Andrew Thibodeau

St. Gallen, Spring 2005

Study Abroad Final Report

Academic experiences at the partner school

1. General academic structure:

The academic structure is set up so that at pretty much any moment during the semester a student can enroll in any of the classes. There is a two week period at the beginning of the semester where the students are encouraged to visit as many classes as possible to see which ones they want to take and have time for. Most of the classes are once a week, ranging anywhere from two to four hours in duration. Tests are given at the end of the semester and students are expected to keep up with the readings and assignments. My classes did not generally have any regular homework. Most of them had one final test at the end of the year and either a paper or a presentation in the middle.

2. Classes taken/ how they compare to courses here:

To keep a consistent full time class load, I attended eight classes regular semester classes. There is the possibility to take full day seminars during the two week semester break, but I had no time for any of the seminars. All of my classes were once a week, so I had one or two classes every day of the week.

3. Advising:

Advising is at the beginning of the semester during the orientation week and is quite helpful. They help you determine what German level you are at, knowing if you can take a class in german. Advising does not go much beyond that. They do have office hours where you can come in and talk with the advisors personally, but I did not need the advising. I was able to figure out most of my classes and how they would transfer before I left.

4. Surprises/comparison with academic environment in the U.S:

The only thing that I was surprised about was the schedules of the classes. I was used to a two or three class a week system with possibly a discussion. All of the classes at St. Gallen were much more intense and focused. Again they were only once a week for three to four hours and had a lot of depth to the subject matter.

Logistics at the partner school:

1. Orientation/Arrival:

The first week of arrival at St. Gallen was extremely helpful. It is during this period that we had a german class everyday, along with tours and guides. We went to different parts of the town, orientated ourselves at where we were, and went through tutorials at the library and computer labs. Although there were over a hundred students in the exchange program, it went very smoothly and a lot of useful information was gained during the orientation week. It was also a great time to meet the other students, the people who I spent most of my time with.

2. Housing:

I was in a house/apartment building with four floors consisting of entirely exchange students. I had a large room, including a bed, couch, desk, dresser, and shelves. It was very clean and the set up with the other exchange students worked out very well. It helped out a lot to live with other exchange students who were just as new and unadjusted as I was. Although the apartment was very large, it was also old and a little bit run down. I lived on Rosenberg Strasse and the rent in this particular house, I thought was quite expensive.

Rent was almost 500 dollars a month and electricity around sixty. We also had quite a bit of difficulty with our landlord and the cleanliness of the house. In my opinion, it was pretty clean most of the time, but we were almost forced to pay for a monthly cleaning service. When I applied for the program I had the school find me the best apartment instead of looking for myself. I think it is a good idea to do it that way because you will end of living with other students instead of a regular apartment.

3. Meals:

Food in Switzerland, along with pretty much everything else is very expensive. The university did not have a cafeteria but just a small food stand on each floor, with a mess hall sitting area. I rarely went out to eat in restaurant in the town because the meals were just too expensive. I saved a lot of money by cooking my own meals and working with other people on my flat to cook together.

4. Transportation:

To get to the university I took the local bus route which runs in most areas of the town, and is relatively inexpensive. In the town of St. Gallen there is also the transit line that runs all over. I only rode this about two times, one to get to a student dinner and the other to get across town for an errand. Most of the time I did not need to use any transportation in town. Almost everything is in walking distance, included the town center, movie theaters, grocery stores, and all of the shopping areas.

The intra Switzerland train tickets are a bit pricey but they can be cheapened by buying half price cards and free after seven cards.

5. Student Groups

One of the things that I liked most about the exchange program to St. Gallen was the student help group called the “Buddy System.” This was a group of local students set out to help orientate the exchange students into the school. At first it sounded a little corny to me but the more time I spent with them the more fun we had. The group would set up numerous city visits, like going to Zurich for the weekend or down near Italy to Lacarno.

They also had parties and dinner get-togethers that were both fun and helpful in meeting new people. We also had a large international dinner during one of the last weeks, where every person brought a dish from their native country. Although we only brought macaroni and cheese, it was one of the best dinners that I have ever had. So, my recommendation to whoever is reading this is to be a part of the “Buddy” program, despite how silly the name sounds.

Host Country Culture

1. What were some surprises or insights you had into the culture of your host country/school?

As odd as it sounds there were really not too many surprises or culture shocks that I had when immediately entering Switzerland. The people were extremely friendly, they gave help when asked, it was clean, and it was much like I had expected. The one thing that did surprise me was the government house asking for my religious background when I applied for the residence permit. I am very much used to the American system where government and religion and separated and against the law in almost every state. Other than that, I did not have any culture shocks. The University of St. Gallen is one of the most recognized business schools in all of the German speaking countries and I was not at all surprised to be surrounded by hard working and dedicated students.

I had heard that Switzerland was a very quiet and peaceful country but I had no idea how quiet it actually was. I would see police officers only once or twice a month. It was a very trusting and calm community. I loved every bit of it.

