Experiences at the Augsburg Summer Program 2007
I spent six weeks studying in Augsburg, as well as a total of several weeks before and after the program traveling and visiting German family this summer. Here are some of the great things about the program as well as some helpful observations for next year.
I really liked the classes. I attended classes for more courses than I could get credit for because I enjoyed it. They were well taught and interesting, and I liked the learning environment related to having pass/fail exams. It was a good break between two full semesters of law school.
Also, the campus was very nice. It seems that some places have very urban campus with no real community, but the Augsburg Uni was splendid.
Another of the very good things was the internet availability. When I studied in Freiburg five years ago, they had no wireless, and there was always a line to use the few computers they had for student use. Augsburg always had plenty of free spaces in the computer lab and there was wireless. It may have been that Augsburg is ahead of the curve, or that everyone has moved ahead in the course of five years, but it was much better.
I did have some issues with housing, but I don't know that the problems were related to the University. There may be ways to improve things for future students. Finding a better way to transfer money overseas would be good.
Markus did an excellent job of finding me a place for such a short time. Having the program hang over into a few days of August and finding a landlord who wanted to rent for just a few days of a month when someone else would pay for the entire period is hard. When there was trouble with that, his family housed both me and Stuart!
Also, he furnished the apartment -- everything from the bed and table to the lighting. Markus provided a room and furniture and gave myself and my family a place to stay later. He really made it all possible.
In total, all the German students did a very good job of organizing programs and things for us. It would have been a much poorer experience had we not traveled around the area, toured Augsburg, and had them show us the ropes of living in Germany. I hope that we can repay the favor on our side of the Atlantic.
John Derrick, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill