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Looking for advice in choosing a study abroad destination
I am trying to pick a place to study abroad and have narrowed it down to 3 choices:
Prague Salzburg Granada I cannot narrow it down at all. I want lots of stuff to do, easy access to travel on weekends, outdoor activities and just a good environment. Any tips will be much appreciated. Also would fall or spring be optimal to spend in each place? Thanks |
What are you - male/female.
Where are you from? Why have you chosen the three places you have? (I'd take Salamanca over Granada for study in Spain - that's a no-brainer). I'd pick spring because the weather will get better . . . |
What is your educational goal for that semester abroad? That should be the first in defining the location.
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Do you speak Spanish, German, Czech or none of the above? Obviously you wouldn't have to speak the language of your host country, but it would be easier, and probably more fun, if you do. I think Czech is slightly more difficult than German, with Spanish being the easiest to learn.
Personally, I would choose Salzburg or Prague. Salzburg is smaller and probably more centrally located, but I love Prague too. |
Prague and Salzburg in fall or spring can be some of the wettest coolest places in western Europe - Granada will have hot weather usually at that time - well nice and warm anyway.
Salzburg is better located for doing weekend trips out of your study base but is way more expensive - being in Austria, than Prague or Granada IME. Yes Salamanca is wonderful - lots of students dominate the town but BigRuss she/he clearly said they had narrowed it down to 3 cities - perhaps ones her university has ties with - sure there are zillions of better places I'd want to study abroad than those 3 - those 3 would be way low on my list but that's the 3 so has narrowed it down to and IMO any large city in Europe would be superb for studying abroad. Salzburg has the most English spoken if that is important - by most people - not so in the other two. |
I am a male from Atlanta, Ga. @Bigruss why would you choose Salamanca? PalenQ where else would you choose? These are just ideas!
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Granada is really on the edge of Europe, much less convenient for travelling almost anywhere else. Look at a map!!
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PalenQ where else would you choose?>
Well I would chose a university town versus some big city and Granada is a big city - Salzburg kind of and Prague huge compared to university-dominated towns like Salamanca - which is also isolated in terms of doing trips on weekends, etc Tubingen or Freibourg or Marburg or Heidelberg in Germany though some think these towns have too many Americans studying there - could be a plus though I would think Aix-en-Provence in France Leiden in the Netherlands Leuven in Belgium Perugia in Italy these come to mind as nice cities in themselves, well located for excursions on weekends and breaks and real student towns Of course there is the U K or Ireland but I presume you want to live in a non-English culture - Well I went to school in Ann Arbor, the quintessential college town, and loved the feeling of a college town rather than a huge city so I may be biased - maybe a place like Paris would be more different? |
Note you are from Atlanta - a big city well the comparison is more like Athens, GA or Gainesville or Chapel Hill - university towns with lots of things for young folk vs an impersonal large town. Then again some folks from big cities found Ann Arbor too provincial - so decide on a large town and then I'd do a Paris or Berlin or Barcelona or Rome or Florence (lots of university students there too) and that could be nice too.
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Ooh, Berlin! It's a great university town AND a very cool city. I lived there for several years and even though I was there with a spouse and two young children, it was a cool city to live in!
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I agree that your educational goals are the most important thing here. You should talk to teachers in your department at your university and your study abroad office. You want to be sure your credits will transfer back to your university and that the experience helps you reach professional goals. Some universities have their own programs set up in foreign locations. Brown University has one in Cuba!
My own daughter is at a small art school in Florence (fashion design) that her university has an arrangement with. She is being chewed alive by mosquitos, has seen people cry their knees and ankles hurt so bad from living in a walking city paved in cobblestone and swears she will never come home! She is taking classes that were unavailable to her at her university and is doing an internship with a small fashion designer whom has given her much guidance and some terrific experience. the internship was part of the selling point for me from a financial point of view. A lot of kids in her field end up in nyc for a semester just interning and often not being paid as their parents pay living expenses. Meanwhile, she has been to Milan Fashion Week, Vogue fashion night out in Florence, she has met some Italian kids from the University of Firenze which is near her school, seen historic costumes she had only seen in books, etc. this weekend, she went on a field trip with school to the Biennale in Venice. (biennial art festival which is a big deal). The mom in me has a message for your parents. No it is not the same money-wise as going to school here. Even when paperwork sent home makes it look like it is so, there are plenty of unexpected expenses and all your galavanting around comes at a cost. My daughter's student airfare was outrageous because she left here labor day weekend and will return at Christmas. My bet is winter-spring airfare is cheaper. My daughter needed new lightweight luggage, the Italian police make you register with them and pay a few that i think was close to $200. I shipped her a mosquito net express total cost net and shipping $114 whoppers, only for it to be held up at customs for 2 weeks. Believe me, there is more. I did discover amazon.it and have sent hera few things she needed for her apt. No i did not expect the pillow provided to have almost no stuffing in it. She uses a blender often and was missing that. She already has no oven only stove top and microwave. You need a waffle weave towel because you wont have a dryer. A plush towel wont dry fast enough. You need 2 sets of sheets for the same reason. Plus side for me? I am going to visit! |
DD went was in Salamanca for a year studying and I was fortunate to spend a month in fall and again in the spring..Many places to go on weekends via train or bus(or car if possible). Madrid is 2 hours away so you are not really isolated. A lovely,cultural,friendly small town atmosphere that is comfortable, safe and relatively inexpensive and weatherwise moderate. Ann Arbor..Provincial?? Wasn't when DH and I were there or when sons (3) attended! And that spread out the decades some what.
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Wow so much to think about! Thanks for the replies! Anyone have any experience in Australia?
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It really seems like you need to figure out what you want to get out of your semester abroad, rather than finding out what places random strangers on the internet think would be good.
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Sure we have experience in Australia - we live here and have 2 children attending university here .... one of whom spent a semester studying in Paris this year and one who plans to spend a semester studying in North America next year. It is hard to give you much advice without knowing what you are studying, what you like to do, and what you hope to gain from the experience. Answer those questions and you will not only help yourself to make selections, but others can offer useful advice.
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I would choose Prague, IMO the travel opportunities are the best, by train, bus or low cost air carrier.
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It seems to me that your major and the program offered by the school in each place is the first factor, followed by any knowledge of the language. Ad a student you will be dealing with locals on a daily badis - much more so than tourists ever do - and a basic working knowledge of the local language will make the entire process much easier.
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Salamanca is a great college town. Weekend trips will be a bit harder but Granada isn't well located either - it's on a slow line (not the fast trains that go from Madrid to Seville/Cordoba) and it's just a one(or two)-attraction city that's blocky, dusty and lacks charm.
Salamanca is an old city that is really nice - I visited it and told two old people who look like me to do so on their next trip to Spain and they've yet to stop thanking me. It's not too far from Madrid, but there will be more limited flight options. <<but BigRuss she/he clearly said they had narrowed it down to 3 cities>> Perhaps she/he did not know about other options, as later posts proved. |
Doesn't your university or college have selected programs abroad for their students? My kids both went to programs abroad arranged through their different college's Study Abroad Departments.
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