WorldStrides Reviews

Shanghai is the largest and fasted growing city in the world. Between the hundreds of restaurants, museums, clubs, bars, KTV studios etc. there is always something to do. From the skyscrapers that line the huangpu river, to the several temples scattered throughout the city, Shanghai has a perfect mix of authentic chinese history and modern innovation. Fudan is one of the top universities in China with classes taught both in English and Chinese and attracts students from all over the world. TEAN enrolls its students directly into the history department at Fudan allowing them to choose from a vast number of courses. This was an important deciding factor for me when choosing a program as I wanted the freedom to choose my own courses. Although there is much to do in Shanghai, my favorite perk of the TEAN program was its excursions. Included in the program fee was a trip to Beijing and the great wall, as well as a trip to the desert in Inner mongolia. I will never forget the beautiful view from our sunrise hike on the jinshanling section of the great wall or our camel ride across the sand dunes. Throughout the semester the resident director in Shanghai also organized several events for us including program dinners, chinese painting classes, volunteer work with local organizations, and more. Our resident director was available to us at all times and helped us with any concerns imaginable. On top of that TEAN also offers students to live with a local Chinese roommate, which is a tremendous advantage as you get a glimpse in to the life of a chinese college student, as well as a ton of help. All in all I wouldn't have changed a thing about my experience in China, and I am so glad that I went with TEAN!

This semester was the most exciting I spent so far in my college life!
As for day to day experience, you live in an apartment a few minutes from campus, Chinese restaurants, a huge mall, walmart, and lots of street food places. The campus is very international with people from all around the world as well as Chinese students genuinely interested in western cultures. Shanghai is an amazing city with lots of things to do and to discover and very different architectures.

Highlights of the program:

-TEAN basically plans everything for you, so you arrive to China and just need to concentrate on visiting and your academics (sounds hard right?)
-The TEAN trips were definitely THE thing that made me chose the program. They were amazing, very well organized, great housing, and definitely showing you what you had to see in each city
-Health Insurance coverage: I got some medical problems and the staff there was incredibly helpful, going with me to the hospital + the insurance covers everything it's amazing

Difficulties: Refraining from eating huge amounts of street food on a daily basis

I absolutely loved my time abroad on the Gold Coast at Bond University. I got to experience a great deal like scuba diving the Great Barrier Reef, skydiving in Cairns, shaking Kate Middleton's hand in Brisbane, and having lunch at the Sydney Opera House!! I could not be any happier with my decision to study abroad on the other side of the world through TEAN (The Education Abroad Network). They planned some amazing excursions and made it so easy to adapt and make friends.

I truly think that every student should study abroad sometime during their undergrad. Tackling a new language, experiencing a new culture, seeing famous & historical sites, meeting friends from far away places, and tasting different cuisines while traveling become your favorite memories. TEAN was the perfect choice for me- having their support, especially in a country as distant as China, was essential to making the process smooth and carefree. Also, the excursions they include in the package are awesome and would be incredibly difficult to pull off by yourself. For anyone looking to study abroad in China, TEAN in Shanghai is definitely the way to go.

Chiang Mai was just an amazing place to be. The people were beyond friendly, the food was incredible and the landscape was breathtaking. I made great Thai, American and International friends. I learned to be more open to other cultures ways of thinking and also to just go with the flow of things. Sometimes things go wrong and you just have to breathe and then laugh about it. One time I was at a restaurant during a really bad downpour and the ceiling started leaking and we had to move to a table probably meant for 2 with 6 people. We just laughed about it the whole time. you just have to roll with the punches. The food was some of the best I've every had. I love street food! Eat it! Don't be scared. I think that's the best advice I can give, don't shy away or be scared of anything. Try everything, do everything you can, talk to as many locals as you can, become friends with the Thais, speak thai, do it all!

