Details

• Canada
• BaWiSo-23
• Undergraduate
• WS 2025
• Time spent at the partner university: 4 months

1. Preparation

Check the list of which partner universities are offered for the semester you want to go, see what's needed for the application and check if you are even interested in the classes that previous exchange students took. Also read a lot of exchange reports to get a feeling of what it could be like

2. Accommodation

I found it pretty hard to find anything. There's many scams, many very expensive apartments, student doorms that are relatively far away or you can really tell they have got another living standard than what you might be used to. Facebook was where most of the people find their accommodation. Try to look into it early enough as the best spots will be gone quiet soon. It's pretty safe everywhere in Kingston. Tho consider that the closer you live to the campus and to downtown the more fun it is to go out and meet people as you dont have to take the bus or rent a bicycle. I found a super lovely place with a lady who rented and another tenant around my age and that's also how I got to really get to know many Canadians as well.

3. Academic life at host university

There is food spots and coffee shops on campus and a lot of study space whether at the library or in another study coffee shop. You can use the Gym for free as student and there's fares and activities as well as rugby games for example directly at campus (hockey and football is somewhere else). You can also join many sports clubs if you like to. Courses are held in a very interactive way, there is group work or presentations in most of the classes and teachers are very nice and helpful.

5. Every day life in the host country

There are buses you can take, they also have uber for example. I always felt safe, there is homeless around but they never did anything or even approached me and there is a homeless shelter so most of them are there over night. As long as it's warm you can swim and chill at the lake, in winter you might be able to ice skate on the lake or on the main square. There is sport events from football, hockey to rugby and others. Kingston as a lot of food spots and cute coffee shops. There's events like homecoming and you can go out almost every day if you'd like to. We also rented cars to drive to nearby national parks or took the bus to Toronto or Montreal since thats quiet close

6. Testimonial

I really had a great exchange semester. I made friends for life across the globe, we always had fun things to do and it never got boring. I also got to travel and see a lot of Canada which was beautiful.