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By David Jones, Cornell Club of London Scholar 2009.

My first glimpse of Cornell was from above. After an atmospherically rainy night spent on Manhattan I touched down in Ithaca, at a refreshingly small airport, not knowing quite what to expect. The drive to the campus was filled with cascading streams and wooded hill roads hiding impressive houses. The scale and opulence of the frat houses, the view of Cayuga Lake from the slope, the clock tower watching over the rest of the university - these were my first impressions of Cornell. I checked into my room in the newly-constructed William Keeton Hall and went to explore.

I applied for the Cornell Club of London Summer Scholarship on something of an impulse. It was only about a week before the application deadline that I received an email with the application form, and I almost didn’t spot it amongst everything else in my inbox. But my lectures were cancelled that day due to the flurry of snow London experienced early in the year; with nothing else to do I thought I may as well fill out the application. Never for a moment did I imagine that I would actually be awarded the scholarship, particularly as I felt that I didn’t do myself justice at the interview a few weeks later.

While it has the compensation of being fairly central in London, my own university, Imperial College, is the size of a postage stamp. Cornell is enormous, and beautiful; there are woods and fields, gorges and lakes actually on campus. Some of these places are a little difficult to reach on foot without a slightly hairy walk along winding roads - it seems to be assumed everyone will drive everywhere and indeed most Cornell students I knew had cars - but it was well worth the effort. Minutes from the miniature town that is Cornell, you can be completely alone in a secluded spot of stunning beauty.

The university has all the facilities you would expect, and more, to a very high standard - in particular the libraries were magnificent. The Uris Library had a room that I more than once heard colloquially referred to as the “Harry Potter room”, which probably paints a fairly accurate picture. Browsing the collections of the various libraries gave a good sense of the breadth of vocation represented on campus; some of the books were pretty obscure. I also made good use of the Cornell Cinema, an inexpensive and friendly establishment which showed a tasteful selection of films. In one movie Cornell was mentioned, and the audience erupted into a cheer; I was pleased to be able to join in!

Even over the summer, there was plenty going on. On Friday nights there were open-air concerts on the Arts Quad, and all kinds of music were played - blues, salsa, country and western, rock and more. Families from the environs of Ithaca congregated in a courtyard framed by some of Cornell’s oldest buildings with picnics and blankets and enjoyed the (sometimes) sunny evenings. One night I went to see a free, open-air production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream; the stage was simply a clearing in a copse on the Cornell Plantations. And of course the 4th of July was celebrated in style - one of my professors described Independence Day festivities as comprising “fireworks and flamed meat”, and lo, it came to pass. My residence hall put on a barbecue during the day and I ate my fill of burgers and hot dogs. A few days earlier the annual Ithaca 4th of July fireworks had taken place at Ithaca College, which like Cornell sits atop a hill on the edge of the town. Hundreds of people had congregated on the slope at Cornell to look across and see the firework display; it was an impressive sight, and the atmosphere was electric. The strains of Yankee Doodle emanated through the night, played by the bells of the clock tower.

Ithaca itself, framed by verdant hills and Cayuga Lake, was very well appointed for a town of its size. The almost limitless eateries of Collegetown provided a pleasant way to spend evenings with friends, and I was delighted to discover how easily food could be ordered for delivery via the internet. As with fridges that dispense ice and Jennifer Aniston’s haircut, I’m looking forward to this innovation becoming increasingly common in the UK a few years after its catching hold in America. This was my first time in small-town America, so I enjoyed wandering around leafy streets lined with quintessential clapboard houses, rocking chairs on the porch, soaking up the ambience. At the weekends I often wandered down to the lakefront around mid-morning to find Ithaca’s Farmer’s Market in full swing, and marvelled at the variety of products to tantalise and delight the senses - Thai, Italian and Tex-Mex food, eggs and meat, coffee and orange juice, and even locally-sourced wine and cider (although sadly being a month or two shy of 21 I could only enjoy the latter vicariously).

