University: Boston University

City: Boston

Country: United States

Continent: North America

Field of study: business administration

Study type: semester abroad

Before the stay abroad:

After I got the acceptance for my semester abroad for the winter semester 2016 at Boston University, I started choosing a course and looking for an apartment. On both points I can say: I would do it differently in hindsight! I really underestimated the housing market. Really take care of a room or the dormitory as early as possible. By the time I thought about the price/performance ratio, the hall of residence was full, the deadline was over and I was really lost. By the way, students who applied and didn’t get a place were sent to the nearby Holiday Inn Hotel (it was said to have been very pleasant with cleaning service etc.). Check mcat-test-centers.com to see University of Wisconsin Madison.

Rent and living in Boston is incredibly expensive. For the first month I stayed at Gloria’s Homestay in Medfordused. It is a super nice house including a garden and pool with a lot of students and I can really recommend it except for one point. Breakfast and dinner were included and you could make contacts very quickly. Priced even lower than any room in Boston. The only quibble was that I had to commute an hour (doable IMO – though not in the winter due to the dropped connections) which is why I ended up finding a new room on Homestay.com. Since the rental contracts usually run for a year, I would personally take the dormitory in retrospect, even if it is really a bit more expensive. The room, which I was fortunately able to find at short notice, was in a catastrophic condition! That’s why I prefer to emphasize again: Take care of yourself as EARLY as possible : D

Course:

At my university, all selected courses were credited. Clarify this early enough, because the courses in Boston really have a high workload and you might get annoyed that it was “for nothing”.

I recommend you not to take more than three courses, otherwise you will definitely have less free time. I myself chose five courses and had weekly homework, assignments and quizzes, all of which were individually graded. For this reason, in hindsight, I would rather take one or two less courses and enjoy the semester abroad a little more.

Fundamentals of Information Technology: (Prof. Behdad Shahossini)

I really would never choose again. I had work every week, at least one quiz, programming homework, and math homework. The professor didn’t stick to the syllabus and really went too far. Furthermore, an algebra book is processed (math 5th grade high school) which has nothing to do with the actual IT course. The grades were relatively bad and you really couldn’t keep anything because of the crowd. If the exams hadn’t been open book, I wouldn’t have passed.

Accounting I (Professor Barskaya)

Accounting was great. Ms. Barskaya explained everything in detail to the last detail and it was really fun. I would choose the course again and again and do not regret my choice at all. The teacher has a lot of experience and works in accounting herself. The discussions on ethical issues and case studies were really interesting.

Intermediate Microeconomics

In my opinion, a slightly less demanding course. The teacher is super nice too. If the course is credited to you in Germany, I would definitely choose it.

International Business Management (Prof. Jung. Wang. Lee)

It’s easy to get a good grade, but nothing more. The teacher speaks with a heavy accent and is a bit difficult to understand. Furthermore, nobody really listens as a rule, because the teacher is just plain boring. The grade consists of a quiz, 2 term papers, 1 group presentation and a final exam.

Financial Concepts (Prof. Bill Mcgue)

Professor Mcgue has high standards and is a bit stricter. In the end, I have to say that I learned the most from him and got the best grades. I would recommend the course to anyone with an interest in finance. I really enjoyed it and you really get the grade you deserve.

In conclusion, I can say that I really learned a lot at the BU. You can tell that the BU is a good university and the quality of the teaching is really something different than in Germany. However, I was disappointed to have studied at MET College and not at the business school itself, because the courses were mostly from 6pm to 9pm. My courses were really almost exclusively filled with adults who are in the process of retraining. So it was difficult for me to connect. So if you want to study at the BU, it is best to look for at least one course that has many internationals your age. Otherwise, Boston is a beautiful city to study in and you can really experience a lot.