My Exchange at The University of Maryland
Before I went on my exchange program several people told me that it would be one of the best experiences of my life. I can now say without exaggerating that this was true.
One thing I will say was that arriving was very hard. Firstly I landed in the middle of a snow storm with all my luggage and had to find my way to campus – I took a train and then walked the rest of the way but I would recommend budgeting for an uber from the train station or even airport. Even though they told us to be there on the Friday before term started on Wednesday, they actually didn’t organise any orientation events til Monday. That meant 3 days alone, cold and with no dining halls open. Having had a gap year I assumed I would be safe from the homesickness they warn you about but this period actually did make me homesick and unhappy. I would recommend arriving on the Sunday tbh – onloy if you’re in Spring Semester. Orientation had none of the cool things promised – apparently they only do those in Fall Semester – and was generally pretty boring. However I met the exchange students who would become some of my closest friends there so I would still recommend going to everything even the optional stuff.
Life on an American University campus is very different from the University of Auckland for several reasons. First, so many people live on or extremely close to campus. This definitely changes the atmosphere (imo for the better) to one that is much more campus-centric than at Auckland, where it feels like people come to campus only for classes and tests, and then leave as soon as they can. Definitely take advantage of this – it makes catching up w friends or even just unplanned run ins much easier and more common. I had dinner with a group of friends every night, regular studying together in the library and hangouts at the Quad. Second, attendance and participation are required and usually graded and lectures are not recorded. If you are in the majority of UoA students who watch some or all of your lecturers virtually this will be a bit of a shock. There is also much more selection of clubs and courses than at Auckland so that is a positive. In terms of living on campus the accommodation is about what you’d expect – not good but not terrible either. The food is interesting at UMD – there are 3 big dining halls that basically have buffet all the time with lots of different styles. While they change them slightly every day, they only have so many different versions so repeat highly often. The initial feeling that there are so many options quickly settles to a feeling of boredom with the same food over and over.
During my time on exchange I varied between probably being too over involved and tiring myself out, and periods where I didn’t push myself to take advantage of the opportunities I had. If you have to chose I would recommend over involvement over under involvement as I only regret the stuff I didn’t do. I would also recommend planning some things for the first month or two before you get there as it can feel like a whirlwind and you can get 1.5 months in without having left campus. On the other hand don’t plan everything through the whole time before you get there – once you’ve made friends on campus you’ll want to have the flexibility to make plans with them bc that’s much more fun. Also exams and end of sem work really hits you hard in the last 2-3 weeks and doesn’t leave much time for other stuff so really you only have the middle period of time to have fun. My social life was split three ways between the exchange students I made friends with, the debating club I joined and the Jewish life I participated in. All three were absolutely great and I love the people I met. I travelled a bit on my own, a bit with debating and a bit with the international students.
Overall my advice is go for it – have fun and put yourself out there (I know this is very cliché and all the stuff I didn’t pay any attention to when I was planning my own exchange but it is true).
Q&A
What were some of the highlights of the academic experience at your host university?
Classes/Lectures at American Universities are quite different to Auckland Uni. Generally (although not exclusively, particularly not for courses/majors that are super popular) the class sizes are much smaller and there is an emphasis on participation and attendance (both of which are often graded). Firstly this means actually making your 9am class rather than just watching the recording (most classes don’t have recordings) as you might do at UoA. It also means you are asked to participate a lot more – I liked this but a lot of students don’t enjoy participating and/or having to listen to other students rather than the lecturer.
Depending on the Uni and the Major, these uni’s can also often offer a lot more variety of courses. For example UoA offered 3 stage 2/3 history courses this semester – UMD offered 30+ – gave a lot more choice and a chance to explore things you wouldn’t usually study.
Also exams are much more chill than at UoA – they are run by the departments not the exam office and getting changes or aegrotats etc is basically up to your professor. Means that in most cases its a much easier process but also means its completely at your professors discretion – if you have an a**hole professor who won’t accept any valid reason – tough luck.
