IFSA Queen Mary, University London Partnership

I thoroughly enjoyed my time abroad with IFSA! From the academics to the opportunities to travel with other program members throughout the semester, everything was carried out carefully and with the students' best interests in mind. I'll carry the six months I spent in England with me for a lifetime! You can't go wrong in choosing London as a study abroad destination--with most of Western Europe at your fingertips and the beautiful English countryside even closer, you'll soon be as enamoured as I was. QMUL has a wide array of interesting clubs and lectures for students outside of class time which made for an active social life. Located in East London, there's a large urban and South Asian culture, which meant great food and day trips! It helped that, periodically, IFSA hosted trips to break us from what could've been an academic rut! At the end of the day, it's what you make of it but both QMUL and IFSA provide you the tools necessary for you to succeed and thrive.

Studying abroad in London was amazing! I loved all the classes that I was taking, and really immersed myself into the theater scene in London. Also being able to live on campus - have my own room and a shared kitchen - saved me a lot of effort from finding housing on my own. It's close enough to the city center (by tube or bus 15-30 minutes from zone 1) that I could easily commute to every day to visit a museum, see a show, or simply walk around, while I could also easily get involved on campus with student groups and extracurricular activities. IFSA also provided a lot of fascinating trips and activities for free, including a weekend trip to the lake district, to help immerse us more with the culture of England. Overall I had a wonderful experience!

What I remembered the most from my abroad experience is my role as an international correspondent for IFSA. I wrote stories and pictures every two weeks to document my own and others' study abroad experience. I have improved my writing skills, communication skills and interview skills tremendously out of this experience. It was also a great opportunity for me to reflect my journey as I go. I'd strongly recommend people to apply for this work-to-study scholarship!

I loved studying abroad at Queen Mary University of London! IFSA made the experience seamless and easy. Their program provided an orientation to help students get acquainted with London and my new university. The orientation went over health, safety, money and academics. It really helped me feel comfortable in a new country. Throughout my study abroad experience, IFSA had lots of fun, interactive programs. IFSA sponsored a trip to the Lake District and many other experiences around London. The trip to the Lake District was amazing, this area of England is beautiful and I'm so glad that IFSA organized this trip to allow all of the students to travel! Another one of my favorite experiences was a street art tour through Shoreditch which IFSA sponsored. It was really fun to learn about the local London artists. I also had a mentor from the IFSA staff who would come to campus every month to check in with the students. My mentor ensured that I was happy with my academics and living situation (in addition to being super friendly)! Overall, I was very happy with my study abroad experience.

This program, overall, was a wonderful experience. As an English major, the program was large and had many wonderful courses to choose from, but the workload wasn't too much and allowed me to explore and travel a lot. IFSA itself offered a lot of cool interactive activities and was always very supportive when I needed anything!