The classes I took at Cornell were introductory courses in American Government and Politics, and International Relations, chosen for their lack of similarity to my degree (which is in Maths, or Math if you will) and, in the case of the former, for its American focus. Most of my teaching for the past two years has taken the form of lectures to over 200 people, and of course being Mathematics there is little room for debate. By contrast the classes at Cornell were much more discursive and much more opinion-based, which made for highly interesting if sometimes heated exchanges. One recurring theme of the summer was the healthcare debate currently raging in the US. As I am a Brit the NHS came up, and a not insignificant contingent in the room seemed to view the very idea of it as dangerously communist, an opinion which I can’t say I share. It was an education in cultural determination; views that would mark you out as a crackpot in the UK are widespread in America, and vice versa. I was expecting this to some extent, but Cornell does have a reputation as a particularly liberal school, and I was taken aback by the degree and depth of political disagreement in the room. This was not bad thing, though - I felt that never before had I engaged in such intelligent and stimulating discussion with people who disagreed with me!

As much fun as I had, being at Cornell wasn’t a holiday. Every day I had a pretty serious amount of reading assigned to me, and I pity the student that fell behind - material was covered quickly and you were expected to be familiar with the work that was set. The American Government class was assessed by three exams equally spaced through the six weeks of the summer session, which took the form of short answer questions and essays. There were two such exams on top of two papers for the International Relations class. All this amounted to a constant stream of preparation for graded work; there was a firm policy of continual assessment. Providing you worked throughout, therefore, there was much less pressure on at the end of the course (and if you didn’t work throughout it was already too late). This is a big difference from the British system. More broadly, a big advantage that US universities have over British institutions is the liberal arts system; it is possible, and in fact encouraged, to take a wide curriculum. Insofar as specialisation is required it’s only to ‘major’ in one subject. In Britain it is only possible generally to take one subject, and to my mind this makes for an unnecessarily narrow education.

I made some good friends both in and out of my classes, from all over the world - the US and UK, Italy, Spain, El Salvador, Nigeria, Thailand, China and more. The Americans I met represented all corners of the country - New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, North Dakota, Texas, Arizona, California, Hawaii… These acquaintances included high school students, undergraduates at Cornell and elsewhere, graduate students and post-doctoral researchers, and even some faculty. There was no jockeying for status; these people all treated me alike - as an equal. Cornell is a hub of extraordinary diversity, which is testament to its quality and global reputation, and the breadth and depth of its academic mission. This comes at a price though - I was told a year at Cornell costs in the order of $60,000. It astounds me that anybody can afford that; I suppose parents have to save with a single-minded determination, but this inevitably leaves some out in the cold.

Around Ithaca there was a lot to explore, and I took a few day trips to local attractions with friends. In the nearby town of Watkins Glen it is possible to walk for about a mile and a half along a breathtaking gorge, carved out by a stream whose progress downhill is punctuated by idyllic waterfalls. There was also the upmarket lakeside village of Skaneateles, which gave the impression of being a weekend retreat for the wealthy of New York City. Taughannock Falls, just up the lake from Ithaca, was like nothing I had seen before. I even stopped in at a vineyard to the west of Cayuga Lake. The most impressive spot I visited, however, was Niagara Falls. A kind of primeval excitement and dread filled me as I thought, peering over the railings by the Horseshoe Falls, how easily the water could sweep a human along with it over the precipice. The sheer volume of water that passes over the falls is incredible (three-quarters of a million gallons each second), and apparently as much again is diverted for hydroelectric power.

After I finished at Cornell, I spent another couple of weeks in North America. I visited Washington DC, Toronto and New York City. Washington was interesting; I had spent six weeks studying American Government, so I was glad to see where the action happens. I witnessed the Senate in session the day after Sonia Sotomayor’s confirmation as a Supreme Court Justice, but all that really happened while I was there was that the Senate adjourned for August! Toronto was a beautiful city, and it was my first time in Canada. What struck me about Toronto was the fact that, unlike any British city I know, there are quiet residential streets within minutes’ walk of the downtown area. I’m sure they’re not cheap, but I could get used to that mode of living.

Most impressive of all, though, was New York City. In all the other North American cities I’d visited I had wondered vaguely where all the people were - not so in New York. From the hubbub of Fifth Avenue to the oasis of relative calm that is Central Park, from the Metropolitan Museum of Art to the financial district, New York scintillated. For several days I wandered around Manhattan sampling a tiny fragment of the cultural experience it has to offer. The whole place seemed oddly familiar - images of the island are so ubiquitous that I doubt I could have felt otherwise. While there I met up with a friend from Cornell; it was a heartening reminder of all the people spread across the United States and, indeed, the entire world that I now knew personally. Institutions like Cornell make the world a smaller place, and that can only be a good thing.

