Université de Lausanne (UNIL)

Switzerland is a unique and wonderful place. Choose the time of your exchange so you can profit from the things that you enjoy most - eg go in winter if you like skiing or summer for hiking. Also, if like at my university, there is a selection process, remember the first answer is not always the final answer. When other people drop out, places that were unavailable might suddenly become free - allowing you to go on your international exchange!

Best place to travel to is to Geneva airport and go from its train station direct to Lausanne. If you feel a bit homesick or feel like you're not meeting enough people, the university has the Association pour les EtudiantEs Concerné par une Echange (AEcE, the international society) which organises loads of events and nights out.

Be self-confident and be sure that is a wonderfull personal and academical experience.

Swiss trains! Train travel is relatively cheap and can be brought down by buying a one year half-fare card (demi-tarif) which gets you half price tickets on train lines, and the vast majority of buses and boats. It costs about 150CHF but it is most likely that it will pay for itself. Overall, I found that Switzerland was cheaper than people say it can be, once you get to know where to cut costs.

The appearance of the apartment block was very off-putting since, from the outside, it appeared to resemble a prison. However, it was very friendly and the shared facilities meant that we interacted more frequently than other student households also provided by the university. I made a number of close and lasting friendships with the people who lived on my corridor.