Details

• United States of America
• BaWiSo-23
• Undergraduate
• WS 2025
• Time spent at the partner university: 4 months

1. Preparation

First of all check the courses you want to take, you might find some courses which are really interesting, I have chosen subjects which are easier to do abroad than at WU, which I did regret in the end. Although I had better GPA coming back, I did miss out on a lot of very interesting courses, which I do regret not taking. Fill out and send the vaccinations list, which they require as soon as possible. Because if you miss any of the injections they will have to give it to you in the Campus Health Center, which needless to say, costs a lot of money. In the first two weeks you will have a lot of events, where you can meet new people, I would advise you to go to the club event in Talley, where you can meet representatives of all of the student clubs.

2. Accommodation

The university housing recommended us the "Global Village" Housing option in Alexander Hall, where they tend to house all exchange students. If you are not on a tight budget, I would not go to Alexander Hall, because it is a very outdated, they promise you to get an American roommate, but you have 90% chance of getting an exchange student as a roommate. Not to mention that hygenie stadards are poor at the least. I have lived three weeks in Alexander Hall, then I was relocated to Wolf Ridge Apartments, which was so much better. I have met really cool people and very close freinds of mine. The only upside for Alexander Hall is that it is in a prime location, in the middle of the main campus. Wolf Ridge is on Cenntanial Campus, but Wolfline comes every 10-15 minutes depending the day, so you are going to get to main campus quick and easy within 10 minutes. In Wolf Ridge we had two bathrooms, everyone of us had our own room and a big kitchen and living room, you can't really ask for more, rigth? So I would either recommend you to apply for Wolf Ridge or Wolf Village, they are close approximity to the main campus.

3. Academic life at host university

NC State facilities are very modern and technologically speaking very advanced. NC State is mainly an Engineering college so most of the students, who you are going to meet are engineering students. The two main libraries offer very good learning spots and the best softwares possible. I have used their Data Science Lab a lot to elevate my Python and SQL skills to an even higher level. The professors at NC State are very down to earth and it is very easy to talk to them. You can always drop by to their office hours and have chit-chat with them, if you have any questions. With the course selection they are also very lenient. In some classes you will have the chance to talk to guest speakers and lecturers, who are representing big American corporations. NC State also hosts a big career fair for Business Students, I highly advise you to go there, because it is great networking opportunity to say the least and you will learn a lot about American corporate life there.

5. Every day life in the host country

Public Transport in Raleigh is free for students. But I rarely used them because my friends were all American and we had a car, so we drove around with the car a lot. On campus the university has its own public transport for students called "Wolf Line". Raleigh and the Triangle area is one of the safest places in the US, compared to other major big cities in the US Raleigh is rather uneventful, although always have your guard up, because compared to Vienna, it is somewhat more dangerous. At the university I have joined the Esports club, where we have competed all semester long in the NECC College League against other big universities on the EAST Coast. Our games were livestreamed on the universities Twitch Channel and our games always had +70 viewers. We made it all through till the playoffs, unfortunately this time we missed out on the final four. But we had a lot of great team activites outside of practice. We did a lot of golfing together, because the university has its own golf course, which is baffeling for the European mind. The university has great sport facilities and they also have a huge gym and training facility. You can also rent sporting gears for other outside activites from the Main gym, which is simply great. We went to every major sport event at the university and it is a MUST GO. Every football game was a great opportunity to make new friends and tailgating in it self is such valuable experience to have, especially in the South were football is religion at this point. I had a great time going to all the football and basketball games, because it is truly something different.

6. Testimonial

My exchange was special, because of the people who I met there and accompanied me on my journey in the US. I have met many different people from different background which helped me to expend my cultural horizons, the best example is, when my friend , who is a native American invited me over to his family in the Cherokee reservation or when I was invited to a Black Gospel. The US is so much more what we see from films or because of the current political turmoil, the US truly has place for everyone.