I can honestly say that my summer at Cornell was the most exciting of my life. Travel is always fun, and I did a lot of that - my carbon footprint for those two months was, shall we say, immoderate - but this time I feel as though I left a little bit of me behind. I referred earlier to my own university, meaning Imperial College, but that’s not the whole story. Cornell too belongs to me now, and I shall forever think of it in that light. Thanks to my time in Ithaca, I have resolved to apply for PhDs in the US when that time rolls around. My heartfelt thanks go out to all the members and donors of the Cornell Club of London, without whose generosity I would never have been able to spend a summer in such an enjoyable and educational way. In particular I would like to thank Liz Simpson, Natalie Teich and Jonathan Silver for their kindness and support throughout the entire experience. I was also lucky enough to be put in touch with several people while in Ithaca who variously picked me up from the airport, helped me find my feet, took me out for picnics or for dinner, gave me advice on academic Mathematics, and much more - so I would like express my sincere gratitude to David Yeh, everybody in the Cornell Abroad office, Bea Szekely, Catheryn Obern and Graeme Bailey, who helped make my stay such a comfortable one. I would urge anybody reading this and thinking about applying to go for it - you cannot win if you do not play!

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Ask these question:

• Courses Available: What courses can you take abroad? What qualifications do the teachers have? Have they taught foreign students before? Is the set-up traditional classroom or experiential learning?
• Transfer Credit: It is important to know how courses taken abroad will count towards your home degree (major, minor, language, general education, etc.). Ask your academic advisor about the transferability of study abroad courses into your degree .
• Housing: Is housing provided as part of the exchange or programme? Is it in an international university dorm? Is it with a family/homestay? In an apartment? What part of the city? How far from where the courses are offered? Near public transportation? What do you want from your accommodation?
• Cost: What are the costs of the programme, including tuition, administrative fees, room and board, international travel, in-country travel and excursions, extra costs?
• Where?: What country/region/city do you want to study in? Where in the city are the program office/courses located? Is it in a modern city, a rural location, or a developing area with limited resources?
• How long?: Is the programme available for a year, semester, quarter, summer, short-term?
• When?: Will a programme session be offered when you are planning to go, or when you are available to participate? How will the season and schedule abroad compare to that at your home campus?
• Language: Do you want to study in a country where the language is not English? How much language training should you have before going? What type of language training is offered abroad? Are courses offered in both English and the other country’s language?
• Support Services: Does your home university provide academic advisement and counseling to students through programme orientations (some campuses require that all students take a semester-long course before studying abroad)? What types of support services and administrative offices are in place abroad?
• Who’s in Charge of Safety?: Is there someone at home and abroad who is specifically responsible for students’ health and safety? What policies and procedures do they have in place?
• Program Evaluations: Quality programs will take part in regular evaluations of their programs, with feedback from staff, faculty, and students. Ask if you can see these evaluations.

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My year at the University of Virginia (known in the States as UVa) was hands-down the best year of my life. The University itself is absolutely beautiful and being able to watch the seasons change around that landscape is something that I will never forget. Going on exchange definitely made me worldlier, more independent and allowed me to become more tolerant of different points of view.

Academically, UVa allowed me to take courses that would not have been available at UQ, with professors who are highly renowned throughout the world. As the second best public university in the United States, UVa was an academic village in which ideas were constantly shared and challenged. Tutorial discussions were active and energetic, and I found that being around people who really want to learn and are passionate about their studies gave me more motivation to do well.

It was also a great opportunity for me to be able to share Australian culture with them, and the professors were always very keen to have exchange students in their classes for this reason. Due to the community nature of universities in the US, professors were accessible to students and would interact with them not only on an academic, but also on a social level.

The opportunity to be fully emerged in University life, including the spirited football and basketball games is something that I will always treasure, and the experience of living on campus and having a room-mate taught me a lot about relationships. Not only that, but the friendships I made, not only with Americans but also with other exchange students from all over the world, have allowed me to understand other cultures and inspired me to continue to travel.

