Type of housing: Apartment/House

Arranged by: Host university

If returning, I would choose: Apartment/House

Why? I am lucky enough to have met wonderful people through living in a college-owned house. At Oxford the college is the centre of social life for most students and those living out are not as likely to be easily involved.

Personal comments:
St. Hugh's College houses graduate students in old Victorian homes around the perimeter of the college grounds. They are large, but many are in great need of significant renovations and repairs. The roommates have not been adjusted in a few years, so people with large rooms are often paying less than people with very small rooms

Describe host city: Student life dominates the city

Nightlife: Takes place mostly outside the university/student environment

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

Personal comments:
We went to a pub called 'Thirst' a lot. (Well, when we had time in between our studies, which were very rigorous!) Also a club right across the way. The name, I forget. My apartment was right on High Street. There are lots of great shops along the way, if you're into that. Eat a cookie at 'Ben's Cookies' in the Covered Market -- they are ridiculously good. Go inside Christ Church if you can (it's closed to outside visitors). It's where 'Harry Potter' was filmed. Go to the college bops. I found the name funny at first, but I had a great time each time I went. Oxford is beautiful, but make sure you travel as much as you can. Scotland and Ireland are gorgeous.

Course recommendations:
We were on a self-contained course, so didn't interact with others, outside of our research project (which included an interview project). This year I am going back with a different school, to a different Oxford college, and looking ford to seeing the differences, as the programs on set up differently. One of the pluses for this was that our professor arranged an "insider's tour" of the BBC radio.

Personal comments:
I liked the readings, journal writings, interactive discussions,graduate project and field trips. It was not too taxing for a summer course, yet I learned alot, and luckily didn't need computer access.

Language of instruction: English

Main source of funding:
Family

Other sources of funding:
Personal savings

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

Personal spending habits:
Well, it's hard not to want to experience nearly everything when you're outside of your home country, so as a result, travel costs tripled! Try to watch eating out every day; it really adds up! Going to the grocery store/covered market and picking up breads and cheeses for the week saved a lot of money.

Food, Travel, Overall, Telephone: was more expensive than at home.

Nightlife: was the same price as at home.

Housing: was less expensive than at home.

I wish I had known...
The program hosts approximately 35-40 American students each year, and we really only work with one another academically. I wish there had been more opportunity to interact with international students. We were obviously separated from other international students, and this made it more difficult to know any of them.

In my opinion:
Everybody loved it, you will too!