Details

• Chile
• BaWiSo-23
• Undergraduate
• SoSe 2026
• Time spent at the partner university: 4 months
• Contact: Login to see contact information

1. Preparation

First, I looked into whether I need a visa for Chile, which isn’t necessarily the case. Even if you are not a Chilean citizen, it is not mandatory to apply for a visa as long as you do not stay in Chile for more than 90 consecutive days. It was clear to me that I would be leaving Chile frequently to travel, which is why a visa was not necessary for me. I also looked into whether I needed any additional vaccinations—not just for Chile, but also for all the other countries I planned to visit. Another important step for me was to buy a well-stocked first-aid kit in advance so I would be prepared for any eventuality; of course, I would also taken out travel insurance to be ready for anything. My last step was to find out about the weather in Chile: very hot summers, but also relatively cold winters. That is why I packed clothes for every season so I would have a good basic wardrobe for any weather conditions.

2. Accommodation

My accommodation was a student house with a total of nine students from all over the world. It did not take me long to find my student accommodation through Santiago Exchange, as a friend of mine had already lived there the previous semester. Everyone had their own room, and we shared one kitchen and two bathrooms. The house was in Las Condes, a neighbourhood on the outskirts of Santiago, but it was ideal for me as the university was very close by. I always took the bus to uni which stopped right outside my front door and took about 15 minutes to get there. The house was directly connected to underground line 1 and it took me about 30 minutes to get into the city centre from my house by subway. In the evenings, I tried to avoid the metro and took an Uber home instead, which was never a problem for me as it was very good value. My advice is to find accommodation close to the university, as the morning traffic in Santiago usually doubles the journey time to uni. I would also recommend that everyone try living with other exchange students; you will make new friends much faster, and the sense of community in the house means you will never feel alone.

3. Academic life at host university

The university is located quite far outside of Santiago on a hill near the Andes. It has a beautiful and spacious campus, which offers many recreational opportunities: from soccer fields to tennis courts to paddle tennis courts, a gym, and bouldering walls. Aside from the university campus, the rest did not live up to my expectations and was actually quite disappointing: before my semester abroad began, the university sent me a list on which I had to indicate the courses I wanted to take. When I arrived in Santiago, however, I was told that three out of four of those courses were not being offered that semester, so I had to choose different ones. In the end, I had no choice but to take courses I was not interested in at all, since those were the only courses offered to exchange students. Besides that the workload was pretty heavy: we had at least two quizzes each week and three exams per course spread out over the semester. As a result, weekend trips were often out of the question. The staff responsible for exchange students were also very unreliable (they never replied to emails). The other students were always freshmen—so they just started their first semester—which you could often tell by their boisterous behavior; even while professors were teaching, they kept talking despite several warnings. This often severely disrupted the classes. The professors, on the other hand (most of them), were very understanding when it came to exchange students.

5. Every day life in the host country

Santiago has a well-developed infrastructure that makes it easy to get from point A to point B quickly. I mostly took Metro Line 1, since it was right by my house and you could get anywhere on it. A subway ticket costs the equivalent of 80 cents and is valid for 2 hours in one direction. I always felt very safe, especially in Las Condes, and never had any concerns. The city center is also mostly safe; of course, you should avoid neighborhoods like Estación Central and Bellavista, especially at night, but aside from that, I felt that Santiago is a pretty safe city. In my free time, I especially enjoyed using the outdoor gym, which was right next to my house and free of charge. On top of that, I was enrolled at a dance studio, since I also go dancing in Vienna. It was called Power Peralta Dance Studio, and it’s really for anyone who loves to dance—I highly recommend it. The university also often offered sports events that were specifically geared toward exchange students.

6. Testimonial

For me, living with other exchange students was the best decision I could have made; I never felt alone, and we always had a lot of fun together. Another personal highlight for me was traveling whenever I could—I took advantage of every opportunity and even traveled with people I barely knew. I can truly recommend Santiago to every future exchange student. It is the perfect place to grow personally, meet people from all over the world, and explore one of the most beautiful and diverse regions of the world.