Not a highlight but on a similar theme this was the broad academic experience – individual professors have a lot more power than at UoA. They can basically do whatever they want with no recourse to higher levels. This means completely control over content, random changes to content, exams (or lack of exams), grading etc. It’s completely normal to have some professors who refuse to give a single A+ and some who refuse to grade lower than a B+ (I had one of each – in one class I literally topped the class and still didn’t get an A+). If you can find info about the professors before you enrol that’s super important – most unis have a wesbite that you can go to or ask on reddit.
Would you recommend any particular activity/activities unique to your host country or university?
US
- Go to uni sports games – Football/Basketball. A lot of US unis have a crazy culture around these events and free tickets for students. Even if the team sucks the atmosphere is great and it’s a great experience
Area Specific (Washington DC or around):
- Hit up the Cherry Blossoms if you’re there in spring. Find out what the date of bloom is and go a soon as possible – so beautiful but they disappear quickly
- Go to the White House – requires a lot of planning in advance
- Travel around the States – DC is pretty easy to get to a lot of places. Bussing is cheap and easy (like $10 usd to another city sometimes) although you get what you pay for. Train is hella expensive but nice – book well in advance (2 months or more)
UMD specific
- Looney tuesday’s is great but you gotta get there early (like 9pm latest) bc the lines get long and they close by 1am
What are your top 3 tips for future students attending your host university or going on exchange to your host country?
General:
1) I know it’s cliche but get involved. Join a club or clubs and also make friends with the exchange students (we had a really good group and we did just about everything together from spring break in Puerto Rico to day trips to Washington DC to nights out). UMD in particular doesn’t have a super strong culture of making friends easily in class or halls so you gotta find friends.
UMD Specific:
2) Accomodation and dining – while you have a lot of accom options supposedly, they only assign exchange students to suites (no kitchen) or apartments (kitchen). If you don’t mind cooking it’s much better to have an apartment and cook for yourself a lot and then have a limited food plan (like 100 meals – enough for 6ish meals a week). Cheaper and also gives you a lot of freedom (for example you can get home from a night of drinking and make yourself 2 min noodles or something from the fridge rather than going hungry bc the dining halls close at 9pm). Also most of the apartment buildings are in more convenient locations. While you can’t technically ask for an apartment, every exchange student I talked to who put somewhere on their form (or emailed) “please give me an apartment” got an apartment.
3) Check your courses/professors on https://planetterp.com/ – the reviews are really helpful and because professors matter so much more its super important not to get a bad professor or course.
How much did you budget for your exchange? Was this enough? Were there any lessons learned that would help future students budget for their own exchange?
I budgeted about $15,000 NZD for the exchange (including flights, accom, food and everything else), plus I had the student living cost loan from the government of about $300 per week. This was definitely sufficient and honestly I probably could have survived on less although that would have limited my ability to explore outside of the University or do some of the cool events we did. Honestly I probably wish I had budgeted more as it would have allowed me to do more weekend trips to make the most of being in the US and I could have stayed in the US and traveled after my exchange which I didn’t have the money to do.
Three lessons
1) The exchange rate is pretty variable so plan for it to be a lot worse than it is. While it doesn’t vary that much day to day, from when you start planning your exchange to when you finish you exchange is probably at least a year and it can change quite a bit over this period. I was definitely caught out by the exchange rate being much better when I did my initial budget to when I got to the US and when I left.
2) There are lots of unexpected costs everywhere, particularly during the visa application process. Also americans love adding fees to the stated price so things end up being more expensive than the price implies
3) It was basically impossible to get a job on exchange – you have to find a job, get them to sign stuff, then apply for a ssn number, then wait for it to be mailed(!) to you and then start the job – no one wants to deal with this so they don’t really hire exchange students. So don’t budget on the assumption you’ll find a job
What are your most significant takeaways from your experience abroad?
Honestly it’s hard to say what I took away the most. Unlike some others I can’t say the exchange “changed my worldview” or I “learnt a new thing about myself” because I think the stuff I learnt on exchange was pretty similar to what I discovered on my gap year. However it did help remind me of a lot of that, and reclarify the direction I want to be heading in my life.
Do you want to share anything about travels you did outside your host city/country?
I really enjoyed New York but I missed out on going to Puerto Rico during the spring break which a lot of my exchange friends did. They all had the absolutely best time and could not stop talking about it so I guess I’d recommend that.