GUIDELINES FOR WRITING THE EXPERIENCE REPORT
Name: Alde Verhoeven
E-mail: aldeverhoeven@hotmail.nl
Study Program: Organization Studies
Exchange semester: Fall 2015
Academic year: 2015-2016
Host University: University of Waterloo
Country: Canada
Hi possibly new exchange students!
Below I will tell you more about my exchange to Waterloo, Canada. But first I would like to tell
you all that I recommend you to go on exchange because, as it sounds as a cliché, it really is
so much fun and you learn so much! 
I GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT THE SCHOOL
In Canada most students live quite far away from home mostly because the country
itself is very big. For the university and specifically the campus it means everything is
arranged. In the middle of the campus there is the ‘student life centre’ (SLC) which is open
24/7, the foodcourt is there and there even is a bar in which you can get a beer at night. If you
decide to come to Waterloo it is definitely nice to go there once. All the first year students live
in residence on campus which makes the campus even bigger, all these students live in socalled villages of which there are a few on campus. Compared to the Tilburg university the
campus is way bigger and there is lots of more things to do, from going to the gym, drinking
beer and you can even go to the dentist on campus.
The campus itself is a bit on the outside of Waterloo, but there are busses that go
from the university to updown Waterloo quite often and because you can go with the bus for
free with you university card (WatCard) this is really easy to get to. But if you don’t want to
take the bus it is even not that far to walk, it will take you 15-20 minutes. Uptown are a few
bars/clubs where you can go out and some nice coffee place to have a nice afternoon coffee
with friends. It is nothing special and it is all not very big but really nice to go to once in a
while. Uptown kind of represents all of Waterloo, there are around 120.000 people who live in
Waterloo. So the city itself isn’t very big either but if you meat nice people it can be so much
fun.
II PRACTICAL INFORMATION
If I am honest I think the pre-arrival information I got came quite late, but I also came
to the conclusion that I just wanted to much ahead. Especially the response on my question if
I could follow the courses I wanted to came late, later I learned this was because the guy how
arranged it was very busy. That is what he told us when we went there to get our courses
approved, but after we were there it was all arranged within two days. He even gave us some
more information than we could find on the internet about the courses which made my choice
for courses easier. So this is something that was annoying in the beginning but all very well
arranged later. Also the information about the housing came late, but for this it is exactly the
same. I got the information about two months before I left and that was more than enough
time to arrange housing.
If you want to know more before, like I did, you can just look information up on the
site of the university. The site is very big and it will take some time to find the right page for
some things but it can clearify some things for you and everything you have to arrange will
take some time, that is part of it.
Visa procedure and arrival
When you stay in Canada for less than six months you don’t need a visa or a student
permit and while the semesters in Waterloo don’t take longer than for months you don’t need
to arrange anything unless you travel more than two months of course. But you do need to be
prepared for some things when you have to go through customs when you get to Canada.
They can ask you to prove you are going to study in Canada by showing you acceptance
letter or by asking the address of where you are staying. On the site of UWaterloo is a list of
all the things you might need or they might ask for at customs.
When you get to Toronto Pearson airport on ‘arrival day’ there are free shuttle busses
from the airport to the university. Every other day there are shuttle busses as well or you can
just take the regular bus. Myself I arranged a bus that would take me to another bus station
on which I was picked up from by family so I can’t say if it is easy to find everything. But there
are definitely options you can arrange from the Netherlands.
Orientation/Introduction activities
In the week before the lectures started there was an orientation week. This week was
not that well arranged for exchange students because we were put together with the people
who were transferred from other universities. The orientation week was mostly focused on
first year students and they had a fully planned week with a lot of fun. We were invited to
come to some of those events as well which gave us a nice impression of the orientation
week. Now it sounds like I didn’t have fun at all that week but that is not what I am trying to
say, I had lots of fun but that was mostly with the people I met the week before and there was
still a lot to discover and do in Waterloo. The advantage of the orientation week was that we
got a lot of information that was necessary to know or just good to know. It was because of
this week that I knew where to go to to arrange my courses, where to buy a sport card etc.
For a student mentor/buddy there is an option you can sign up for too, I didn’t do this
so I can’t really tell much about it. But I do know the option is possible and that you get two
mentors for a group of 4-6 students.
Housing
During my stay in Canada I found shelter in WCRI, this is a cooperation that has
multiple houses/buildings really close to campus. I found this place because of the information
I got form UWaterloo. When I was there the building I stayed in was really old and they were
doing construction behind the building which woke us up several times in the mornings. The
good news for you guys is that they were building new places for WCRI itself which means
you gusy might get nicer buildings than I did. The biggest advantage of staying at WCRI was
that there were lots of other exchange students including my new friends. All of these
exchange students were in the same situation as I was, so I had a really fun time with them.
