A Unique Experience

I initially chose AIT because I'm a Comp. Sci. Major, and this is one of the very few study abroad programs that fill core requirements in my major. AIT does offer some pretty serious core and upper level CS courses, as long as dual enrollment with a pretty prestigious math program. The professors are extremely qualified in their topics. I definitely got plenty of the 'study' part of 'study abroad' done. This isn't a cookie cutter 'see the world first and learn on the side' program like many of the other seem to be. With AIT you'll be putting down about the same work load that you would be at home.

That isn't to say that there isn't any time for travel! In fact, there were people traveling every single weekend we were there. There's very easy access to Eastern and Central Europe, and Western Europe is just a (comparatively cheap) hop, skip, and a jump away by Ryan or Wizz Air.

I didn't really know what to expect about Budapest, or Hungary before I got there, but I discovered that the city and Hungarian people are great. There's a lot to do in the city during the day and night, especially when the weather's nice (lots of really cool beer garden, 'ruin' pubs, and dance clubs). On sunny days its great fun to just hang out on the beautiful and bustling Margit Island, wander up to the Buda Hills to get a great view of the city, or just sit at a Kávé Ház (coffee house) and read. There are lots of great and beautiful cultural sites around the city, and you'll get to know them pretty well. I, for one, did not become a huge fan of Hungarian Cuisine (your mileage may vary). Luckily there are tons of restaurants in the city of other cuisines if you're of the same mind.

The staff here are absolutely fantastic. I really can't say enough about how great they were when I was there. They're a close knit bunch that have a great infectious chemistry. A lot of fun to be around, and extremely helpful in times of need.

My day to day schedule was usually getting up around 8am, hopping on the metro + bus connection to get to the campus for 9am classes(they house you in the city center where there's a lot going on, but the campus is actually in a really nice, but more suburban, tech office park). Usually I and the rest of the students that have class on a particular day would just chill in our lounge between classes and for lunch and study or play games, etc. I'd say that most people would stay until the end of the day, regardless of if they had classes all day or not. Everyone gets to know each other pretty well in that sort of environment. Weekends usually consisted of traveling around Europe, or the occasional AIT sponsored outing (weekend trip to Lake Balaton, bike tours, rowing competition, etc.), cultural events (Opera, symphony, ballet, etc.), or just meeting w/ other students at a pub to hang out. Plenty to do!