Type of housing: Student residence

Arranged by: Host university

If returning, I would choose: Apartment/House

Why? I would try to live in a shared apartment, with some native students with whom I could speak in German. Also because I would have the facilities privacy of a home, and not just a bedroom with shared kitchen. It would be much more confortable. Lastly, because I would look for an apartment in the center of the town -the student residences are more towards the outskirts of the city and you have to take too many public transport-.

Personal comments:
The good thing about the student residence was that it was in a very green and quiet location of Berlin, and near one of the biggest lakes in the city, where people bath in summer. I also enjoyed the international student atmosphare, the organized parties and events. It was very near from the university -just some underground stations away-, although quite far away from the center of the city. The bedroom wasn't too big, but pretty neat, and with a very affordable price! I had only wished the walls were thicker, because I could hear too loud what my neighbour was doing. As negative aspects, I would point out that the kitchen had to be shared between too many people, about 10, so we didn't have too much space to put our things in the refrigerator and cupboards. It wasn't too clean either, and it didn't have an oven (which would have been practical for such things as pizza). The bathroom wasn't too nice either, and it was for both men and women, not separate (not too confortable). I suppose positive and negative aspects were more or less balanced about the residence.

Describe host city: Students interact with the local community without much university involvement

Nightlife: Takes place mostly outside the university/student environment

Activities, Travel: Takes place both within and outside of the university/student environment

Personal comments:
Prenzlauerberg for cafés,Oranienburg and Kreuzberg for the alternative scene,Mitte for shops, a lot of museums and galleries of contemporary art,lots of wonderful parks, every corner of the city is a piece of recent history of Europe

Course recommendations:
Exploit the freedom of hand picking individual courses as opposed to having set criteria for study

Personal comments:
Very different from UK - experience can only be good. Annoyed by inadequacy of this website though. I studied in Berlin as part of my undergraduate degree in Edinburgh (MA German). I have since completed a postgraduate degree in European Politics at University College London (MA Politics, Security and Integration), but the iagora site's overly structured designed doesn't seem to allow me to show this.

Language of instruction: German

Main source of funding:
Family

Other sources of funding:
Personal savings
An ERASMUS grant

Work opportunities:
I didn't want/need to work

Personal spending habits:
the differents between the prices

Food, Overall, Housing: was more expensive than at home.

Travel, Nightlife: was the same price as at home.

Telephone: was less expensive than at home.

I wish I had known...
I wish I had known better the german language and more about life in general.

In my opinion:
Most people loved it.