University: Saint Mary’s University

City: Halifax

Country: Canada

Continent: North America

Field of study: business administration

Study type: semester abroad

Preparation:

The preparation was very easy thanks to MicroEdu. All the necessary application documents were made available to us and questions were answered quickly. Course descriptions were always sent out very quickly when required, and if MicroEdu didn’t have one themselves, they asked the university. After a successful application, we were sent a checklist and all other necessary information for Halifax and the SMU. Check liuxers.com to see 5 tips to adapt when studying in London.

Flights:

I booked the flights immediately after receiving the confirmation in January. In the end, I could have only booked them in the summer, the prices hadn’t changed much. So you can take your time booking the flights. I had also booked my return flight directly, which was a mistake in hindsight. The SMU always publishes the exam dates for the finals very late and so it happened that my return flight was supposed to leave before the last exam date. So I had to rebook my return flight again.

Accomodation::

You have the opportunity to live on campus in a student residence or off campus. I only saw one dorm room. Everything was there that you needed, but the rooms are in my opinion very old, not particularly large and too expensive for that. It is generally not easy to find a cheap room in Halifax. I had decided to live off campus and thought I had made a good choice with Granville Hall, a kind of private student residence downtown. The Granville Hall is even more expensive than the dormitories at SMU and in the end I was very happy to be able to move out of there after two days. I definitely couldn’t have endured four months there. Luckily, I spontaneously found a very nice room in a great shared apartment directly across from the university via kijiji (the Canadian Ebay). I paid around €570 a month. That was less than Granville Hall or the dorms. If you arrive early and look at many rooms, you will definitely find something cheaper.

Halifax:

Halifax is a cute little town in Nova Scotia. The city has many nice cafes and is located directly on the sea. Point Pleasant Park just behind SMU is particularly beautiful. Most things were within easy walking distance, but otherwise there was always a bus. I found the area around SMU to be much nicer than downtown and would recommend finding a room in the South End.

Vicinity:

We have rented a car and explored Nova Scotia a number of times. You should definitely do this in September/early October so that you can also experience the Indian Summer. Cape Breton, the Seaside and Kejimkujik National Park are definitely worth a visit.

In Fall Break, my roommate and I flew to Toronto and then to New York. You should definitely use the Fall Break to travel!

SMU:

The university buildings are all located on one campus. There are several dormitories, a gym and the ice rink was being built when I was there. The rooms can all be compared to classrooms and some of them are very new and modern. Compared to my university in Germany, the courses were very small, there was homework, tests, presentations, a midterm and a final every week. As a result, I had to do more for the university during the semester than I was used to at my home university. Nevertheless, the effort was limited and there was enough time to travel. The professors are mostly very nice, interested in their students and helpful.

I had the following courses:

Ethical Responses of Organization:

I can recommend this course to you. The professor is very nice, he makes the lessons interesting and there are many ways to get good grades.

Human Resource Management:

I would not choose this course again. Unfortunately, the professor made the lessons very boring.

Human Resource Economics:

The professor made an effort, but the lessons were often quite boring. Nevertheless, she kept asking what the situation in Germany was like and whether we understood everything.

Conclusion:

Dare! It was definitely one of my best decisions to do a semester abroad and I would do it again anytime. Halifax was a very good choice and I felt very comfortable there.