Middlebury School Abroad in Mainz Past Review
By A student (Middlebury College) - abroad from 04/05/2017 to 07/27/2017 with
Middlebury Schools Abroad: Middlebury in Mainz
Had an awesome time! Learned so much outside of classes, Mainz is awesome city to be immersed in German culture, and found other students/communities to be super friendly and willing to speak German with me!
Personal Information
| How much international exposure did you have prior to this program? | 2 weeks - 1 month |
Review Your Program
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* Overall educational experience
Academic rigor, intensity, resources, etc. |
German education system has very different approach that left me feeling like I had NOT learned much from university courses, especially lectures. Resources were great and projects were appropriately challenging. |
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* Host Country Program Administration
On-site administration of your program |
Good job managing complicated forms |
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* Housing:
How satisfied were you with your living arrangements? |
Lovely suite with roommates in good location |
| * Food: |
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* Social & Cultural Integration:
How integrated did you feel with the local culture? |
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* Health Care:
How well were health issues addressed during the program? |
No issues |
| * Safety: |
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| If you could do it all over again would you choose the same program? |
Yes
Mainz is lovely, safe city with easy access to travel opportunities through Frankfurt. Great immersion, improvement in language skills, and overall exeperience! |
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) |
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| Not including program expenses, about how much money did you spend on food and other expenses each week? | $60 food $100+ travel |
| Do you have any general money-saving tips for future study abroad participants? | Travel with train and buy deutsche bahn discount card German groceries are cheap and generally good quality |
Language
| * Did your program have a foreign language component? | Yes |
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How much did the program encourage you to use the language?
0 = No encouragement, 5 = frequent encouragement to use the language |
Mandatory language pledge to only speak foreign language |
| How would you rate your language skills at the beginning of the program? | Advanced |
| How would you rate your language skills at the end of the program? | Fluent |
| What was the highest level language course you had completed prior to departure? | 400 level seminar |
| How many hours per day did you use the language? | |
| Do you have any tips/advice on the best ways to practice the language for future study abroad participants? | Be ready to complete all academic work in German and only communicate with other german students. Hard but worthwhile |
Other Program Information
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* Where did you live?
Select all that apply |
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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? | Wish I knew more about the German approach to higher education, since it is quite different to the liberal arts college system. Didn't realize how different the German I learned in class was from what I ended up listening to/speaking day-to-day with other German students. |
Individual Course Reviews
| Course Name/Rating: |
Sedimentology |
| Course Department: | Geology |
| Instructor: | Dr. Sirocko |
| Instruction Language: | German |
| Comments: | Straightforward lecture. Very unclear expectations for academic work and organized scheduling. Content was clearly recycled from previous years with limited enthusiasm from professors and shown by students. Not enough lecture time to sufficiently explain content. |
| Credit Transfer Issues: | Had trouble getting department-specific credit due to the sheer lack of material covered |
| Course Name/Rating: |
Einführung in die Fernerkundung |
| Course Department: | Geography |
| Instructor: | Dr. Helge Simon |
| Instruction Language: | German |
| Comments: | Entire course was just student presentations, which were NOT well delivered. Focus was purely on theoretical backgrounds with absolutely no practical applications and independent projects. |
| Credit Transfer Issues: | Expected to transfer credit |
| Course Name/Rating: |
Einführung in die Geosimulation |
| Course Department: | Geography |
| Instructor: | Dr. Helge Simon |
| Instruction Language: | German |
| Comments: | Very interesting content and subject, but spent too much time covering basics so that actually geosimulation content was left to last couple classes. Interesting once we actually used software for final project. |
| Credit Transfer Issues: |
