Type of housing: On campus

Arranged by: Host university

If returning, I would choose: On campus

Why? You meet other foreign students without difficulty

Personal comments:
I was living in an international student house in Haren. The house was ok but there were two people living in one room, so there was practically no privacy at all. The rent was a bit too high (250e/month) compared to the lack of privacy. Otherwise the house was ok; good facilities, electiricity&gas included to the rent etc.

Describe host city: Student life dominates the city

Activities, Nightlife, Travel: Takes place mostly outside the university/student environment

Personal comments:
well it's a small place but don't worry you can find nice places to go out. news cafe is an elegant place to sit and drink your beer. three sisters is biggest place, but generally age average is a bit lower than expected. "place" is the only place you have to pay for enterance but it's free at every thursdays, student night. monday is sally obreins' day, you can find all exhanges upstairs. but after couple of weeks you may get bored as its cheap beer sucks. tuesday is the rest day, however, if you want to go out you can listen live regi music while drinking your beer. on wednesday, Pand48 is the place for international students. During happy hour, beer is 1Eu. Pand48 is a small but such a nice place to spend your wed. night. Shadrak is an another place you can visit on wed. Latin is dominating sound. on thursday, like saturday, city center is full of dutchs. Exchanges prefer MollyMalones due to cheap drinks but enzo is the best place to go. Friday is also a resting day, but if you fell like going out city is crowded enough. Saturday is main dutch day. Everywhere is dutch, try to interact with them. On sonday, city is dead.

Course recommendations:
Readers must normally be bought for every course and often there is a supplementary book also, so buying reading materials can be expensive if you are staying for the year and studying perhaps 9 or 10 courses. A good idea is to club together with your friends and share readers, which are specifically tailored to the course to not as good value as a proper book which you can use again.

Personal comments:
Courses in Groningen were extremely varied as regards workload and difficulty, so it is difficult to generalise, but overall I had no real problems.

Language of instruction: English

Main source of funding:
Government assistance

Other sources of funding:
Family
Personal savings
An ERASMUS grant
Student loan

Work opportunities:
I didn't explore any work options

Personal spending habits:
Housing isn't inexpensive in Groningen. There's a chronic lack of accomodation for students and it seems to get worse year by year. So take the first that is offered to you. Afterwards you can try to find (better/cheaper?) something else. Nightlife is really cheap and you can get yourself wasted with low budget ;)

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

Food, Telephone: was the same price as at home.

Nightlife: was less expensive than at home.

I wish I had known...
No, my University provided lots of information and I was able to meet with students who had lived in Groningen the year before.

In my opinion:
Most people loved it.