgen Aslayan |
| Instruction Language: | English |
| Comments: | This course was challenging, the professor pushed us to participate frequently in class and made sure that we were always prepared. We had useful field trips to Auto Skoda and other local businesses. I learned a lot about the development and post-communist era through this class. Made use of an effective combination of historical context and math based economic principles. Got my first extensive exposure to the Solow growth model, which was very interesting. |
| Credit Transfer Issues: | Still in approval process |
| Course Name/Rating: |
Economics of Transition |
| Course Department: | Economics |
| Instructor: | Wilhem Semerak & Kresimir Zigic |
| Instruction Language: | English |
| Comments: | The course was structured as two halves with the professors switching at the midway point. This really made it into two classes. The first half, with Professor Zigic, was rather boring lectures with each class having significant overlap and review from the preceding class. I felt the midterm assessment was not fairly structured or graded, as all students were graded relative to each other instead of absolutely. The second half was much more productive since professor Semerak was very knowledgable and presented new material at a quick pace. His assessments were fair and appropriately graded. So, in summation, the first half was not well conducted while the second was a very valuable learning experience. |
| Credit Transfer Issues: | I'm still in the approval process |
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