UQ Program: Bachelor of Engineering (extended major in Mechanical and Aerospace), 3rd year.
The equivalent course load for Purdue University was 5 regular (3 credit hours/course) courses for our 4 regular courses at UQ. I was able to get credit for 4 of my exchange classes (AAE450, ME581, ME563, ME309) to correspond to the 4 I would’ve taken back home, and the 5th subject I did a first year psychology course (PSY120). The classes were generally a lot more involved, firstly because the classes were smaller (despite the size of the university), and secondly because the lectures asked for more student interaction. A lot of my professors learnt the names of everyone in the class by the end of the semester and were always easy to talk to and get in contact with. My lecturer for ME581 (vibrations) was Douglas Adams and he was the best lecturer I’ve ever had!
I made a lot of my friends through the orientation program BGR which I think was definitely worth doing. This meant many of my friends were ‘freshmen’ and I found them generally more fun cause they’re first years and don’t have much work to do and want to explore just as much as you. It was quite easy to travel up to Chicago (by bus/train or car) and to Indianapolis (not that great a city). I also got to go to a few of my friends’ homes who lived within the state – definitely worth doing.
Their culture had a lot of little differences that I wouldn’t expect, for instance they don’t wear short shorts there (only knee length pants), the general diet was focused around a lot of food.
As I wasn’t 21 I couldn’t go to the bars and also they generally ask for two forms of ID. However there were a lot of house parties and Frat parties that were either open house or you need to know one of the people living there.
A meal plan is included in your housing cost if you stay at one of the resident halls, so not much money is needed for eating and drinking. I found that typically I ate out once a week, and a lot of people just order pizza because one can do so at 3am so I spent a bit of money on that as well. So on a weekly basis I guess I spent an extra $40/week.
The best things that I got out of exchange were the friends that I made, and a better ability to balance work and social life. Fantastic experience.
5 TOP TIPS:
1. All coffee there was terrible unless you went to a café called ‘greyhouse’ just outside of the campus.
2. Get season tickets to Football, Volleyball and Basketball (if you are there for the right season). The basketball games are amazing! They have a fantastic atmosphere even better then that of the football games.
3. Bring some seriously warm gear – one day at college it got down to -20C!
4. If you’re flying around the place, a lot of airlines over book the planes, so will ask if anyone wants to sell their ticket just before the plane leaves (they buy them back off your for a lot more then you bought them for), then they put you on standby. Definitely worth it – you can pay for an entire trip away if you get the offer!
5. Go to as many rush events as possible for the Frat houses (or sorority weekend for the girls) as that’s your ticket into the parties.