Semester Exchange in the Second Semester, 2022 at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Pre-departure:
There were many aspects before departure that I now know I should have done better or not have bothered with at all. Firstly, Visa applications were quite a headache for me. Although my host university, Vrije Universiteit, did make the process simpler for me by eliminating the need to make a physical appointment at the Dutch Embassy to submit my documents to the IND, I still felt extremely overwhelmed. There were just so many documents I had to sign and submit that I was unsure off. Thus, I would advise you to do research on which documents they need and the deadlines for the Visa application and to not be afraid to ask others, such as representatives from the Host University, questions.
I would also recommend that on the day you receive your Visa acceptance letter that you make an appointment at the Dutch Embassy closest to you. I had trouble securing an appointment to collect my MVV at the embassy, so to ensure that you receive your visa before you need to travel to your host country, I would put this at the top of my priority list. I would also advise others to utilize student housing if they are planning on doing an exchange in the Netherlands, especially at VU Amsterdam. Student housing is by far the cheapest accommodation you will find in Amsterdam, and you will have the benefit of the housing being relatively close to campus. Additionally, you will be living with other students, so it will be easier to make new friends and build a support network in an unfamiliar country. I would also recommend packing lightly, as you will need less stuff than you think for the next six months abroad. You will also want to bring souvenirs back to your family, friends, and off course, for yourself, thus you will need some extra space in your bags. In terms of winter clothes, I would also recommend buying them while on exchange if you are travelling to Europe, as the clothes are usually better quality and are cheaper than you would find in South Africa.
Experience at the host university:
I found that the university system in the Netherlands, specifically at Vrije Universiteit, differs quite a lot from South African Universities such as Stellenbosch. A semester is divided into three periods, where periods one and two are usually two months each, and period three only one month. You would typically have two modules each period and they would start and end in the specific period that they occur in. This is a big difference from Stellenbosch, where all modules would start at the beginning of the semester and end at the end of the semester. This would effectively mean that modules are completed at a much faster pace. Furthermore, where one would have 50-minute classes at Stellenbosch, one class here is usually two and a half hours long. Consequently, this would mean that there are less classes per week than what you would be used at Stellenbosch. In my personal experience, I did prefer Vrije Universiteit’s way of working, although work had to be understood and completed at a much faster pace than what I was used to, there were never periods that I felt overwhelmed with university work, thus I felt I had a good work-life balance. The big advantage of Stellenbosch is that work is done at a slower pace, so there is usually time to catch up with work if you fall behind, but you will experience at least two big periods during the semester when all modules’ assignments and tests happen at the same time.
Amsterdam
I would recommend choosing one of the Minor programmes the university has to offer, as it has a predetermined timetable, thus you would not have to worry about your chosen modules clashing. Additionally, you can add it to your CV after you have completed it, which would benefit your work prospects. I decided to study a Minor in Risk Management for Financial Institution and I loved every module of it, especially Risk Management for Banking and Financial Institutions. It was extremely interesting for me to learn about how the banking and insurance sectors work in the European Union and what type of risks would be applied to them and what do supervisors, such as the European Central Bank, require in terms of risk management for these firms. What I found interesting about the modules I took is that there were many guest lectures who came to talk to students during lectures and they were not just any ordinary people: most worked for big banks in the Netherlands such as Dutch Central Bank, European Central Bank, Fintech companies like Adyen and various risk management companies. I loved that the university gave students exposure to experts in their field and people who are influential on a Dutch and European level. In terms of assignments and exams, most assignments were centered around group projects, so be prepared to work with many different people during your exchange semester. I did not find that there were big differences in the standards of exam questions between Vrije Universiteit and Stellenbosch University, but I would still recommend continuing to study hard and not underestimate the amount and level of work at your host university.
Return to Stellenbosch:
I would be lying if I said that I did not shed a tear as I landed in South Africa at the end of my exchange. It was wonderful for me to experience the nature and warm weather of South Africa again after being stuck in the cold for so many months. I also loved being able to see my family and friends and enjoy a lekker braai again. Living on the other side of the world for an extended period of time really gave me some perspective on various aspects in South Africa. Firstly, I realized that I appreciate the people of South Africa a lot; South Africans are extremely friendly and helpful to others, even strangers, which is not very common everywhere in the world. I have also realized that South Africa has amazing meat quality and taste, which I would now always remember to appreciate.