Being based out of another country also provided an opportunity to travel to countries less immediately accessible to Australia, and so I was able to make trips throughout the States and also to Mexico, Europe and China during my year abroad. I would go again in a heartbeat, and would definitely recommend it to anyone who is looking for an adventure and a way to make a year of your degree fly by!

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Of the Australian Universities, I was advised that UQ offered the best courses in their School of Population Health, and since I’m doing a Bachelor of Health Science, that was my deciding factor.  The level and quality of the work provided and expected at UQ is consistently extremely high, and thus requires a lot of effort on students’ part. Definitely top-class stuff here!

The gorgeous weather makes me feel like I’m on constant holiday (besides when I’m studiously engrossed in my university work!). I think that the public transport is great here too, and have found it really easy to make friends. I’ve joined a free aerobics class held by the Riverside Green which I absolutely love, firstly because it’s free and second because I’d never done an exercise class outdoors, and right next to the river! And I love going to the Streets Beach, and markets all over town, although I still have a lot of exploring to do during the holidays!

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My study abroad experience only lasted six months, however I did so much in that time and I would definitely say it was the best six months of my life so far. I did a bit of travelling before flying into Brisbane a week or two before lectures started. Living in the University colleges was a major advantage as you met Australian students and my college organised lots of social events which home and international students could attend.

Studying at UQ was about the same or easier (depending on what modules you took) than studying here at Nottingham. University over there is much more flexible than in the UK and also much more laid back. Saying all this, I believe I gained far more useful skills in Australia than I would have done here in Nottingham and feel I am much more employable due to the experience.

The big advantage of studying abroad is travelling, before, after and during the experience. Having not had a gap year, travelling all around Australia and New Zealand during my six months away was amazing and so rewarding. If you get organised, you usually have time to see some places while studying, at weekend and semester breaks for example. Transport in Australia with a student card is dirt cheap and so we regularly went up the east coast of Australia for 3 or 4 days to take in the many of the sights Australia has to offer. UQ also organises trips to a few famous tourist attractions, I went on the Frasier Island trip early on in the semester and had a great time and met loads more international students. I met so many people out there from so many different countries and made loads of life-long friends. I spent this summer, travelling the western coast of the United States and Canada meeting with around 15 people whom I studied abroad with, which was almost as good as the semester abroad itself. From my personal experience and from talking to others that studied abroad, I can’t understand why anyone wouldn’t want to be part of the U21 programme.

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Singapore conjures many different images among visitors. A convenient stop-over destination, a sterile city-state or a thriving metropolis in the heart of Asia? I had plenty of time to decide for myself during my semester on exchange at the National University of Singapore (NUS).

My semester abroad added a depth to my legal studies. Singapore’s legislation is generally based on US, UK or Australian equivalents which means that classes have a distinct international flavour. I also had the opportunity to learn from visiting professors to the university. I undertook a course in Chinese Constitutional Law, a niche field unsurprisingly absent from my Australian studies.

NUS is a very international campus with a strong exchange culture. I was joined by nearly fifty overseas students in the law faculty alone. Meeting other students from all over the world was one of the most rewarding aspects of my semester. The other students I met proved to be a great source of travel companions, and partners in library procrastination!

Underneath the shiny veneer, Singapore is an interesting and diverse city. In the space of ten days, the city celebrates the conclusion of Ramadan, Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival and Deepavali (Indian festival of lights). The nightlife is great, taxis plentiful and the diverse array of food reflects the various cultural influences in the city. I was also constantly amused by public service posters campaigning for several causes, including better aim in public toilets, increasing the national birth rate and killing mosquitoes for five minutes every day.

It’s true that Singapore is perhaps the most ‘western’ part of Asia. With this in mind many exchange students set out to explore the surrounding area. Singapore is a hub for budget airlines and the lights of Hong Kong and beaches of Thailand are less than three hours away. One of the professors even provided a catalogue of his favourite 25 destinations in SE Asia. While I’m not sure if anyone completed his challenge of getting to all of them, we certainly had fun trying.

Believe the hype. Going on exchange is a decision that you will not regret, and an experience you definitely will not forget.

