Posts tagged study abroad
Tessel Grubben, NYU, post #3, Friendsgiving
November has been a very good month! It started off with two of my best friends coming to visit me. I tried to show them all my favorite places in the few days they were here. It is so much fun to be able to show people around in this new city that now somewhat feels like yours. We visited museums, did some shopping and sightseeing, and above all we ate a lot. New York offers such a big variety in restaurants. It’s amazing! I think they went home all tired and satisfied after that one week, because we had been walking so much!! The picture shows us on top of the roof of the New Museum.
I also celebrated my very first thanksgiving!! Some of my friends from around here stayed in New York during the holiday instead of going back to their family to celebrate thanksgiving. So we decided to do a so-called ‘friendsgiving’ together. We woke up really early in the morning that day to go and see the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade that takes place around Central Park. It’s a famous parade that includes big floating balloons, dancers, clowns, marching bands etc. After that we went back home to start dinner preparations. One of my friends goes to culinary school so she was in charge of all the cooking. She made so much food, including a big stuffed turkey. It was a very fun day and a true American experience!
University of Maryland, Willemijn de Boer, post #2
Hi all!
This is my second post of my exchange at the University of Maryland. With already 14 weeks in, I’m getting to know the American student lifestyle a little better every day. One thing of American universities which is a little different to European ones, is the big offer of clubs you can join. And with big offer I actually mean huge offer, since the university has more than 150 different clubs. Think of something you like or you’re good at, and there is probably a club for it you can join. Since I have been rowing during my time in Delft, I decided to join the rowing team of the University of Maryland. Especially for the sports clubs of the university, joining means that you’re willing to commit a significant amount of your time for the club. However, since I get along with all the girls from the club very well, I am glad that I made this decision. The university takes care of a big part of the funding of the sports clubs, which means that most of them have the best uniforms and sports equipment. We practice together for race days, which take place all over the East coast. This also gave me the opportunity to enjoy lots of beautiful American river sides!
Besides from clubs, the University of Maryland also has a big Sorority/Fraternity culture. It is quite similar to the Dutch association culture, however, Fraternities and Sororities are social organizations with single-sex memberships. This means that boys join fraternities, and girls join sororities. At the beginning of the year, both sororities and fraternities start pledging people, which means that you notice the stereotypical Greek letters all over the campus.
For exchange students it is quite difficult to join, since you’re only here for one semester. However, you are able to join most of their parties and visit their houses, which is very much fun if you are a bit familiar with American university movies (which actually are perfect representations of the real deal).
One of the things I enjoyed most during my Exchange in the States is the opportunity to travel a lot. Because flights are relatively cheap, we’ve been to many places already, including Boston, New York, Baltimore, Philadelphia and Chicago. Most of these trips are weekend city trips, which means that we’re back by Monday on campus to be able to attend our weekly lectures. In two weeks we’re taking a quick study break in Miami, right before the finals start in our last week on campus.
I would definitely endorse everyone to go on Exchange in the United States. American college life is something you definitely want to experience once in your life! Of course it is very thrilling being far away from your friends and family, but as everyone here is in the same place, you make new friends in no time. With these people you experience a lot during your exchange, in order to make many unforgettable memories to take home afterwards! I learned a lot during my exchange, and I will never forget about the incredible times I’ve had here at the University of Maryland.
All the best,
Willemijn
Alex Zwemer, University of Maryland, Part 1, First Impression
Hi everyone,
My name is Alex Zwemer, I’m twenty year old Mechanical Engineering student, who got the opportunity to study abroad. I’m studying in the United States of America at the University of Maryland. There are a lot of exchange students in Maryland, with many of them from the TU Delft.
This is my first time in the USA, this made it extra exciting. I wondered how living here might be. The cultural stereotypes are quite close to reality. Everything is bigger, everywhere is fastfood and the people are very open. The campus is very big, although I’m living on campus it usually takes me a 10 minute walk to my class. Living on campus is a great experience, it’s just like in the movies. There are a lot of activities, such as American football games every 2 weeks, with a tailgate prior to it.