Studying abroad in Thailand was the best experience I could have ever dreamed of. We lived in Chiang Mai, which is the second biggest city in Thailand, nestled in the northern hills. The city has everything you'd want- the true traditional Thai culture of monks walking on the streets collecting alms at 6 am, food stalls lining the roads, temples interspersed with restaurants and stores, markets everywhere but also a lively social scene with backpackers and westerners alike. The food is amazing and ridiculously cheap (an average meal is $1-$5, 5 being on the very expensive side when you want to splurge on western food). The city is surrounded by a beautiful countryside where you can easily escape the bustling madness to waterfalls and rice fields. There's no denying this is "the land of smiles." The local people are some of the sweetest, generous and all around happy people I have ever met. TEAN provided us with housing at Uniloft, which is an apartment/dorm style complex about a mile from the University. It's very nice place to live, equipped with a gym, a pool, laundry services, cleaning services and round the clock security. Within TEAN's program, we also got paired with a Thai roommate (which was one of my favorite parts of my experience). Living with a Thai roommate helped immerse us in the culture even more. We adopted their traditions (taking shoes off before entering rooms, gift giving) and also got to share some of our culture with them. Though we learned Thai in school and tried to practice as much as possible with the locals, having Thai friends to help get us out of situations where our Thai failed us was awesome (for example, we needed to call a bus company to get tickets to Bangkok and one of our Thai friends planned the entire trip for us and got us a better deal!). TEAN also provided us with awesome excursions. We spent a week in a rural village with host families and got to experience first hand how a culture, so vastly different from western society, lives. We also spent the weekend in the beautiful southern island of Krabi. TEAN hooked us up with rock climbing and a boat tour of all the surrounding islands. One of my major concerns was not being able to travel around Southeast Asia enough. I knew that my friends going to Europe would visit a plethora of other countries but I didn't know how easy it would be to travel around. I ended up going to Vietnam, Cambodia and Indonesia as well as traveling all throughout Thailand. It is definitely a bit of a struggle but so worth it. Not only is Thailand a beautiful country, Southeast Asia as a whole has so much to offer.

I couldn't be happier with my choices about studying abroad- both going to Australia and choosing to do it through The Education Abroad Network. TEAN made everything so easy for me and their staff is amazing. Any questions I had were immediately answered. I participated on the pre-semester trip to the Great Barrier Reef and the mid-semester trip to Thailand. I strongly encourage future students to go on them- they were two of the best trips of my life. I had the best 5 months I could have ever asked for and learned so much about Australian culture. I also traveled to New Zealand, Melbourne, and Byron Bay all of which were incredible. I couldn't have asked for a better location of housing (I was in Bondi Junction in the Meriton) because I was in between the beach and the city, close to school, and right above a train/bus station. It was truly a semester I will never forget and looking back I wouldn't change a thing.

I just want to start off by saying that without TEAN, this experience would have been completely different. My time in New Zealand was absolutely amazing. Hard to describe, but believe me when I say it was the best 5 months of my life. To be completely honest, I was really upset to leave my home university at first; what would I miss, what would my friends do while I was away, which, at first, sounded like a lifetime. As soon as I got to the airport, I knew I had made the right decision.

Dunedin is an incredible college town. Thousands of college students, everything is in walking distance, and all kinds of student deals everywhere. I loved staying there and calling it home. It was easy to travel to the rest of the country, via plane and bus, and my kiwi host was extremely helpful, fun, and was an adventurer himself, so was happy to show us all around. My whole flat (apartment), which consisted of myself, a Canadian girl, another American guy, and my kiwi host, got along perfectly. Uni flats and TEAN really do a great job placing people together. At first, its scary to hear you won't be living with other TEAN students that, by the time you have made it to Dunedin, have made lifelong friends with, but it ends up being a great way to expand the amount of people you meet.

By the time you make it down to Dunedin, TEAN has already brought you on weeks of fantastic, incredible adventures. Exploring Auckland and learning what city life is like, seeing the sites of this popular place, and getting oriented to New Zealand is an indescribable experience, that you'll love! Dinners are planned for you, which is wonderful, and you get to meet and interact with the other TEAN students, and then are given free time to relax, or explore.

Aside from Auckland, the orientation in Fiji was one of my favorite parts of my whole trip. I would go back in a heartbeat. Being on this beautiful island and having nothing to worry about for a week is so enlightening, and such a great way to bond with everybody you are getting to know, all while learning and understanding an entirely different culture.

Overall, TEAN sets up everything, so you have nothing at all to worry about except packing (which is daunting!) and I know it was an excellent decision on my part to travel with them. The staff are so helpful, all the way through to the flights home! I had friends who did a direct exchange, and really struggled with planning and coordination, all of which was taken care of!

The Spring semester I spent in Belfast was one of the best experiences of my life. The other students I lived with in the dorm varied from locals to a guy from Turkey, and we all became the best of friends. Also, the ISA's on-site staff was available anytime I needed, took us on amazing outings and trips. I would highly recommend this program to anyone going abroad.

Upon looking into different locations, University of Melbourne caught my eye for a couple of reasons. Primarily, the university has a very strong reputation of being academically challenging and prestigious- it's actually the #1 university in Australia. Also, Melbourne is ranked the most liveable city in the world and after experiencing the culture and the beautiful city, I'd have to agree.

Globalinks does an absolutely wonderful job from everything including pre-depature (things like getting visas, living situations sorted, etc) to while abroad to returning back home. They really emphasize having a meaningful, fulfilling time abroad rather than a semester of partying- although there will be plenty of celebrating!