Another advantange of WCRI is that they know a lot of exchange students stay in
their rooms. They have the possibility to arrange everything via the internet which makes it
easy to pay etc. from The Netherlands. Besides this they have the option for exchange
students to get an extra package at arrival which includes bed linen, a pillow, clothing hangers
etc. This means you don’t need to buy that stuff yourself or even take it. So even when the
building was old and primitive I am really happy I stayed at WCRI.
Living Costs
During my stay in Canada I spent more money than I normally do in Tilburg, this is manly
because of the weekend trips I did. The costs of living are comparable to The Netherlands,
some things like meat or alcohol are more expensive but other things like clothing are
cheaper. So I think it is a bit different but the grant total will be the same. But my advice when
you are going on exchange if it is Canada you are going to or not, travel! It is the thing I spent
most money on but it was definitely worth it.
What I approximately spent monthly:
- Housing: +/- € 350,- Food: +/- € 200
- Transport: +/- € 0,- (busses are free within Waterloo for students)
- Books: +/- € 250 (just once, in the beginning of the semester)
- Miscellaneous +/- € 3200,- (including travel)
Academic Calendar
Because I was in Waterloo in the fall semester I only know the information about this
semester, but I do know that they have trimesters. This means they have a fall semester, a
spring semester and a summer semester. This is different because students can do
internships for 4 months every year so they will graduate with enough work experience to find
a job. For every semester this means it is 4 months long or actually a little bit shorter.
I started on the 14th with the actual lectures and in the week of the 7th the orientation
week began. From the 14th of September until the 4th of December my school schedule
looked the same for every week, no break or changes in my schedule. That my schedule was
the same every week had advantages but also disadvantages, it is nice because after a few
weeks you know exactly where you have to be at what time. But in my case it meant that I
had class from 6.30pm until 9.20pm at night twice a week, that was one of the things that was
different than I was used to. So in total I had 12 weeks of lectures and after that another 3
weeks in which the exams were held. This means the semester ended at the 22 nd of
December.
The International Office
To be honest I don’t even know I there was an international office at UWaterloo, but
in the orientation week all the information you need about who is responsible for what is
provided. It is in the orientation week that I found out to whom I had to go for my courses etc.
Exchange promotion
 What kind of activity did you take part in to promote exchange to Tilburg University at
your exchange university?
Social Activities
As before mentioned there are some activities organized in the orientation week for
exchange student, an example is a networking dinner in which you can meet other exchange
students. Besides this there are clubs at the university which you can join, for example there
is an ICSN just like we have IESN in Tilburg. With this club we went to the Niagara falls for a
day and they have activities every week to meet both local, international and exchange
students. I also joint the Outersclub, this is a club with which you can make day trips but also
weekend trips to nature parks. It is mostly camping and doing outdoor sports and a fun way to
meet local students. Meeting local students is by the way not very difficult, in classes you
need to do a lot in groups and that way you meet local student quite fast and they are mostly
very interested and kind.
Because I lived in a building with a lot of other exchange students it was very easy for
me to meet other exchange students. With the people I shared the kitchen we became a
close group of friends. During the week we did our school stuff and cooked together and in
the weekends we tried to make trips to other cities or parks. For example I have been to
Toronto, Montreal, Chicago and New York. If you go on exchange I would really recommend
you to find people to go on trips with as well because it makes your experience even better .
Culture and Language
While I was on exchange I did not have anything like a culture shock, because the
culture in Canada is quite the same as in Europe. But there were definitely things that were
different, shortly said I would say that a lot of things are just bigger than we are used to. By
this I really mean a lot of things! From trucks, grocery stores until the packages of rice.
Besides this it is also more common to have a lot of fast-food everywhere you look go, a lot of
cars everywhere you go and long distances everywhere you go. But this is all very normal in
Canada.
All of this might sound like a lot of difference but it was not that bad at all, of course
there are things that are different but in my opinion the changes were not that different that I
had difficulties with it. The one thing I didn’t really get used to in the months I was there is that
prices are not included taxes, you always pay more than it says on the menu or price sticker.
And of course I missed my bike some times and I missed the normal food or cookies I eat at
home, but it is part of the experience and to be honest it made me appreciate home more.
