Good Experience with Frustrations Past Review

Academic rigor, intensity, resources, etc.

Courses at Jacobs are not comparable to courses at Wellesley. Where Wellesley focuses on really knowing and being able to apply material, Jacobs requires a superficial knowledge of a bunch of not necessarily very useful facts. Professors were not amazing. Professors at Jacobs that I did reach out to for questions replied very promptly, but if you are looking for resources/accommodations for any learning disabilities you are going to have a lot of difficulty at Jacobs.

On-site administration of your program

Orientation was rather organized, but many people were left unaware of the resource on campus. The largest issue I had with the administration was their disorganization and inability to communicate with us in a timely manner. They took a long time to or never answered our emails, once gave us an itinerary for a weekend field trip the night before we were leaving, and sometimes had no idea when those part of the clinical practicum were supposed to leave for the clinic.

How satisfied were you with your living arrangements?

I think the rooms are high quality and are nice, however, some people had seriously incompatible roommates that made their stay miserable. Some sort of survey to assess roommate compatibility would have been preferred. In addition, I would have appreciated being warned early on about the strictness of the housing check-out process to avoid fines.

I could always find something to eat in the serveries, so that was not a problems for me. The meal plan is much different from Wellesley. You get allotted a certain amount of money on your ID card to spend on dishes of your choice. The money, though limited, allowed me to eat full meals especially because I traveled a lot so the money accumulated. My main complaint on behalf of other students, was that the serveries were not food restriction friendly. The meals were poorly labeled, and some so-called vegetarian meals did not appear to be vegetarian. There was also very limited options for those with food restrictions.

How integrated did you feel with the local culture?

The school was located in a somewhat isolated residential area, and due to the very international nature of the school and classes taught in English, we did not have a lot of exposure to the local culture unless we made an effort to bond with our host families.

How well were health issues addressed during the program?

n/a I didn't really need healthcare during my stay, but I had people I could ask if I needed help accessing healthcare

I never felt unsafe in Bremen or in Hamburg or on the Jacobs university campus.

I did not consider studying abroad until I heard about this program, and this program allowed me to travel, experience other cultures, and develop a greater sense of the world while also allowing me to keep up with my studies (e.g. major requirements/pre-med).

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

Living on a student's budget was easy once we got to Jacobs, but for the summer language program, it was extremely difficult to eat cheap due to our lack of a fridge and having to buy every single lunch and dinner.

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

The German Courses at Jacobs were very inefficient. The only time I used German was during the clinical practicum and it was difficult, because I had only limited practice with German.

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• Dorm

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• Local Students
• Americans
• International Students

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• Local Students
• Americans
• International Students

• Opportunities to travel and field trips
• Clinical Practicum
• Traveling/In School with Wellesley Classmates

• Communication with Jacobs administration
• Accommodations for physical/learning disabilities
• Maybe quality of courses (especially language/culture courses)

The Academic or Linguist