Details

• Chile
• BaWiSo-23
• Undergraduate
• SoSe 2026
• Time spent at the partner university: 5 months
• Contact: Login to see contact information

1. Preparation

Try to arrive at least 3 days before the welcome days start, to get to know how things work first. Don't do it like me, coming in the night before the first day to Santiago (I was on a Brazil trip before). For public transport in the city you need a Bip! card that you can only get for cash at the Metro stations. Be aware that UANDES is pretty far out the center of the city and public transport can take a while, but if you wan't to live where most of the gatherings, parties are and still have moderate safe environment, try living around barrio Italia, preferably in the Condell street.

2. Accommodation

I wish I knew that the deposit for the apartment was only payable in cash, so I wouldn't have had such a stressful first day.e found a nice apartment over a website called Contact Chile (best price quality ratio in my opinion). I was with one roomie I met over the exchange program at WU, so it was a private apartment. For me that was the perfect choice, since it was very safe in the 11th floor with a reception, pool, gym a parking lot, located directly next to all the bars and restaurants and a big supermarket (Tottus) where we went most of the time for only around 500 Euros per person. Friends in the student exchange home for example payed almost the same and had a hostel like house, which of course can be fun and all but for me personally 5 months in such a place would be too long and I preferred an own bath and an own kitchen. Location was very central next to barrio Italia in the Condell street. There's a bus going into the direction to UANDES right around the corner, but the central location also means that it takes about 1h to the university IF there is no traffic, which there is most of the time and sometimes it got to even 1.5h. I had a motorcycle there tho so I wasn't really affected by this too much and friends took a shared uber when we had exams early in the morning. Generally I felt very safe in the streets, also at night but still I always tried to stay on the main streets and to not be out too much alone when it got dark. I wish I knew that the deposit for the apartment was only payable in cash, so I wouldn't have had such a stressful first day.

3. Academic life at host university

UANDES is very high end when it comes to universities in Chile. The campus is very clean and green, there are lots of sports opportunities there (Padel Tennis, Tennis, Football, Bowlder wall, a gym with a basketball court), it even has a private clinic on campus where i unfortunately had to go because of a wisdom tooth infection, it was relatively cheap treatment tho. The campus has a lot of seating areas and a good priced cantina where we often went for food. For those of you who like Starbucks and Subway, it's there, too. Selecting courses was absolutely horrendous at first, because there was some miscommunication between UANDES and the international students, so we had to switch all prepared courses. But after three weeks everything was settled. I chose 4 courses (GLOBAL BUSINESS ENVIRONMENTS, ENTREPRENEURSHIP & INNOVATION, PRINCIPLES OF ECONOMICS and CONTABILIDAD I) + a Spanish language course and was surprised at first because there are a lot of small quizzes and mandatory attendance, but if you time it right you can miss some of them and go travel. The professors were very forthcoming to the internationals and we could arrange a lot of own dates for our exams and re-write missed quizzes. Be aware that the academic culture is not the same like at WU, since classes can be very noisy even when the prof is talking and working in groups with Chileans can be very different than in our western culture.

5. Every day life in the host country

Public transport isn't bad, but if you're used to Vienna, it is. I used three main Metro lines and the Metro 1 is the most important one. Be careful in the public transport with phones and stuff, I only got out my phone when there wasn't too many people around me. I was lucky nothing happened to me, but one friend got there phone stolen in the metro and the other one got robbed at night out in the streets, but if you are careful, you should be pretty safe. I had courses from monday to thursday and wen't to a tennis course once a week at the UANDES. In Santiago besides university stuff, I wen't out with friends a lot to the local bars and restaurants. Once or twice a month we went clubbing, but not to the "bellavista" district which I found kinda lame, but to some techno events or bigger party events with good reggaeton. I played a lot of Padel and normal Tennis, went running and I also got myself a motorcycle over a Chilean friend which i used almost every day and also made a roadtrip once to the costal town viña del mar, where he had a place. I got really lucky with my assigned exchange buddy from the UANDES and he introduced me to his local friends and I spent a lot of time with them, too. There's a cool vintage cinema where we watched fight club and also some nice parks to chill with friends, also a skate park nearby our home.

6. Testimonial

My exchange in Santiago was special because I got to experience Chile (Santiago, Viña del Mar, Iquique, Patagonia, Pucón, Atacama desert) Argentina (Mendoza, Buenos Aires) Brazil (Rio, Sao Paulo), Colombia (Medellín) and the island Puerto Rico not only as a student, but also through my local friends and other exchange students. I spent a lot of time playing sports, exploring the city, going out to local restaurants and bars, and travelling around the continent, including some nice daytrips from Santiago. One of the biggest highlights was getting to know Chilean culture through my exchange buddy and his friends, which made the experience feel much more authentic and personal.