EXPERIENCE REPORT
E-mail: esthernieuwenhuizen@hotmail.com
Study Program: Psychology
Exchange semester: Spring 2014
Academic year: 2013-2014
Host University: Michigan State University
Country: United States of America
I GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT THE SCHOOL
Michigan State University is located in East Lansing, a student town next to Lansing, the
capital city of Michigan. East Lansing is small, but the campus is huge! It takes about 30
minutes to walk from one side to another. In summer it is a very green campus, including a
botanical garden, in winter it is a magical white campus because of the snow. The differences
in temperature are crazy, a beautiful spring day can be followed by a day with snow. Just
north of campus are the bars and restaurants, but also the student houses of the students
who do not live on campus. In these houses you can find the famous American house- and
fraternity parties every weekend. On campus it is possible to play a lot of different sports.
When the weather is nice you can see students playing basketball or beachvolleyball on one
of the many courts on campus, but there are also three different indoor sports halls. MSU also
has its own dairy store where they sell homemade delicious ice cream and cheese. East
Lansing is a real American college town, you will see a lot of people in MSU clothes and a lot
of shops where you can buy MSU stuff. Even if you take a bus to Lansing, you will see that
even little kids and their parents wear MSU clothes. Sparty is the mascot of MSU, and
students love him and always want to be on the picture with him.
A big difference in study structure with Tilburg, is that although MSU students have a major,
they take a lot of electives, so a lot of the classes are followed by a very diverse group of
students with different study backgrounds. You are never alone on campus, surrounded by
more than 49,000 students! 37,988 undergraduate and 11,355 graduate and professional. In
2013, 7,161 international students were enrolled at MSU, a lot of them start a study and
graduate at MSU, but the American semester usually exists of about 100 students in the Fall
semester and 50 in Spring. Besides a lot of students, you will also see a lot of squirrels on
campus.
I would like to advice you to take a look at this website and to watch the video:
http://americansemester.isp.msu.edu/
II PRACTICAL INFORMATION
If you want to study in the US, you have to apply for a J-1 student visa. If you start in time and
follow the steps on this website
(http://amsterdam.usconsulate.gov/how_apply_types_niv.html), it is not difficult. I received my
official acceptation email with all the information I needed in November. The same
information, but hardcopy (you need the original DS2019 when you go to the American
Embassy in Den Haag for your visa), was sent to Tilburg University and arrived in December.
I was a bit afraid that I wouldn’t have my DS2019 in time for my visa appointment, but it
turned out fine and a few days after the visa appointment I got my passport with my visa by
mail. The visa costs 120 euros.
The American Semester Program arranged pick-ups at the airport and bus stations on the
arrival day. It was very nice that there was someone waiting for me with an ‘American
Semester Program sign’ when I arrived at the airport. I already met some other exchange
students there and they brought us to our dorms.
After we arrived, we had three days of introduction before the classes started. We got a lot of
information and they helped us with the things that needed to be organized, but there was
also time to get to know the other international students better and also the American mentors
who were part of the program and who were always there to help us during the semester and
to take us to parties. We went sledding in big inflatable tubes (see picture at the end),
shopping in the supermarket and mall (all transportation was in a typical yellow school bus!),
ice skating on campus, and we had group dinners on campus. It was a nice orientation and
after those days I already felt home at MSU and friendships started growing.
Housing
Housing is a thing you don’t have to worry about when you go to MSU. You will be placed in
one of the many dorms on campus and in most cases you can choose if you want to stay in a
single or a double room. I was very satisfied with my room and the dorm I lived in. I was
placed in a graduate hall, together with a lot of other exchange students. The dorms have a
lot of facilities like free laundry, a kitchen, a lot of study rooms, cafeterias or little food markets
and community areas with TVs. We often met in the basement to watch movies, play table
tennis or pool. The dorms organize a lot of activities, often with free food. Examples are:
winter Olympics, watching sports games on big screens, coffee hours etc.
Living Costs
Although you have to pay a large amount of money at the beginning of the semester to pay
for your housing and meal plan, there is not much more you will have to pay for after that,
besides the trips you want to make.