Up till mid-October the weather is really summerlike. In the beginning, this had its disadvantages, because my room didn’t have air conditioning. However, there are a lot of shops within walking distance that sell fans, making my dorm more bearable.
One big difference with the TU Delft is the meal plan, which allows you to eat as much as you want, whenever you want. Besides that it is also the place where you can catch up with each other and most of the activities planned are first brought up there. The backside however are the high costs, but that is totally worth it.
Cheers,
Alex
Willemijn de Boer, University of Maryland, post #1, Arriving on campus
Hi everyone!
My name is Willemijn de Boer, I am a third year TPM student who now studies at the University of Maryland for this semester. The University of Maryland (UMD) campus is located approximately 20 minutes from Washington D.C.
As you may hear from other Exchange students, it is hard to imagine what it would be like to study abroad. Since I went to the United States, I expected everything to be bigger and better: this expectation turned out to be quite close to reality. The campus is huge and after 8 weeks I still manage to get lost when walking back from class… With almost 40,000 students living on the UMD campus (twice the number of students enrolled at the TU Delft) you feel like being part of a big community with many events and activities going on. As an exchange student you are very well accepted into this community of American students, as long as you tell them everything about your home country. What the USA is for European students, is Europe for American students!
University of Maryland campus
Most of the exchange students here live on campus. In my opinion, living on campus is what contributes highly to my study abroad experience. I got very lucky that I was assigned to a very spacious apartment with a kitchen, together with three American girls and two other exchange students. Most of the on campus students share bedrooms with another student, but since my Italian roommate is also an exchange student we get along very well and I am very happy that I got her as my roommate.
Another feature of American campus life is the possibility to subscribe yourself into a meal plan. Although this meal plan is quite expensive (around $20 a day), I can recommend every future UMD student taking it. It gives you the perfect opportunity to get over your day together with all your friends and you never have to do any cooking or grocery shopping. With this meal plan, you can enter the dining hall anytime a day and get as much food as you want. This ‘Anytime Dining Plan’ tends to be a proof of discipline, and as we don’t want our moms to be negatively surprised when walking into the airport arrivals hall at the end of December, we try to keep it to only three meals a day.
Studying in the United States is an amazing experience and I am so happy that I have been given the opportunity to go here. At first I had to get used to the American accent of most of my American teachers, but since the education program gives you lots of possibilities to ask questions and get familiar with the class material, passing courses is not very difficult. The difficult part however is finding time for studying, as all the exchange students want to join every activity and see every American city. We travel a lot and that’s what makes the experience even greater.
All the best from College Park and I’ll keep you posted during the second half of my semester!
Willemijn
Philadelphia
New York City
Tessel Grubben, NYU, post #2, Classes & midterms
Hello,
Very happy to say that I have passed my midterm exams! And at the same time a little sad as well, because that also made me realize that I am already halfway into the semester..
The theme of the courses I am taking is Sustainable City Design. Not only is this a field of study that interests me a lot, but also could there be a better place in the world to study city design than in New York? Besides that, I think it is useful for every future engineer to be learning about sustainable design in whatever field. We need to be aware of the impact of our work on the environment, the climate, and the people around us, for the present as well as the future generations. And the ways we can best be building our cities is really something to think about considering the rapid urbanization and population growth in the world.
Model of New York (The Skyscraper Museum)
New York is often used as an example during a class and we have visited several places for field trips such as parks, musea, and an urban farm on top of a rooftop (see pictures). It is really cool to be walking around in the city and then seeing things you have been studying in real life. Having that extra knowledge about my living environment makes me feel a little more like a New Yorker and less like a tourist, at least just a bit.
Field trip to the urban farm (Brooklyn Grange Farm). I am the sixth from the left, top row
The courses are organized very differently from what I am used to in Delft. They involve a lot more reading, which was something I had to adjust to. Moreover the classes are a lot smaller, attendance and participation is required and counts for you final grade, and lastly the contact with the professors is more personal. They almost all know you by your first name and are open to individual guidance. I really like this style for a change. However, if one day you’re not really feeling like it, there is no possibility of hiding out between other students in a great, big, anonymous lecture hall. Which can be nice sometimes as well 😉
Tessel Grubben, NYU, post #1, Arriving in NYC
Hello!
