Breaking into London Past Review

Academic rigor, intensity, resources, etc.

On-site administration of your program

The affiliate student advisor at UCL was incredibly slow at replying to emails and about half way through the year (I found out later) she left UCL, although no exchange student was ever notified and no replacement was found for her.

How satisfied were you with your living arrangements?

Although very expensive, 220 pounds per week, my housing was in a great location and my room was quite nice.

How integrated did you feel with the local culture?

British people are very cold when you first meet them, but after you're able to break through the initial coldness-they're great people and make excellent friends. I also got the chance to meet people from all over the world because London-and UCL- foster such cosmopolitan environments.

How well were health issues addressed during the program?

Although I myself never had any health issues, one of my close friends was sent to University College Hospital for a week and had terrible service. It took 3 days for her to get a scan of her stomach while she was having terrible pains. Eventually, after she had the scans and the results finally came in- she was told she had appenicitis. She was taken into surgery and was only given one day to recover because the hospital said they needed her bed for other patients. The nurses were rude and there was an overall lack of organization in the entire hospital. The only plus is that it was paid for by the UK government.

At UCL, one of the best universities in Europe-I got a really rewarding educational experience. School was not easy, but very rewarding. While I also got the other aspects of study abroad that most students get- I got to travel through Europe and make incredible friends. I also was able to network-meeting the president of my University at a UT alumni event, and finding an internship at the Embassy of Mexico in the UK. Being in London, I learned so much about different cultures, made friends from all over the world-and because of London's budding professional environment-I also learned a lot about the professional world.

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

I spent about $175/week by being very very frugal. Living in London, as one can expect- is very expensive.

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• Dorm

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• Local Students

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• Local Students

• The Location-London is an incredible city to live in.
• The atmosphere in the University-at UCL, you meet people that are not only smart and driven-but also incrredibly socially aware and very worried about reducing our imprint on the environment
• The ability to travel. Traveling within europe is so cheap, giving you the ability to make weekend or week-long trips to so many countries that would otherwise be too expensive and time-costly to travel to

• The administration and advising from both UT and UCL are quite bad. I think there is not enough support for students abroad.
• My biggest issue with the program is the conversion rate for the way in which grades are transferred over. As an unofficial policy at UCL, it is near impossible for students to get a grade higher than an 80 and any grade about a 56 is considered a good grade-with anything above a 65 being considered a very very good grade. Students at UCL convert a 65+ to an A. However, at UT-an A is only a 70+ which I believe is very unrealistic considering most home students do not even receive those grades-and they are way more familiar with the grading systems and requirements at UCL than we were. It seems quite unfair and I think it will unjustly affect my GPA.
• Getting courses evaluated for credit at home is a massive pain and it could really get you behind on your courses. I had to submit additional coursework after I petitioned to get a class re-evaluated about half-way through the semester and I still haven't heard back about whether or not it will be counted for credit.

The Academic or Linguist