UCD Semester Abroad

I was very disappointed with my semester at UCD. Only come here if you're coming with friends and you're dying to see Ireland. I was looking for a different college experience abroad, and to be engrossed in the culture. However, just being on the campus felt like living in an isolated ghost town. I wish I had known this was a commuter school. The 'societies' are just small cliques of students, they don't do much outreach and seemed to have very few events. The International Society aimed at study abroad students had no trips after early October and tickets for their other trips were hard to come by. Though it would depend on program, in my opinion the professors were subpar and definitely don't cater to Americans. There's n assignments besides midterms and finals, so it's easy to lose focus. You'll be way behind the curve when you get back to the US, especially if you go to a rigorous school. I put some recommendations below to improve the program. Basically, they need to cater to all study abroad students-not just people who are using UCD as a base to travel the rest of Europe. The big thing going for UCD is that it's close to Dublin (though the campus is in the suburbs and feels like you could be anywhere). Dublin is a great city, and I enjoyed being in it, but that alone can't carry the school or the 4 month semester. If you don't have a group of friends and the money to travel Europe with, stay home or find a different program.