My name is Tessel Grubben. Not so long ago I arrived in the city that never sleeps: New York. I am currently studying at New York University and will be doing so for the coming few months.
Before I arrived I didn’t know what to expect. And even on the plane flight here, I think I still didn’t fully realize where I was about to go. It wasn’t until the uber driver drove me from the airport to my residence in Brooklyn and we passed all the skyscrapers, amazing buildings and bridges when it all started to sink in: New York was going to be my home for the coming time.
I am staying in a student residence in Brooklyn Heights. I have to share my room with two other girls, one American and one from Australia. That was definitely something that I had to get used to, because having two roommates equals no privacy. However, it is also really fun and a true American experience. My residence is at a walking distance from my faculty which is perfect. Besides the convenience, I also really like living in Brooklyn. It sometimes feels like a cosy, seperate village on the egde of a huge city. It is perfect for escaping from the hectics of Manhattan. Nevertheless, If I do want to go into Manhattan, it is only one subway stop away. And on top of that, the Brooklyn Promenade, which is at a minute walk from my dorm, provides the very best view over the New York skyline.
The first few weeks have passed by so quickly, it is unbelievable. I had one week to settle in and get used to my new environment before my first classes would start. So during that week and during all of my free time between classes and on the weekends I have been trying to explore New York City as much as I can. Yet there is still so much more left to see and do. My list continues on growing. Luckily I have three more months to go, so no rush!
Michele Facchinelli – Georgia Institute of Technology – Post 2
Hey everyone! It is time for me to write a second post. I have been in the US for almost three months already, and the experience is going great. I have met so many nice and interesting people from this country and many others, and can really say that I am very satisfied with my experience.
Classes
Classes at Georgia Tech work a bit differently. First of all, at least for the faculty of Physics, where I take all my courses, lectures have very little students. The most classmates I have are about 20 and the least is the incredibly low number of 3. This makes lectures more one-to-one and leaves more time for interaction with the professor.
Another big difference are the homework problems. For every class we are assigned a set of problems for the following week or for two weeks after. The homework is then graded by the TA’s and it will affect a certain percentage of our final grade. Sometimes the homework deadlines all match which makes things even harder (especially if you are not used to compulsory homework). Luckily, classes only last one hour and each day I have 3 hours of lessons. This leaves a lot of extra time after classes to study and I still end up having free time in the evening.
To be honest, I prefer this teaching method, rather than staying at the University for 8 consecutive hours, as sometimes happens at TU Delft.
Football
Football in the US is a very huge thing, especially in the South. So every week or so, there is a football game between the Georgia Tech team (Yellow Jackets) and some other University. Although I am not a fan of watching sports, I have had a lot of fun cheering and watching the games.
It’s really crazy how many people attend the Football games. The stadium is always packed with fans, both students/alumni and other people not really affiliated with the school, but that just enjoy watching the games.
Social Life
Even though classes have very little students (and it seems it would be easy to get to know one another), most students find their friends outside their Departments. Fraternities and other associations are extremely common in the US and that is where they make friends.
I met most of my friends at the Christian Campus Fellowship (or CCF), and with them I shared most of my experiences. Interestingly enough, that is the same place Julia van der Burgt (another student from TU Delft that went to Georgia Tech in 2013) spent a lot of time (and they actually still remember her).
CCF helped me integrate into the American society very well and right from the beginning. They organize a lot of amazing and fun activities. Just last weekend we went to Panama City Beach in Florida, where we enjoyed one last day at the beach with really nice weather. Also, they plan many events, like camping, parties (like the Halloween and pumpkin carving in the photos), trips to corn mazes and many more every week.
Pieter-Bas Bentinck, Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech), Post #1: Campus and Atlanta
Dear reader,
Since August 11th 2015, I have been calling Atlanta, in the state Georgia in the USA, my home. For the Fall semester, which lasts from mid-August until mid-December, I will be doing my minor at Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech). In 2013 I started my bachelor of Aerospace Engineering at Delft University of Technology and after a long process of applications I got accepted here through Global E3.
