A fun semester, amazing travel opportunities, not the most rigorous classes Past Review

Academic rigor, intensity, resources, etc.

The classes at DIS were not especially hard and were mostly introductory-level, but many of them focused on giving us cross-cultural perspectives, which I really appreciated. DIS has a lot of resources and the core course study tours were very very memorable--they provide good lodging, amazing food, and lessons through trips to museums or cultural events. Overall, though, I found the academics to be not very intense, which gave me more time to explore Copenhagen and other places, and get to know my peers.

On-site administration of your program

The DIS administration was very helpful. The facilities team is very prompt and helpful with any maintenance issues in your housing, and the IT department was extremely helpful for me when my laptop broke--I was very easily able to borrow a laptop for as long as I needed.

How satisfied were you with your living arrangements?

I loved the apartment I was living in as part of the Music LLC. It was spacious, very new, right in the middle of the inner city, and close to campus. It was a very convenient place to live and I also felt that my roommates and I were well-matched.

DIS provides a food stipend equal to about $600, and so you do a lot of your own cooking. When DIS does provide food, such as the meals included in study tours or food at campus events, it's very good. But the stipend, in a city as expensive as Copenhagen, wasn't enough for most people I knew to cover their food expenses, and most people paid quite a bit out of pocket.

How integrated did you feel with the local culture?

I didn't feel very integrated with local culture because I lived with other students from the US. I felt that I knew the area very well after living there for a while, and had some opportunities to experience Danish culture with Danes, but mostly was with other American students and so did not have much cultural immersion.

How well were health issues addressed during the program?

Healthcare in Denmark is free and you're assigned an English-speaking doctor, so it was very accessible. My doctor also was very thorough and made sure to treat and discuss every relevant aspect of my health, and testing for infections, etc, was fast and easy. However, my doctor was pretty far from where I lived and had very specific calling hours to make appointments, so I often had difficulty reaching him. I also couldn't access test results and other information that my doctor sent me because I needed an online account, which I couldn't set up without the help of someone who was already registered.

I felt safe walking around the city, but my apartment was broken into halfway through the semester and some items were stolen from easy-to-access common areas. I would advise other students to be careful about locking doors and making sure they fully close behind them.

DIS allowed me to have amazing experiences while abroad and a lot of time to grow outside of my academics. It was a good break from my more intense academic experience at Wellesley, and I found amazing friends among my peers in the program.

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

Copenhagen is an expensive city. DIS tries to offset some of these costs by covering transportation passes for some students and providing food stipends, but it was still pretty expensive overall.

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

It wasn't required to take Danish, but we had a lot of exposure to it, and most of us were familiar with common words and phrases by the end of the semester even if we could not actually speak Danish.

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• Apartment

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• Americans

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• Americans

• Study tours
• Great resources
• Friends

• Affordability
• Diversity

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