However, the socio-economic challenges South Africa face has become more apparent to me after I have been living in a developed and high quality of life country for so long. It has reinforced my views that no-one should ever have to live in such poverty and violence that most South Africans must endure on a daily basis. Especially as a woman, I now find it extremely sad and unacceptable that every woman I know is scared to walk alone at night or travel into certain areas alone as result of South Africa’s high crime rate. Although South Africa, like every other country in the world, has its problems, there is no other place I would rather live for the long term. My study abroad experience has not only exposed me to many new and different places, people, customs, food, and cultures, but has also made me extremely proud to be a South African and to call this country my home. However, I did love the whole experience of studying abroad, thus I would like to sometime in the next 10 years go and live in a new country for an extended period to keep on broadening my horizons and experiencing new people and places.
Semester Exchange in the Second Semester, 2022 at UNC Greensboro
Pre-departure:
…where to begin? The first thing (which I’m sure you will hear 100 times) is to start with all the admin early. The admin work that goes into travelling is definitely the least fun part of the whole experience, but it will all just be a tiny blip in your memory once you are actually overseas. The UNCG international office was very efficient and after I heard that I had been accepted, they were quite quick to mail me the documents I needed to apply for a US visa. I applied online immediately but I experienced huge issues with the US Consulate in Cape Town.
Basically, once you apply online you are usually able to make an appointment for your in-person interview, however there was a ‘technical issue’ with my account which was left unresolved for months… After calling and emailing the consulate countless times, the issue was still not resolved. By the time June came around I was freaking out, but I kept calling the embassy multiple times a day until they paid attention to me. I finally had my visa appointment, received my visa a couple days later and booked my flight to the US. Four days later I was on my way!
In the months leading up to your departure, I would suggest that you keep a to-do list on your phone to constantly update and tick off. My to-do list included things such as getting travel insurance, getting health insurance, ensuring my bank card would work overseas, buying dollars, making a budget, getting the vaccines I needed, booking flights, submitting the necessary documents to Stellenbosch and UNCG etc. Keeping a list of everything helped me feel much more in control and just ticking one thing off your list each day is very satisfying!
UNCG was also very helpful and responsive to any questions I had. Do check your emails regularly and to keep in touch with the international office and ask as many questions as you need to – they are used to dealing with students from all around the world so never feel like you are asking something silly. As the June exams approach, you will be trying to contain your excitement for this new adventure while studying for exams so the last thing you want to be dealing with is travel admin. I remember standing outside of the Study Centre on the phone to the US Embassy in tears while trying to study for an exam… it is not fun. Some things are out of your control but try your best to do everything you can before exams come around so that you do not have that extra pressure on yourself.
Experience at the host university:
UNCG is situated in a small town (Greensboro) in North Carolina and is not the most interesting and definitely not as beautiful as Stellenbosch. It is like Stellenbosch in the sense that the university campus is a big part of the town and there is a similar number of students. It is a very diverse university, with many people from different states, countries and financial backgrounds. It is not a big football school; in fact, it does not have American Football at all so you will not get that typical American movie college experience. I did love how central Greensboro was on the East Coast. This made it relatively easy to travel around the country compared to if you were far in the North or South, for example. I was very keen to travel as much as possible during my time in the US so I deliberately chose classes that were in the middle of the week so I would have long weekends to travel. I was very lucky and ended up only having lectures on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
Most of my lectures were in the Bryan School of Business and when selecting my modules, I tried to choose ones which were unique and which I could not take at Stellenbosch. For example, I took a module called ‘Global Health Entrepreneurship’ which was incredibly interesting and much more niche than the Entrepreneurship modules I’m used to. This is the one opportunity you will have to take weird and wonderful modules; I encourage you to step out of your comfort zone. I found the workload to be much less than I was used to. There was a lot of little homework assignments I needed to do, but they were all relatively easy and did not take up a lot of my time. If you go to class, complete all the assignments, and study an average amount, you can definitely get an A. Most of my lectures were much smaller in size compared to Stellenbosch and I found that the lecturers engaged with you on a much more personal level than I was used to – they spoke about their families, their past jobs and their daily lives. The lectures were also much more participative and casual than I had experienced at Stellenbosch.
Emily with a friend on campus
I would highly recommend that you stay at Tower Village if you go to UNCG. This is a residence made up of many apartment style dorms where most of the international students stay, as well as some American students. I absolutely loved staying there –I had my own room, and I shared a large bathroom, lounge and kitchen with four other girls. There were 60 other international students living there and we all became one big family. We often went out as a group of international students to explore downtown Greensboro, shop, and go to the few bars and clubs. Top tip: if you find yourself in Greensboro, go to the Corner Bar on a Tuesday night. You can get a beer for $1, and this is the student night, so it is a great place to meet new people!