Atlanta is a huge city in the south of the United States and the Campus of Georgia Tech is right in the center of it. The downtown area, where the business center and some of the major sports arenas are located, is only a mile away and midtown, where they some nice bars and restaurants, is even closer. Nevertheless, walking isn’t very common, except for when you walk to classes on campus (although even there they have a bus network that runs quite regularly).
Other than that cars are the big thing here, partly because gas is really cheap. But even if you do not have a car, Ubers are sometimes even cheaper than public transport when you want to go around town.
However, even though cars are relatively cheap, it is not really necessary to leave campus a lot. This is because there is so much to do here. For example, when you study at Georgia Tech, you are automatically allowed access to the sports center, where you can do pretty much every type of sports you want. You can join the club teams or you can form a team yourself and join the intramural competition. This is a competition within the university that takes about half a semester, during which you play a game per week. You can choose between 4 sports and once it is done, a new phase with four different sports will start. For the first phase, we signed up for ultimate frisbee with a group of friends.
Another big thing at Georgia Tech is, just like many other US colleges, college football. Georgia Tech has a really good team and there is a lot of things going on whenever they have a game. During home games, which are about every other week, it is quite common to go ‘tailgating’ before the game. Tailgating officially means having a little party around the back of your car. People will bring beers and barbecues (and in extreme cases even complete tents with TV-screens etc.) before they take off to the game. Because you live so close to the stadium at Tech, bringing a car doesn’t make sense, but the rest comes down to the same. Once you get to the game eventually it is the typical American experience with cheerleaders, mascots and marching bands so even if you aren’t really into sports, it is a great experience.
That’s it for now. There is still a lot I haven’t told yet, but that will come in the next posts!
Cheers,
Pieter-Bas
Jenneke Bijpost – University of Maryland, Post # 1 , The Beginning
Hi everyone!
In 2013 I started as a student at the Technical University of Delft, majoring in Systems Engineering, Policy Analysis and Management. Now, 2 years later, I am at the beginning of my minor. This Fall-semester, I will be at the University of Maryland, taking courses in Civil Engineering. My name is Jenneke Bijpost and over the next couple of months I will give you an insight into my life as an exchange student at the University of Maryland.
My adventure in the United States started at the end of July. I had an opportunity to work on a project in Holland, Michigan for 2 weeks and before I made a trip to San Francisco for a week. So when I came to the University at the end of August, I was already a bit used to a couple of things like American English, time difference, American opportunism, American food and suchlike. Nevertheless, my first week was a week full of experiences. I met my roommate (yes, I share a room), went to Washington DC and explored the city from a canoe, saw my first American Football game, found out the difference between a Dutch soccer game and an American one and a lot more! A couple of days ago I booked a flight to Chicago for next weekend with a group of students. To be short, the American life is full of opportunities.
Last week was my first week with classes. There are some really big differences between the Dutch school system and the American one. The classes here are a lot smaller (around 40 people per class) and you don’t have one test at the end of the semester but a lot of graded homework, pop-up quizzes and projects. Before you even can start thinking about your test, you already build up about 80% of your grade. Interaction with the teacher is really important and because of the size of the classes, the teacher recognizes you from the class before. In some courses your grade is even partially based on your appearance and energy in the class.
Over all, I am having an incredible time over here. The courses are really interesting and I am learning a variety of subjects at one time. There are so many opportunities for activities outside school! I am really looking forward to the next couple of weeks!!
Jenneke
Michele Facchinelli – Georgia Institute of Technology – Post 1
Hi everyone! I am a third year TUD student at the faculty of Aerospace Engineering. For my minor abroad, I decided to go to the United States, more in particular to the Georgia Institute of Technology (or, as everyone calls it here, Georgia Tech, or even GaTech), through Global E3. The university is situated in Midtown Atlanta, one of the biggest cities in the South-East of the US (see picture).
