I love Belfast and you will too! Past Review

Academic rigor, intensity, resources, etc.

The academic environment at QUB is just different enough from Wellesley to provide a new view on university academics, but not so different to cause major discomfort. Classes are split into lecture, lab, and tutorial sessions, with most of the note-taking happening during lectures. Labs are what you'd expect, and I personally equate tutorials with office hours; instead of seeking out your professor for help on the assignments, there is a scheduled hour in the week during which the professor goes through the assignment with the whole class, giving hints on how to go about doing it. In this way, you never have to deal with the stress of going to privately see a difficult prof, because there will be others there with you. As for the intensity of the classes, I would say it depends on what modules you choose. As a maths student at Wellesley, I had the opportunity to take whatever classes I had the pre-req for, but I chose to take primarily maths (out of the six classes I took in the year, four were maths). Those were challenging because I wanted them to be, but the other classes I took - Celtic Mythology and Political Song - were less so. So really the level of difficulty at QUB is entirely up to you. But I can say that a standard course load for one semester at QUB is three classes, as opposed to Wellesley's four, so I found it to be a nice, relaxed pace.

On-site administration of your program

There are resources for study abroad students everywhere at QUB. You have the study abroad office, the VISA and immigration advisors, your department advisor (kind of a temporary major advisor while you're abroad), any of you professors, and of course you RAs and other res staff. Help can always be found, and you will never be left completely on you own.

How satisfied were you with your living arrangements?

I stayed in Queens Elms Village BT9, which is where primarily first years, international students, and Erasmus/study abroad students stay. While the room was rather small, Elms made up for it with a great community and plenty of events. The Treehouse is the shared common space for all the buildings in Elms, and it is where you will find laundry, a quiet study space, a free coffee and tea bar, pool tables, ping pong, an Xbox, a small convenience store, and the RAs on duty. Alcohol is allowed in the Treehouse, so if you like a party but can't drink in your dorm, just head to the Treehouse for a good time. I mention the drinking because Elms has a dorm style for everyone: quiet dorme, no alcohol dorms, ensuites, and more social dorms. So you can always find a place that's right for you. Lastly, my favorite thing about living in Elms was that there were so many international students. In my flat of 11 people, there were 3 Northern Irish, 1 Londoner, 1 German, 1 Spaniard, 1 French, 1 Czech, 2 Chinese, and me. I got to meet so many different people and see their different cultural views on the world.

I mean, I fed myself, so my food wasn't five star worthy. There is no dining hall at QUB, so you WILL have to feed yourself. Hope you like cooking.

How integrated did you feel with the local culture?

Like I said before, my dorm was a very multi-cultural one, so I feel like I had quite a lot of social and cultural integration. And since the dominate "cultural activity" in Belfast is going out for a pint, the German girl and myself definitely had a few cultural experiences (Oh my gosh Germans can seriously drink). It really depends on you to decide how much cultural integration you find. Belfast is remarkably similar to the States, in that I didn't get culture shock, so you could easily go about your normal Wellesley life and have no new cultural experiences. But I encourage you to take a chance and go to some event that you wouldn't normally go to or find a friend and just hit up a pub and chat with some strangers. OH!! I almost forgot! A huge help in the cultural experiences was Friends International, which is a group that runs cultural activities specifically for international students to get to experience Northern Ireland to the fullest. Definitely take advantage of them and go to as many of their events as possible. I promise you'll make friends at the events.

How well were health issues addressed during the program?

I only gave a 50% on this because I have no input on this. I experienced no health issue and therefore never had to go to health services during my time in Belfast.

Never at any time did I feel unsafe in Belfast. Being such a small city, there's not much trouble to be found in Belfast. I could go to a pub alone and walk home tipsy at 2am with no problem whatsoever. The only days when safety becomes an issue are St. Patrick's Day and some day in June (I don't remember the date) because everyone gets drunk and tensions run high between the Protestant and Catholic communities. As a note though, I am writing this review in June 2019, when Brexit has not happened and there is no border between Northern and the Republic of Ireland. Please be aware that if Brexit does create a hard border there, I fear that tensions will constantly run high between those two communities and the city will become far less safe. So please consider reading the recent news of Belfast to make sure violence is not on the rise in the area before committing to this program.

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

I am a frugal lady at heart, so I spent around 20 GBP for two weeks' worth of food. I don't know exactly how much I spent a week, but everything in Belfast is cheaper to make up for the exchange rate from USD to GBP. I bought whole chickens for 4 GBP!

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• Dorm

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• Local Students
• International Students

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• Local Students
• International Students

• The people!!!!! I love my friends and will never forget them for as long as I live
• The cool and interesting classes. I genuinely loved all my classes and highly suggest all of them to you.
• The bargain Tuesday deal at MovieHouse: every ticket is 3.50 GBP, regardless of time or movie.

• I do wish there had been a meal plan or a dining hall, because I can only cook like 3 things, and I got pretty bored of it after a while.
• The only problem with Elms was that the tours are kind of constant, with prospies interrupting your life every week. Pro-tip: keep your kitchen messy, because tours never go to messy kitchens. We did not heed that advice and thus saw every single tour that went through Elms.

The Avid Adventurer