The Great Geneva Experience Past Review

Academic rigor, intensity, resources, etc.

It was an amazing experience with amazing people in an amazing city. What I have gathered from the experience, I think, is invaluable. However, I put 4.5 stars because I think that the Professor chosen to lead the International Relations classes has focused a lot on Africa. Although it is interesting and understandable because he himself is African, much of discussions were on that. This caused some discontent on the part of some of my fellow students as well.

On-site administration of your program

I think they were good. I do not think that any complaints we had deserves the grade to come down. Yes one of the RA's was a person who many of the students did not like. Moreover, there were instances when the on-site administration was a little biased towards some students and showed it in an instance when they filed a noise/alcohol violation to them when they did not commit such a mistake, according to them. But I think for students or advisers who read my comments, this must not be relevant because each group is unique and even with these minor complaints in some individual instances, they remained professional and organized.

How satisfied were you with your living arrangements?

They were nice.

I think the biggest complaint many students had is that breakfast is very light. This is because we had to cook all other foods ourselves or buy stuff which was extremely expensive (3-5 times the prices one could find in France which was an hour away with all the transportation changes).

How integrated did you feel with the local culture?

I myself am from Eurasian continent so I felt very connected with these people. Though there were some things that we all (including natives) found annoying in behavior of Genevois people but overall I integrated well. I would advise people go there with some intermediate knowledge of French because it would be much more easier to integrate then. The program itself did not help with this integration to be honest. The University of Geneva did and there were many organizations within this university that could give students a breadth of new connections with Swiss people.

How well were health issues addressed during the program?

Students were understood and helped by the employees that were situated in the location of our stay. But to get seriously sick so much that one would need a medical attention is very inadvisable! The insurance works in a way that you not only have a deductible of 500 Franks, you must always pay for doctor's visits yourself and then the insurance can reimburse you for that. Unless you have thousands of Franks (1 Frank was varying when we came there because this was indeed the time when banking regulation changed and 1 Frank was at one point equal to 2 Dollars) to spend on visits and all other things with doctors, then come healthy.

Geneva is super safe I think. This does not mean that a girl/guy should walk alone in some neighborhoods drunk because even in this safe city there could be bad people. The safety regulations and advises given to students were very helpful

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

More than 200-500 Franks can be easily spent per week.

0 = No encouragement, 5 = frequent encouragement to use the language

No encouragement because we were always working in English speaking environment. But if you are an extrovert and want to take it all out from the program - just go out and socialize and use the language.

Select all that apply

• Dorm

Select all that apply

• Americans

Select all that apply

• Americans

• Internship
• Site Visits
• Switzerland

• Probably include dinners too
• Teaching of International Relations Classes

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