Motivation
To be able to explore a different city and immerse myself in a different culture.
Personal Development
I think the most valuable thing I gained from my experience was the friends I made. Not only did I make friends with people who were from my host country, but I was able to connect with other exchange students who were from different universities. We were able to relate with each other which made our connection that little bit more authentic and I was lucky enough to be able to go visit these friends I made in their home country after the experience ended.
Academic Development
The academic challenges I experienced broadened my perspective on academic learning. The academic lifestyle was what differed the most, living on campus in college was an experience that I highly recommend to anyone as the college culture itself is a shock, in a positive way. Everyone on campus is there to study and being surrounded by this mentality definitely improved my academic drive, and allowed me to create meaningful relationships with people in my course and my friends. It was an adjustment to alter my academic assessment style but I adapted a mindset that this experience was supposed to challenge me, and overcoming the new and different academic workload would positively affect my growth.
Professional Development
I think that my networking skills were improved over the course of the experience. One of the skills that I had to refine whilst on exchange was meeting and creating relationships with people. It was a skill that I knew would challenge me as I am definitely someone who would rather stay in their comfort zone and not exceed it. This experience kind of forced me to step out of this zone and integrate into a different society where I would not know anyone and the only way to change this would be to socialise. To further challenge myself, I decided to join some college clubs and attend meetings and networking seminars with these clubs. These events were definitely nerve racking, but I was able to learn a lot from them about how to network and create meaningful connections with other pupils.
Costs
The majority of the expenses were paid before I left for the host university, as my accommodation, food and mandatory insurance that was issued by the university was included in the original fees. This was approximately $14,000. I knew that whilst in the city, I would want to attend things such as sports games (I attended an NBA, MBA and NHL game whilst in Boston) and also go out and explore the city in general. I had researched quite a bit before leaving and found a lot of the touristy places I wanted to visit were free for students, so I had budgeted about $3000 for the four months I would be in the city for going out to eat, shopping, games and public transport from the university. I then budgeted about $4000 for the holidays, I had springbreak, easter break and my birthday (which I knew I would like to go away for) and this ended up being perfect. I went to Madrid for the week of spring break with some of my friends I had made, spent my birthday weekend at the slopes in Vermont with a group of girls and for Easter I went to Arizona for a week. All in all, my budgeting was very flexible but I had a rough idea of my spending limits each month.
Funding
I received the OS-HELP loan and the UQ grant, these two fundings contributed to the university expenses, which included my accommodation and food for my experience. Without the help of the funding, I would not have been able to have afford to see and explore so many different experiences.
Accommodation
I found out about my accommodation options through my application process, however I was set on living on campus as I wanted the true college experience. I applied for the dorms right after I was accepted into my host university, however, I did not receive my results until mid december, and I was leaving for Boston in the first week of January. I ended up securing a spot in one of the three bed dorms with two other exchange students who were both from South Korea. A pro to living in a dorm is that it is so much easier to be involved with college as you are right in the midst of it, I was able to learn so much about Korea through my roommates and I enjoyed having the luxury of being able to eat meals at the cafeteria instead of cooking and waking up 10mins before classes because they were only a 2min walk away. Cons to living in a dorm is the communal shower, it was definitely something I had to adjust to.
Highlight
Probably the highlight of my experience was going to the college sport games, having four starbucks at our campus, seeing Flo Rida at our college concert for free.
Advice/Top Tips
Really put yourself out there, remember that it goes by so quickly.