I had an unlimited meal plan which allowed me to eat at the cafeteria (the ‘Caf’ as the students call it) as many times a day as I wanted. At first, I was very worried about the variety and quality of the food at the Caf, especially as I am a vegetarian. Much to my surprise, they had everything: pizza, pasta, burgers, a salad bar, an Asian section and a vegan/vegetarian section. After a while, the food can become a bit repetitive and it was oilier and saltier than I was used to, but I was still very grateful to not have to shop, cook and clean for myself. I would highly recommend getting a meal plan as this is also a time to sit down and chat with all the other students daily.
As much as your semester abroad is about being exposed to academics at a different level, it is also about immersing yourself in the culture, meeting new people and travelling to new places. I made many new friends, mostly with the other international students. I must admit, I struggled to connect with the American students. I found them to be very friendly at first but not very engaging and interested in you on a deeper level. This is a stereotype, but Americans are known to be individualistic and a bit self-absorbed, and from my experience this is true. My one goal during the semester was to travel as much as I could and I was fortunate enough to travel to many new places such as Charlotte, Charleston, Chapel Hill, the Smoky Mountains, Nashville, Boston, Chicago, New York City and a few places in Florida. Flights within the US can be very expensive, especially if you do not book them far in advance. A great option is to hire a car with a group of people and to make a road trip out of it. One thing I would therefore highly encourage you to do before leaving South Africa is to get an international driving license (it is just a piece of paper, there’s no test or anything), and to get a credit card. The rental car companies will not let you be the driver of the hired car unless you are the one that is paying for it, and to pay for it you must have a credit card.
Emily in Greensboro
Return to Stellenbosch:
I returned to South Africa after a trip of a lifetime just in time for Christmas. It was such a bittersweet moment as I was incredibly sad to say goodbye to all the wonderful people, I had met but I was also so happy to see my friends and family and be back in sunny Cape Town. The last few weeks in the US were quite an emotional rollercoaster – realizing that the whole experience was over already, that you would never have that time back and would probably never be with your whole group of friends again. I was very happy to be home and it helped that I arrived back at a time when there were things to look forward to such as Christmas, New Years and a whole summer holiday still left to enjoy.
It was so fun to be able to tell my friends and family about my experience and show them my pictures, but it is also hard to recount such a unique experience to people who did not live it themselves. The hype of arriving home does fade quite quickly and for me it kind of felt like I had never left. It is easy to come home and feel very critical of all South Africa’s problems which you may not have seen or experienced abroad, such as poverty, loadshedding, crime… the list goes on. As much as it breaks my heart that our beautiful country experiences these things on such a severe level, there is also so much that South Africa does have that other countries do not. I was more hyper-aware of all the problems we experience as a country on my return, but I was also incredibly grateful for the beautiful country we live in, for the South African humor and slang us locals use and all the eccentricities of our diverse country.
Travelling widens your perspective on many things. One thing that stood out for me from conversations with my European friends was how the opportunities for internships, scholarships and jobs in Europe far exceed what we have in South Africa. I am now very interested in doing my Masters in Europe and possibly working there in the next couple of years. I also realized from talking to other international students that I really need to up my game in terms of internships and experience before I enter the working world. I am so grateful that I was able to have such interesting and eye-opening conversations with such a wide variety of people because I now have a much better understanding of how some systems and processes work outside of South Africa. I think it is very easy for us to become consumed in the bubble of South Africa so this study abroad experience is invaluable.
Semester Exchange in the Second Semester, 2022 at the Trinity College Dublin
Pre-departure:
Before I left to travel abroad for my semester at Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland, I made a list of everything that I needed to prepare. Something that I did not need to think about, I am so grateful to say, was a visa. My grandfather was born in Dingle on the Southwest coast of Ireland and because of this, I was the last generation to receive an Irish passport in my family. Little did I know how valuable this would be. I therefore cannot advise anyone on the logistics of applying for a visa, but I do have other tips for those preparing to study abroad.
My biggest tip would be to apply for accommodation early. I left mine last minute (although I thought it was a reasonable time to start looking) only to find that most student accommodation rooms in Dublin had been booked and the only ones left were astronomically expensive. So, in order to find affordable, nice accommodation in a good location, start searching as soon as you get your placement from Stellenbosch (maybe even get yourself on a few waiting lists beforehand). Some good rooms in Dublin can be found at Kavanagh Court, Point Campus or any of the Yugo buildings. I was too late to secure a room at any of these places but was lucky enough to find a room in a lovely lady’s house in the suburbs of Dublin 7. The area is more relaxed than the city, I am a three-minute walk from the train station, my room is much cheaper than the student accommodations that my friends are in, and I have more amenities as well as free laundry while they have to pay for this. So, while student accommodation is fun, don’t rule out homestays if the things I listed sound more enticing to you.