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It is amazing what you can do if you set your mind to something. Three years ago I received an email about studying overseas as a part of my degree. Whilst the idea immediately appealed to me, it would have been so easy just to delete that email and dismiss the whole idea of an exchange as being too complicated and too much trouble. But I didn’t. I made a choice that to this day stands as my best decision to date – I decided to go on Exchange. From that point onwards my actions were devoted to ensuring my ‘dream’, as it became, developed into a reality. For the next 18 months I worked extra shifts, consciously saving my dollars. Time not working or studying was spent harassing the lovely people at STA Travel with my endless planning. What started out as a six month exchange by myself at McGill University in Montreal, Canada soon evolved into an 8 month world trip encompassing 13 countries across 4 continents with 3 of my close friends (one of whom even decided to do an Exchange at the same University!).

I guess the biggest factor when you look at planning a journey such as this is often money. Whilst I was lucky enough to receive scholarships from UQ which helped with the money side of things, there are many options for financial assistance through the Government, the university and even sometimes the possibility of working whilst on exchange. So yes there’s money to be saved and forms to fill out, visas to obtain and a waiting game to be played but it’s worth it, it’s just so worth it.

Studying at a different university meant I was able to undertake a wider variety of subjects than had I studied at UQ and gave me the opportunity to strengthen my knowledge base and apply my skills in different areas. As I am undertaking an Education Degree (Music Education) my future students will also benefit from my experiences.

I can’t recommend highly enough the valuable experience that going on exchange was for me. It wasn’t just about studying in another country, for me it was about experiencing new things, seeing the world, meeting new people, living in a bilingual city, observing different and varied ways of life, experiencing four very varied seasons and seeing things I’d otherwise never get to see… and all before I’ve even finished my degree. And all it took was a decision.

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When I arrived at Melbourne University and saw that they had an exchange program, I instantly knew that I had to be a part of it. I’d taken a year off after high school to go on a Rotary exchange to France and had had such a fantastic time that the second I got back I was wanting to head off again. I’d been bitten big time!

My only dilemma was choosing between all the amazing places I could go. I finally narrowed it down to two, Mexico or Canada. Mexico, because I wanted to improve my Spanish and it seemed like a really fun place to go, and Canada because it would be a good opportunity to see my extended family. My parents are originally from Montreal but moved to Darwin before I was born. Why they decided to go from one of the coldest places in the world to one of the hottest, still remains a mystery to me. But they eventually convinced me that I should go spend some time with the family, reinforced by McGill University’s great reputation. I think they were secretly worried that I’d spend too much time drinking tequila in Mexico.

So off to Montreal I went, off to freeze to death! I’m still not sure why I went in the winter semester to be truthful, maybe for the experience, maybe because I wasn’t all there up above. However I was lucky, it was a ‘mild’ winter, meaning that it only reached -25 degrees! I kid you not! It’s the wind chill that gets you. However Montreal is so well organised that you can basically live underground, transportation, shopping, everything. I also managed to finally learn how to ski, met some amazing people from around the world, and thoroughly enjoyed my classes at McGill. I got to take subjects I never could have in Australia, like the psychology of bilingualism, which I personally found fascinating.

One of my only regrets is that I didn’t stay to see Montreal in summer. Montreal is an amazing city. It’s totally bilingual and has the mix of cultures between the anglophone area around McGill but also the francophone mentality and culture. It’s a very lively city with many places to go out, but in summer it comes to life with the comedy festival, jazz festival and grand prix.

However instead, I took summer as an excuse to travel. You see, as Canada is so far away, it was actually cheaper for me to get a round the world ticket. It was a great excuse for me to go visit my host families in France, a friend in Barcelona and another friend from Melbourne Uni on exchange in London on the way there. Then on the way back I went to NY, Boston and spent a month and a half in Mexico, Peru and Argentina. It was such a great experience! One of the best things too was that I got youth allowance for the whole time I was away because I’d been studying in Canada.

I had an amazing time and I’d definitely recommend an exchange to anyone who’s thinking about it. The two times I went on exchange are without a doubt the best two periods in my life. It’s true, it can be difficult adjusting to a new lifestyle at the beginning, but the experiences you have and the people you meet make it more than worthwhile. I now have friends around the world, fantastic memories and am much more resilient to the cold.

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