Writing Papers in Berlin: a Sojourn July 27, 2022

Academic rigor, intensity, resources, etc.

Generally good, but held back by an imbalanced workload- almost nothing in the first half of the semester and far too much in the second.

On-site administration of your program

Very satisfied. Administrators and staff were always available and perfectly helpful, friendly, and gracious.

How satisfied were you with your living arrangements?

Not bad and fairly priced. I was very grateful to obtain a single room. I wish we could've had a subway connection to the university- the bus service was dreadful.

Decent and fairly priced. About the same quality as the food at Midd, if not better, since the lows were never quite as low, and the highs were comparable.

How integrated did you feel with the local culture?

Not very, although this was also my fault- I did not try very hard to integrate since this was not really my goal in going to Berlin; I knew I couldn't get integrated in a semester anyway. Still, I did not feel completely estranged from the local culture, hence the rating.

How well were health issues addressed during the program?

I never had cause to seek medical help, so I cannot rate the quality of the healthcare itself; however, when I got a cold and had to stay home and put work on hold for a week, my program very graciously granted me an extension on my papers. For that it earns five stars.

I never felt unsafe but I also tended to avoid the less safe areas. I took care of my possessions and was never robbed; I don't know if I was ever in danger of that. One piece of advice for my posterity: if you live in the dorms, there are residents there who are able to pick the locks on your (everyone's) door. Generally they are a positive, as they can and will help you if you get locked out. Since the locks are so vulnerable however, I would caution against leaving valuables unattended in your room for long periods, letting it be known that you'll be out of town for a while, etc.

It was a good program, there isn't much to complain about. I was definitely expecting to not have to work quite this hard, and I wouldn't characterize myself as someone who slacks off a lot. I would say this program was more work-intensive than an average semester at Midd, certainly in my major. Writing three research papers in German at the same time while not having full mastery of the language and needing to learn German academic writing norms from scratch (believe me, they are quite different from American norms and the Midd German department does not prepare you for this) in 2/2.5 months is no joke. Especially if like me you choose paper topics that are fairly complex and require a lot of research. Still, it was fun overall.

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

Pretty easy, I did not spend more than I was expecting to.

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

It was required to speak German virtually at all times.

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• Dorm

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• Local Students
• Americans
• International Students

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• Local Students
• International Students

• the city
• the helpfulness of the admin
• the city again, it's just the best (also, the ease of choosing and registering for classes)

• better communication as to the workload, timeframes etc.
• the preliminary academic writing course they made us attend was a joke- mindnumbingly boring and taught us barely anything practically useful about German academic writing standards. It should be reworked or removed
• a very minor point, but all the restaurants they chose for our official dinners etc. were quite poor

The Academic or Linguist