I paid 3901 dollar for housing and meal plan, including 70 meals and 300 dollar cash (Spartan
Cash) on my student card which I could spend on campus too. If you live in a undergraduate
dorm, you pay more, but then you have an unlimited meal plan. The 70 meals were not
enough, but together with the Spartan Cash and some food I bought at the supermarket, it
worked out perfectly. Going out for dinner is also an option, and it is cheaper than in the
Netherlands.
Besides the housing and meal plan, I spent most of my money on trips (plane and bus tickets,
hostels, rental cars, food).
I rented my books online, because buying books was very expensive and I couldn’t keep the
books afterwards anyway. This was very convenient and cheap (about 15-30 per book), so I
recommend to rent them online on bookrenter.com
Transport around campus is very cheap: busses are only 60 cents per ride and taxis are
always 3 dollar per person in East Lansing.
Academic Calendar
The spring semester starts early, I arrived on the 2nd of January and left on the 2nd of May.
Somewhere in between you have a week off: Springbreak! This is much more than our
breaks, Springbreak is the week that almost every student goes to a warmer or party
destination. A lot of people go to Florida, but we went to California to do a roadtrip from San
Diego to Los Angeles and San Francisco. It was a great week away from the cold.
The last week of the semester was finals week, but throughout the semester I had a lot of
examinations, varying from very small quizzes to bigger exams or midterms.
The International Office
MSU has a great international office. They were always there to help you and they were
located in the center of the campus. The American Semester Program is a special group of
exchange students who stay in East Lansing for one or two semesters. They have their own
coordinator(s), who is the contact person for all these students and who organizes field trips.
In my semester we were a bit unlucky because the coordinator quitted the job because she
moved out of state. Because of that, we had fewer field trips and no special spring break trip
organized for us and the communication was not so good at the end, but before I arrived in
East Lansing, the communication through email was good. And I am sure that things will be
better again in the future with a new coordinator.
Exchange promotion
I showed a Tilburg University Summer School promotion video in one of the weekly meetings
of the University Activities Board, a group of people who organize a lot of great events on
campus which I decided to be a part of during my semester at MSU. And I posted the link to
the same video on the international students Facebook page.
Social Activities
The Office of International Students S… organizes weekly coffee hours on Friday. And every
week they send an email about other activities that are going on, and also about
organizational things you should know or do.
There are more than 600 organizations on campus, some of them are for a particular cultural
group, but there are also accapella singing groups, sports groups or whatever you can think
of.
Most of my friends were international students, I was the only Dutch girl. But I also had some
really nice classmates and I had dinner a few times with the girl who I shared the bathroom
with. But the most American students I knew, were members of the UAB (University Activities
Board), a student organization I joined, that organizes a lot of free activities for students.
With the student visa I got for the American Semester Program, I was allowed to be in the
States 30 days before the starting date, and 30 days after the last day of school.
Before my exchange program in East Lansing started, I spent 10 days in New York. During
my exchange semester I have been to Chicago, a really nice city! I also went to Canada to
see the Niagara Falls and Toronto. In Michigan itself, I have seen Grand Rapids, Ann Arbor
and Traverse city and the sleeping bear dunes. During Spring Break we flew into San Diego,
spent one evening in Mexico (Tijuana), drove to Los Angeles and ended in San Francisco.
This was a great trip! After the semester I flew to LA, where I met three friends from the
Netherlands. We rented a RV (a camper) and we saw a lot in 2,5 weeks! National Parks like
the Grand Canyon, Yosemite, Joshua Tree and Zion, but also cities like Las Vegas, LA and
San Francisco. So all together I have been in 3 different countries and 7 different states of the
USA. Some of my international friends also went to Detroit, Boston, Washington and New
York during the semester.
Culture and Language
I did not really experience a big culture shock, but there were some differences. For example
when I wanted to go to the supermarket, that wasn’t as easy as it is in Tilburg. I was used to
be more independent, being able to get everywhere I want by bike. But in the States
everything is bigger and you are dependent on buses and taxis. One other small difference is
that when you want to cross the street on a crossroad, cars don’t have to stop for pedestrians.
