I have heard from several friends that they are doing or have completed a semester abroad through MicroEDU. Since I had been thinking about studying abroad for a while for a long time, I decided to get in touch with MicroEDU. I wanted to go to an English-speaking country to improve my English. Great Britain and Ireland came into question for me, and I was given very good and quick advice right from the start when choosing a university, so that I soon got the application documents for York St. John University and obtained all the necessary documents. Meanwhile, whenever I had any questions, I was always able to get in touch with MicroEDU. It didn’t take very long and I was accepted for my semester abroad. Now I had to think about the accommodation. I decided on Limes Court and against Grange, which is closer to the university. I also decided to use the free airport shuttle from Manchester Airport that was offered. You could register online for one of the two days of arrival.
Accommodation
Limes Court is about a 20-minute walk from the university. I have to admit, I had to get used to that because there was no direct bus connection. The dormitory is divided into several houses. Each semi-detached house has five rooms, two small bathrooms (one upstairs and one downstairs) and a relatively large kitchen, where you can also meet for a glass of wine or beer in the evening. When I arrived in September, the WiFi was set up again. Before that there was still cable internet. At the beginning there were unfortunately still small problems with the Internet, so that we had no Internet for a weekend or in some houses the Internet was down for a day. But those responsible quickly dealt with the problem and fortunately there have been no more problems since then. A cleaner comes every two weeks to clean the common rooms, i.e. the kitchen, bathrooms and hallway. If there were problems in the house (changing lightbulbs, venting the heating, etc.), the caretaker and Limes Court officials were always there during the week and took care of everything. I would definitely choose Limes Court again despite the longer route. The rooms were nice and bright, the kitchen-living room was large and the bathrooms were really okay.
University life
On the day of my arrival, we were warmly welcomed by the Study Abroad team. We received a welcome pack with helpful information and were then taken to our dormitories. We were able to arrive there briefly before there was a welcome event followed by a barbecue at the university. The following week there was Freshers Week. Some events were compulsory, but others were also voluntary. There you get a lot of information, get to know the other comrades-in-arms and it’s also a lot of fun to take part in the quiz or the city tour. I can definitely recommend everyone to do as much as possible of the introductory week.
Then everyday university life began. I have taken three business administration courses, a level 1, a level 2 and a level 3 course. All three courses were divided into a lecture and a very interactive seminar per week. The workload was really okay and the content was also at an appropriate level of performance, so also feasible for non-native English speakers. In my opinion, however, the evaluation was relatively strict, so that if you wanted to get a very good grade at the end, you had to do a lot in the housework. For me, all three types of exams were assignments, i.e. homework. Depending on the level and subject, you had to write a different number of words.
The university and the campus are rather small, but really nice. There are older buildings and new ones, such as the business school and library. From a technical point of view, the university is really up to date, there are many new computers and there are whiteboards, projectors etc. in the classrooms.
Leisure
In addition to the lessons you could also take part in various leisure activities / societies. I went to the volleyball club. The players were very friendly and they were well received. Unfortunately, the training fell on a Saturday, so I often couldn’t come to training because I had visitors or went on excursions. Otherwise, the Students Union had a small building on campus. There is a large lounge with sofas, tables, billiard tables and a bar where alcohol was served in the evenings at student-friendly prices. In the evening, the SU served primarily as a meeting point before moving on to the city to celebrate. In York there are a lot of pubs and also one or the other club where you can party well.
According to jibin123, York is a very beautiful Roman city. We were really lucky with the weather and especially in the first 4 weeks a lot of sunshine, so that you could really enjoy the city and the surrounding area. The small winding streets, alleys, shops and the cute cafes invite you to browse and linger. One should definitely go to the famous Minster and also take a short walk over the city walls. The Castle Museum is really worth the money and if you are into chocolate, you should definitely go to the Chocolate Museum, where you can make your own chocolate at the end. But the area around York also has a lot to offer. The university offers day trips to Liverpool and Whitby. I took the day trip to Liverpool through the university. However, you should explore the city beforehand and think about what you might want there, so that you can make good use of the time there. I drove to Whitby with other exchange students. That is really feasible and recommendable. Whitby is a beautiful, must-see port town.
Conclusion
The decision to plan and organize my semester abroad with MicroEDU was absolutely the right decision. I felt well advised right from the start and I will recommend MicroEDU with a clear conscience. I liked York very much, but due to its small size, you had already visited many cultural and leisure activities halfway through the time. The length of the route from Limes Court to the city center or the train station was a bit too far for me on foot. I really recommend that you buy a bike or take good, comfortable shoes with you.
You can take the train very quickly and easily to Scotland, London and Manchester etc. to explore the area. If you book early, the tickets are much, much cheaper. My personal highlight was the visit to the horse race at the racecourse in York. It was really fun to walk into the huge area, see all the beautifully made people and soak up the atmosphere. The visit should definitely not be missing on your to-do list in York.