Ireland, and most of Europe, is a lot more expensive than South Africa, to say the least. I recommend sitting down with your parents or guardians, whoever will be funding the majority of your time abroad and decide on a weekly or monthly budget for this time. Budget for items such as groceries, public transport, coffee and eating out, entertainment, shopping and travelling. This will help you stay on track and avoid overspending when you get to your destination. My final pre-departure tip is to pack for the weather! I knew coming into this time that Ireland got quite chilly and was known to be rainy, but I didn’t take this information as seriously as I should have. Umbrellas do not last long here so a good-quality raincoat is essential. During the winter months, thermal clothing comes in handy to wear under your normal clothes and some durable, waterproof boots will do you well. Good luggage is crucial if you are planning to travel around Europe during your stay as you don’t want it to break after the first trip.
Ruth on a trip in Paris
Experience at the host university:
My experience at Trinity College has been one I will never forget. One thing that I wasn’t expecting was to make friends with more international students than local students. This is mostly because international students arrive a week earlier than the local ones in order to tour the campus and go through a sort of “orientation”. Naturally, this means you will often make friends with the people that you meet throughout this time. Also, we are studying with those who are in their third year at Trinity College and have probably had the same friends since the first year–it is understandable that they wouldn’t feel the need to make friends with international students. Another thing that adds to you making international friends (and was a bit of a shock to me) was that student accommodation here is filled with about 95% international students because the cost of rent and living in Dublin is so high that most of the students live at home.
I thoroughly enjoyed the academic programme at Trinity College, to equate credits I landed up taking five modules and one elective. Each has two hours of lectures per week, and some have an extra one-hour tutorial slot. Each faculty had its own building – the business building was incredibly advanced and had its very own café where you could buy coffee and lunch and sit down to work at a table or in a cubicle. The campus itself takes your breath away, there is even a contemporary art gallery at Trinity! I found the modules here to have a majority assignment-based approach to the syllabus as opposed to Stellenbosch’s primarily exam-based approach. Only one of my modules has an in-person exam, two have online exams and the rest have only assignments.
I actually really enjoyed this as it allows one to plan out their workload more efficiently and brought a nice practical aspect to the module content. For example, in my Creative Thinking, Innovation and Entrepreneurship module we had four main assignments where we had to elevator pitch an idea for a business, come up with a Minimum Viable Product (or demo) for the business, perform actual customer research for the business and then create a Business Model Canvas to finalize the business idea. It was so enlightening as I have learnt the theoretical side of entrepreneurship for three years but actually had no idea how to go about starting a business until now. I found classes to be smaller than at Stellenbosch as well. The teachers are so passionate about their modules that it is inspiring. Societies play a big role on campus, there is a whole society fair at the beginning of the year where students can join societies ranging from horse-riding to scuba-diving to political parties – it was incredible fun.
A castle in Ireland
Apart from the academics, I cannot recommend enough to travel while you are abroad– Ryan Air flights will be your best friend. If you come to Trinity College, do make an effort to go and see the rest of Ireland, it is such a beautiful country that you will find Dublin to be the least impressive of it all.
Return to Stellenbosch:
I return to South Africa in about a week and I am so excited. I think that it is going to be a weird adjustment going from cold, rainy Ireland in winter to sunny South Africa, but I can’t wait to lounge by the pool and soak up the rays. I am not, however, excited for the long plane trip from Dublin to Dubai, Dubai to Johannesburg, and Johannesburg to Durban followed by another two-hour car drive back to my little farm town called Greytown.
I can already see how my perspective of South Africa has changed since I have been abroad. Many people back home speak about Europeas this magical place where everything is perfect and runs smoothly and so it has been eye-opening to experience it for what it truly is–Europe has problems just like South Africa. Governments here also have disgruntled citizens, there is still crime and an energy crisis. On my return, I do think that I will be equipped with more practical knowledge–in life and academics. I think that I have had so much exposure to other cultures that my self-awareness and awareness of the sensitivities of others have increased a lot. This experience has taught me critical thinking, to be open-minded and has made me even more willing and excited to learn about the experiences of others as I go forward.
Academically, I’m excited to go into my final year at Stellenbosch with all of the new knowledge that I have gained during my semester at Trinity College. I wish to major in marketing during my final year and the marketing module that I took here this semester has given me a completely different perspective on marketing management by analyzing the digital, artificial intelligence and automation aspect of contemporary marketing– it is brand new information, and I am so excited to apply it to my marketing modules in 2023. Going forward, I think that this time will allow me to see South Africa through new eyes – when you live in a country for your whole life it is easy to take for granted its beauty and cultures and only remember the bad things about it, that is until you have to leave it for some time. I will be less harsh on my beautiful South Africa, this time away has only grown my love for her. As for my future plans, being away has made me realize just how much I want to eventually settle and raise a family in South Africa.
