Abroad101: Study Abroad Reviews

Americans in London Past Review

By (ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE/LETTERS., Middlebury College) - abroad from 09/30/2013 to 12/13/2013 with

King's College London: London - Direct Enrollment & Exchange

What did you gain/learn from your experience abroad? Was it worthwhile?
Independence, confidence in navigating and living in a large city, amazing international exposure and travel. Definitely worthwhile

Personal Information

How much international exposure did you have prior to this program? None

Review Your Program

* Overall educational experience

Academic rigor, intensity, resources, etc.

* Host Country Program Administration

On-site administration of your program

King's Abroad office was extremely unorganized and unhelpful in administering schedules, orientation, etc.

* Housing:

How satisfied were you with your living arrangements?

* Food:

* Social & Cultural Integration:

How integrated did you feel with the local culture?

* Health Care:

How well were health issues addressed during the program?

* Safety:

If you could do it all over again would you choose the same program? No

Finances

* 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)

London is very expensive, but worth it!

Not including program expenses, about how much money did you spend on food and other expenses each week? about 300 GBP
Do you have any general money-saving tips for future study abroad participants? cook meals, don't eat out often. Get a student Oyster Card for discounts on the tube and the bus

Language

* Did your program have a foreign language component? No

Other Program Information

* Where did you live?

Select all that apply

  • Dorm
* Who did you live with?

Select all that apply

  • Local Students
  • Americans
* Who did you take classes with?

Select all that apply

  • Local Students
  • Americans
  • International Students
About how many local friends did you make that you will likely keep in touch with? 0

A Look Back

* What did you like most about the program?
  • London itself
  • Traveling around Europe
* What could be improved?
  • King's College administration
* What do you know now that you wish you knew before going on this program? I wish I had known more about the weaknesses of the King's program so that I could organize my time more effectively before I arrived. For example, we were not aware that we would have 2 full weeks in London before classes started.

Individual Course Reviews

Course Name/Rating:

Colonial Novel in British India
Course Department: English
Instructor: Javed Majeed
Instruction Language: English
Comments: Challenging course but well-organized and Javed was a very approachable resource
Credit Transfer Issues:
Course Name/Rating:

Victorians and Social Change
Course Department: English
Instructor: Melissa Dickson
Instruction Language: English
Comments: Quite a lot of reading, but the reading list was interesting and relevant to the theme of social change. The primary lecturers were great, though I would have preferred to be assessed based on more than 2 essays.
Credit Transfer Issues:
Course Name/Rating:

Greek Philosophy I
Course Department: Philosophy
Instructor: Aufderheide
Instruction Language: English
Comments: Great discussion tutor (Katharine O'Reilly) who really helped to explain the concepts of each week's lecture. The main lecturer was sometimes hard to understand and seemed to get confused at points. Interesting class, but could benefit from more connection between the two sections of Plato and Aristotle that made up the semester
Credit Transfer Issues:
Course Name/Rating:

Modern Europe I
Course Department: History
Instructor: Karl Veth
Instruction Language: English
Comments: Karl was great, but I was very unimpressed with the lecturers. They seemed wholly uninterested in what they were speaking about, and did merely skimmed the surface of their subjects with non-contextualized statistics.
Credit Transfer Issues: