WHERE TO GO FOR SEMESTER EXCHANGE?

Back in 2019, my friends and I went on a semester exchange to USA - the cultural capital of the world! We were studying communications at University of Maryland (College Park) in the suburbs of the Washington DC metropolitan area, just cross state lines in Maryland.

Back in 2019, there were a glut of universities to choose from - with the pandemic, some schools have not resumed university exchanges, so yur mileage may vary!

With a decent GPA, I had access to quite a few schools, so choosing a school was quite the headache!

This is how I picked the university:

- 🗺Where do you want to be?

Think about what type of cultures do you want to be exposed to - as a communications student, it made sense to go to a country like the USA, with their thriving media industry. I wanted to experience their culture as well, so it made sense!

- 📚Types of classes offered

Once I had an idea of the general area I wanted to go to, I used the school’s portal to see the types of classes that they offered. UMD was a large university, so there were a lot of courses that we could take, including one on archaeology and dinosaurs! Super fun.

- 🌆Proximity to the city

University campuses can be in the middle of nowhere, so make sure you go on google maps and see what’s nearby! You want to be able to explore the area without ridiculous costs - UMD was near the metro station, and we could take a train down to Washington DC for around $4 USD per ride 🤮 but at least it was nearby! Some of my friends ended up in small towns, where the nearest big city was quite far away, so that does affect your exchange experience!

And one of my requirements was to be on the east coast - I wanted to go to New York 😂

With these considerations, I then narrowed it down to three universities, two in USA and one in Amsterdam, and then it was up to fate to decide (University Admissions Office). Eventually, I was sorted to University of Maryland, where I had the most splendid 5 months there!

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