The difference in culture is sometimes really big, but because it is just as western as
in Europe some things were very much the same as well. I had the opportunity to stay with
family for a week after my exams in which I found some of these differences out as well. In
Canada distances are looked at differently because everything is just further apart than in The
Netherlands, we think an hour drive is quite a lot but that is nothing in Canada. Besides this
they look different at snow and the environment as well. You mostly see the differences in the
small things because the mentality is not that much of a difference.
In Canada it is also funny to see the difference between the province of Quebec and
the rest of Canada. Quebec is French speaking and that really shows, a lot of things are more
French and in the cities it feels a lot more European. The difference between Montreal and
Toronto is that Toronto is more like New York and Montreal is more like Paris. Because
Quebec is French speaking the official second language of Canada is French. This means
everything is written down in English and in French. Luckily they all speak English everywhere
you go. Before or during my stay in Canada I did not follow any language course, you only
need English and you already have the needed level and you will only get better at it, I never
had any problems with it
Personal Development
When you go on exchange you will realize that some things are different in the
country you go to but also in the country your exchange friends come from. When you are on
exchange you see differences with the country you are in which makes you happy with some
of the most normal things at home. I missed my bike at some point, in Canada everyone uses
a car. The same is with some things you buy in the grocery store. If I had the change to do my
exchange again I would just try more of these things, for example go to more place to try
food. In Canada there are lots of fast-food restaurants, we mostly cooked ourselves, but there
were so many different places you could go to. Another thing I would do differently was to
explore the Waterloo itself a bit more, in the last few weeks I found out that there were some
nice coffee places which I didn’t know of before, now I almost regret not going more often.
The thing I will not forget about my exchange is the traveling, the cities you go to are
always impressive and never really the same. Together with all my new friends the
experience only got more fun, at one point we just rented a small house somewhere and had
some fun with each other the hole weekend. It are moments like this that I would say I would
not change anything about my exchange, these moments are the best experiences of an
exchange.
Besides all the fun (and studying) an exchange also teaches you some things about
yourself, at least it did for me. These moments aren’t always nice moments but looking back
at it I think it helped me getting to know myself. Looking to the future I think this will definitely
help me.
III ACADEMIC INFORMATION
Academic level at a host university
At Waterloo all the courses are in English, so there is nothing to look out for when
choosing courses. The courses I took were 3 HRM courses and one course of the
International Development program. My opinion about the level of the courses is that it is easy
to follow if you pay a little attention and grades are mostly higher than in Tilburg. Another
thing I noticed is that the grades are based on more than one assignment/exam, with all four
of my courses I had a group project, presentation, mid-term and an exam, some of them even
had individual assignments besides that as well. This means the final exam never had a
higher percentage than 50%.
The teachers at Waterloo were very helpful, especially in the beginning of my
exchange I had some things I asked them help for and all of them were very kind and really
tried to help me. This also shows in the way they teach because they really want everyone in
the lecture hall to understand and pass the course, I think this is also a reason why there are
more than one exam/assignment on which the grade is based so you can fail something and
still pass the course. In my opinion the conclusion about the academic level in Waterloo is
that it is a little bit easier than in Tilburg.
Exams
All the exams I did were written exams, most of them were a combination of multiple
choice questions, short answer questions and essay questions. The same is for the midterms.
Other
In Waterloo there are two libraries where you can go to use computers. During my
stay there I noticed that these libraries are more build to bring your own laptop and work in
the library, but there are some computers you can use in there as well but the amount is
limited.
Description of Courses
Course
HRM 301 (BA)
Prerequisites
Basic HRM
Exam
Written
ECTS
6
Comments
Mid-term, group
HRM 303 (BA)
Basic HRM
Written
6
HRM 307 (BA)
Basic HRM
Written
6
INDEV 301 (BA)
None
Written
6
assignment,
presentation
Mid-term, group
assignment,
presentation
Mid-term, group
assignment, simulation,
individual assignments
Mid-term, group
assignment,
presentation, individual
assignment
Tips for the future students:
Speaking after my return to The Netherlands I would definitely recommend an
exchange to future students. It is such an experience and you do things and meet people you
will never forget!
As tips for future exchange students I would say not to stress out to much about the
little things before you leave. Some things are just easier to arrange ones you get there. I did
the same with my courses and I am happy I did not stress to much about it. The only thing
you really really need to arrange are to be shore you have the documents with you to get into
the country, after that everything is possible to be arranged. If you ever choose to go to
Waterloo and want to ask me something don’t be shy to ask.
Best regards,
Alde
A picture is worth a thousand words
Contact details:
Can the International Relations Office share your e-mail address with prospective exchange
students, so that other students can contact you for more information? If yes, make sure to
write down you e-mail address on the first page of this report.