One of a kind Past Review
By Andrew Emmet (Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne / EHL) - abroad from 01/18/2016 to 05/23/2016 with
Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne / EHL - Hospitality Management Summer Academy
It was so incredibly worthwhile. You're told from the beginning that its going to change your life and you'll figure out who you are. And you think you know yourself before the trip but you really don't. I learned so much about different cultures, life in general, and most importantly, I learned a lot about myself. It hard to explain exactly what that is but seeing myself now versus who I was before is really different. I traveled quite a bit on my own so it was really eye opening for me because I had so much time to myself and to meeting new people constantly.
Personal Information
| How much international exposure did you have prior to this program? | 0-2 weeks |
Review Your Program
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* Overall educational experience
Academic rigor, intensity, resources, etc. |
As far as education goes, I didn't really have a good experience. Since my program was Direct Enrollment and there wasn't any prior knowledge in the OSU department about the school I went to, there were a lot of things that I didn't know until I got there. I didn't get my class schedule until the day before classes were supposed to start so I didn't know how much time the classes would take up. (therefore I couldn't plan any trips before hand). I also didn't know that the majority of the classes I had only had 3 things determine the final grade (usually a mid term, a group project and the final exam). I also got there and found out that I had a HUGE research/group project along with my 5 classes. It added 6 hours of class time to my schedule per week. It was extremely frustrating that none of it was told to me before hand because it made it difficult to have a good study abroad experience (which in the end I still did). |
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* Host Country Program Administration
On-site administration of your program |
The administration is literally a joke. You would think for being the #1 hospitality school in the world, they would know a thing or two about being hospitable and organized but no, they didn't. All this school cared about was making money and draining me of all my funds. |
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* Housing:
How satisfied were you with your living arrangements? |
My living arrangements weren't bad. I had a roommate and two suitemates. Im sure it could have been worse. But laundry was very expensive in my housing complex. It cost me $3 to wash one load and $3 to dry a load (which they usually didn't dry them all the way). They also charged me $110 for a "clogged shower" even though it wasn't my fault. |
| * Food: |
The food on campus was good. I was lucky enough to have 3 different cafeteria's to choose from but if none of them were good (which happened plenty of times) I was in a little town and couldn't get food easily. |
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* Social & Cultural Integration:
How integrated did you feel with the local culture? |
The second day I was there I met with other direct entries who were from around the world and were in the same boat as me. So I transitioned wonderfully and found a lot friends within the first few days. |
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* Health Care:
How well were health issues addressed during the program? |
Thankfully I didn't really need to have too many run ins with the health care. But when I did I went to the campus nurse and saw the doctor who came into town every week. I got insurance through the school and had everything paid for so that was nice. I did go to a doctor outside of my town to get an ultrasound and x-ray done and it was very easy since my university helped me. |
| * Safety: |
My university and town was so incredibly safe. Nothing ever happened on campus. It is Switzerland so nothing really happens that much in general. |
| If you could do it all over again would you choose the same program? |
Yes
Even though I gave pretty low stars for the program in the beginning, despite all that stupid crap I still loved the people I did my program with, the places I went with the people I went with, and the town I lived in. It was so cool to live in the swiss alps and get to know people from Hong Kong, Shanghai, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Costa Rica, the Caribbean, England, the Middle East, and so many more places. The people and all the fun I had going to bars, swimming in our school pools, and traveling made it all worth it. |
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) |
I had 3 meals per day during the week and 2 meals on the weekend already paid for when I got there for the entire semester. So I didn't have to pay much for food. But laundry was expensive and their meal times were early so many times I would get hungry at 8. So I had to buy groceries which were so expensive. And anytime you would leave you would have to use the funicular or the bus which costs money. |
| Not including program expenses, about how much money did you spend on food and other expenses each week? | I don't know about per week. But overall for the entire program between traveling, food, transportation and everything I spent close to $9,000 |
| Do you have any general money-saving tips for future study abroad participants? | Do your research! If you can be flexible on where you go and when you go then it makes it super easy to save money. I didn't have a lot of flexibility so it made it really hard to find good deals. Use sky scanner, and plan in advance so you get better deals. But mainly just do your research and see when its cheapest to fly to the places you want to go. |
Language
| * Did your program have a foreign language component? | No |
Other Program Information
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* Where did you live?
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* Who did you live with?
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* Who did you take classes with?
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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? | Don't go with a lot of expectations! Just go with the flow and see what happens. |
Reasons For Studying Abroad
| To help future students find programs attended by like-minded individuals, please choose the profile that most closely represents you. |
The Outright UrbaniteA social butterfly, you're happiest in bustling cities with hip people, and took advantage of all it had to offer. You enjoyed the nightlife, and had fun going out dancing, and socializing with friends. Fun-loving and dressed to the nines, you enjoyed discovering new restaurants, shops, cafes, and bars in your host country. |
