By Ty Malcolm
Well... this is it! Last blog post! In about a week, I'll be returning to the States. Via Berlin and Chicago, I'll make it to Kansas City after around 15 hours in-transit. YIKES! I'll spend a week at home with the family before jetting off to Washington for the spring semester. I'm not too sad about leaving, because I plan to return for graduate school. Since this experience was such a success for me, I thought it would be good to sum up my experience in Vienna for anyone who's reading this on the GW Study Abroad website, trying to get an idea of what to expect.
For me, Vienna was the perfect mix of study vs free time. In my coursework, I got to visit the HQ of Siemens, and study under the Head of Finance for an international oil company. I picked up a lot of new skills in financial statistics, I improved my German, and I made a ton of new friends. We visited the touristy stuff, the trendy stuff, the "my friend's friend can get us on the list" stuff - from the farthest metro stop East to the farthest metro stop West. The support system for exchange students at the Vienna University of Business and Economics is huge, and students with no German ability can still navigate university life just fine. You receive a lot of pre-departure information from both abroad offices. That said... there are some things that you find out by trial and error! Here were some of mine:
Some things are a simple YES or NO...
EBN Buddy: No
Orientation Program: Yes
Pre-Semester German Course: Yes
Austrian Bank Account: Yes
Whereas other things are a bit more specific...
Housing: OeAD Gasgasse (very social), OeAD Molkereistraße (close to the university)
Arrival Time: first week of September
YES Courses: International Energy Strategies, Prof. Schwarzbichler (very practical, hands-on)
NO Courses: MNCs and Political Markets (if you've had IAFF 1001 or IBUS 3001, you'll die of boredom)
Museums: MAK (Applied Arts), MUMOK (Modern Art), Albertina (Impressionist Art)
Food/Drink: Zum Schwarzen Kamel, Amerlingsbeisl, If Dogs Run Free, L'Osteria
Music/Dance: Volksgarten, Zwe, Café Leopold, Loft
Study Spots: Café Burggasse 24, Phil, Austrian National Library
EBN Trips: Zell am See, Budapest, Oktoberfest
If you've read this far, hopefully that means you're interested in going to the Vienna University of Business and Economics yourself! Don't hesitate to reach out - you can get my email address from the Office for Study Abroad. Thanks for reading!
-Ty