Since I arrived here just a few days ago, I don’t have a really neat overview of how things work here and on how to get around (I literally get lost all the time). Also classes haven’t started yet, so I can’t say for now how they are compared to the TU Delft ones. Thus in this first post, I would like to just write my first impressions and maybe give a few tips for student coming to the US or GaTech in the future.
People
Probably the first thing one notices upon arrival are how other people behave and how they interact with each other. As a first impact I would say that Americans here is Georgia are very friendly. It might be, as many of them themselves say, just because we are in the South (people often talk about ‘Southern hospitality’, which by the way is totally a thing also in Italy), but people, even complete strangers, smile, say ‘hello’ and start a conversation with you like you knew them all your life. I must say I find this very welcoming. It is very nice to have casual conversations on the bus or while walking around campus.
One thing I really don’t understand, though, is their way of saying ‘hi’. Everyone, from a person you know, to a person you’ve never seen, when they walk into you they just say: “Hey, how are you?”. The first times it comes natural to simply answer the question. But this, more often than not, results in a very awkward situation: the person who asked the question just walks away and you find yourself talking to yourself. At one of the introduction program events, about cultural differences, the speaker did mention this as a problem many international students have when first arrived. With ‘hey, how are you?’ they don’t really want to know how you’re feeling, but it’s just their way of saying ‘hello’.
Campus
The campus it’s quite huge. It’s definitely much larger and broader than the TU Delft campus, and with the buildings almost randomly spread around its area (instead of being along a long road, like in Delft). Luckily they thought of this and in the campus there are four bus lines, taking students to wherever they need (all for free). The most convenient one is the Tech Trolley (see picture), the old-fashioned looking bus.
(photo credit: https://pts.gatech.edu/subsite2/Pages/Tech%20Trolley%20and%20Midnight%20Rambler.aspx)
I actually prefer walking, because after all, despite the size of the campus, you can walk side-to-side in about 20 minutes. Furthermore, a very big difference with Delft is that there are basically no bicycles here. GaTech was ranked the most bike-friendly campus in the US, but there is still a gigantic gap between the bike lanes in the TUD campus and the ones here.
The campus itself is very green and quite hilly. There are a lot of parks and it is very likely that while walking you’ll meet hundreds of squirrels (I’ve taken so many pictures of them already, see one of them below). So even though Georgia Tech is in such a big city, they managed to keep the nature present.
Georgia Tech
For international students, the university highly suggests to join the FASET, which is basically a day of introduction. During this day you will listen to some speakers and they will help you register for classes. Since the price for such event is about $110, I would suggest not to attend it, because the only useful thing that happens is class registration, which you can do anywhere, with an Internet connection. Just remember to write an email to the supervisor of the program you would like to attend telling him which courses you want to attend and asking for a registration override (he’ll probably ask for the list of courses you attended at TU Delft, to check if your background is good enough).
Accommodation
As an international student, you will have the opportunity of living on-campus is the I-house, the international students house. Unfortunately, due to the high request, I was not chosen as one of its inhabitants. The university, though, offered me and the other students who didn’t get in, the possibility of living in one of the dorms on-campus (see picture).
Living on-campus has many upsides, like all the buildings are within walking distance, it’s a very safe place (there is a police force just for the campus, see picture), you meet a lot of other students and there is always something to do (from the gym, to the beach volleyball court, etc.). The main downsides are the price (about $4000 a semester) and the rooms, which are pretty small and furnished with rather old furnishing (unless you are lucky to end up in one of the renovated buildings).
Another option for housing is Westmar, a very big student housing complex off-campus. The main advantages are probably that the rent is a bit cheaper and that the apartments are more spacious, but of course, being off-campus, you need to get a bus (available every 30 minutes) to get to the university. The building offers, though, a gym, a supermarket, a swimming pool and other cool amenities.
Free time
Here at Georgia Tech there are more than 400 associations and clubs. There is literally a club for everything: if you want to play Bridge, they have it; a flying club, of course; and so much more. Obviously there are also a lot of sports clubs and the Campus Recreation Center is equipped with any kind of training machine you can think of.
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