2. What are your recommendations for ways that other exchange students can learn about and become immersed in the culture?

There is not too much advise that I can give for this question. I guess the only thing I can say is to learn the language. Not only were the local Swiss people very surprised by the fact that I could speak German but they were intrigued that I was trying to learn the dialect of Swiss German. The Swiss people are generally a little hard to get to know, and friendship for them is a longer process that what I was used to, but after getting to know a few local students I became very good friends with them. It is getting to know individual people, and that is the key to understanding the culture of the whole country. I also came across a few encounters where people had negative attitudes toward America and American people, but you just have to be patient and find the people who get to know you and not your president’s reputation.

3. Did you have the chance to learn a second language? Why or why not?

As I said before, I have been taking German for quite a long time now and it was very helpful being in the German speaking section of Switzerland. The only diffuculty that I had was learning the Swiss dialect. Most of the time when talking to the Swiss people I had to request that they speak in high German in order for me to understand them. There were also numerous German language classes offered at the University. I personally took an understanding text class which dealt with reading and understanding higher level grammar in business texts.

Social life:

1. How would you rate your integration with other students from the host university?

Integration with students from the host university was a little bit difficult because I took almost all of my classes in English and these classes were usually half filled with other exchange students. I was fortunate to work on a few group projects with students from St. Gallen. I became very familiar with a pair of girls in my entrepreneurship class during one of our case study projects. It was a good experience working with students from Switzerland and I would recommend other students trying to take advantage of working with as many different people as possible.

2. How would you rate your integration with other international students?

Within the exchange program I was very well integrated with the other students. It was with the exchange students that we had the “Buddy System” and my house was also all international students. The other exchange students were the main group of people that I would hang out with on the weekends, or go to the clubs with, or even my travel partners. We had around a hundred and fifty students in the entire exchange group from all over the world and it were these people that made the trip really special.

3. What were some of the best ways you found to make friends and meet people at the host university?

Once again the “Buddy System” was the best way to meet people, and I quickly became friends with most of the exchange program. Since our house was entirely exchange students, we had a few house parties during the semester where we invited all of the exchange students. These were a lot of fun and they broke a lot of the ice for the rest of the semester. We had a little bit of a difficult time with the Swedish students because they always seemed to hang out in their Swedish cliques, but I tried to make friends with as many cultures as I could. In all of the 150 exchange students there were only five Americans, so it was not too difficult to make international friends. I would also recommend going to a lot of the school run activities. During the semester there was a Unifest where the entire school turning into a party. These were the types of events where friendships were locked. Trips to other countries are also very important, and allowed me to drive my German friend’s car on the Autobahn.

4. What kinds of after-hours and weekend activities would you recommend for other students?

Bars and discos were the popular spots where most of the students congregated on the weekends. One of the problems I noticed was that most of the local students went home to their parents houses on the weekends, so it was a little difficult to get together with some local students. Since Switzerland is such an expensive country, we were a little limited in the activities we were able to do. In the four and a half months I was there, I went to the movies only three times. Weekend trips to surrounding cities like Zurich are a really good idea. In the first month that I was there, during the Spring Semester, I was able to take two weekend snowboarding trips. If you are going to Switzerland you absolutely must go snowboarding, or anything in the mountains. St. Galllen is located north of the Alps but a short train ride will get you in the thick of the mountains. There are also many music festivals in Europe and although they are expensive it is worth it to experience a Swiss run music festival. The differences with them and the American versions are outstanding. Cleaner, louder, and more organized.

5. If you traveled with your family, how was their integration into the host community? Did you find any particularly helpful resources for them?

I was not fortunate enough for my parents to come and visit but I am sure it would not have been difficult for them to come and visit. There are very good hotels all over St. Gallen and most of the people who work in these places have a good base for English.

Other:

1. Budgeting: how much would you recommend students take with them? How much would you say would be the monthly living expenses in the city you lived in including rent/food/misc. expenses?

Switzerland is expensive! Bring lots of money! Rent for me was about 550 dollars a month, food around 60 dollars a week. Train tickets in Switzerland are much more expensive than most other European countries. I would recommend buying what is called a “half tax,” which is a card giving the bearer half price for any train ride in Switzerland. That runs about 150 dollars. I also bought a “Gleis 7” for 90 dollars which gave me free train rides after seven o’clock. I only used that a few times. But if you plan on traveling a lot at night then it is extremely helpful. I would take a train to a city in the morning for half of the price and come back to St. Gallen after seven for nothing. It is worth it if you use it enough. I also took trips to London, Germany, Austria, and Prague during my visit. Each of those trips was a couple hundred dollars and that meant finding the cheapest flights, the cheapest hostiles, and budgeting my beer money. I spent something like 3,000 dollars on my travel and miscellaneous expenses.

2. Do you have suggestions on the types of students who would be well suited to this program?