That may be a good thing to know before you cross, assuming that cars have to stop;). In
general, Americans are very easy to talk to and they think it is really cool when you say that
you are from another country. Sometimes it may be superficial, but not as much as I expected
from stories and movies. I found Americans very enthusiastic and outgoing.
The English language wasn’t a problem. I had to give presentations in English, and I did not
like it but in the end it helped me being more confident about my own English.
Personal Development
During my exchange semester I met students from so many different cultures, it was very
interesting and we had a lot of conversations about our culture differences so I learned a lot
about their cultures.
It is hard to point out the things I will never forget or the best experience, because every part
of this exchange semester was unforgettable in its own way. Ofcourse the trips I’ve made
were awesome, but I also liked taking classes and going for dinner in the cafeterias on
campus with my international friends. The amount of snow was unforgettable too;)
III ACADEMIC INFORMATION
Academic level at a host university
All courses at MSU are in English, but many professors will take the fact that you are an
exchange student into account when they grade you or in some cases you are allowed to
bring a dictionary to an exam.
The workload is higher in general, because there are a lot of assignments to do and some
courses give weekly quizzes, but the level is lower. Most exams are easy, and as long as you
follow the guidelines for the assignments, you can easily get the full points. There are courses
that take place in big lecture halls, but also courses that teach in smaller groups and with
(group) presentations, assignments and online assignments.
The teaching staff was more involved with the students in my experience. Even in courses
with over 100 students, they really tried to learn names and one of the teachers even took
coffee and snacks to classes to stimulate students to stay after the lecture to chat.
I took only one psychology course, because I was not allowed to take graduate courses, but a
lot of the undergraduate psychology courses were comparable with courses I already took at
Tilburg University, so I also took courses from ‘Human Development and Family Studies’ and
‘Counseling and Educational Psychology’.
Exams
Exams are not as ‘big’ as in the Netherlands. Some exams only count for 10%. Most of the
exams are multiple choice. For most courses, assignments are almost as important as (final)
exams.
Other
The library and its resources are easily accessible. There are also public computers and
printers available in every building on campus.
Description of Courses
On the website http://schedule.msu.edu/ you can have a look in the course catalog. I took the
following courses, and I really liked my schedule!
Course
CEP 260 Dynamics of
Personal Adjustment
CEP 261 Substance
Abuse
Prerequisites
None
Exam
Multiple
choice
ECTS
6
Comments
Weekly quizzes (very
easy), many
assignments
None
Written&
Multiple
choice
6
Group presentation
HDFS 212 Children,
Youth and Family
None
PSY 310 Psychology
and Biology of Human
Sexuality
See website
6
Multiple
choice
Multiple
choice
6
Interesting, funny
assignment ‘My Virtual
Child’ in which you get
to raise your own child
online, easy
My most difficult course
because of the biology
part, but very nice and
funny teacher, every
class started with a
student telling a sex
joke
Tips for the future students:
I Would definitely recommend an exchange period! It was a great experience! MSU is a big
university with always a lot going on, so you will never be bored if you choose to spend your
exchange semester here. One of the things that really made my semester was joining UAB
(the university activities board), where I met a lot of great American students and where I got
to be involved in the activities they organize for the students, varying from weekly movies in
the campus center cinema, sports events like a waterpolo tournament or capture the flag, a
lot of comedians, speeddating on Valentine’s day, a Drag Queen show and a lot more. I
would really recommend you to join UAB, or if you go to another university, something that is
comparable to it!:)
If you choose MSU, I am sure you will have a great semester and you will experience the
American college life! Be prepared for the cold, especially if you go during the Spring
semester. Bring warm clothes, but not too much, because the prices for clothes are a lot
lower in the US so you might want to buy a lot..;)
If you are considering going to MSU, I am more than happy to answer any questions you
might have!
Blog
http://esthernieuwenhuizen.waarbenjij.nu/
A picture is worth a thousand words