Becoming Independent
First, I had a fantastic time in Berlin. After living there for two semesters, it is my favorite city in the world. But I am unsure to what extent this is due to the program. First, I was put into student housing. In some ways, Middlebury Students are quite privileged because student housing typically has long waitlists, and finding an apartment is near impossible (even if you are willing to pay a lot). The housing situation is fine. It is a little far from the cool parts of Berlin (about 20-25 minutes) and depending on who you are living with, people can be a little dirty in the shared kitchen. But given the unfortunate realities of the housing market currently, having a room is better than no room. Moreover, I was not a Middlebury Student, so I was required to arrive early in order to enroll in a language course at GLS Berlin, which is one hour away on public transit from the program-provided housing. GLS is an amazing language school in a cool neighborhood (Prenzlauer Berg), I just wish I lived closer to enjoy the social opportunities! While this was only a temporary arrangement, having to commute so far on a daily basis was still a pain. Next, the program is usually quite small, given the specific nature of the Immersion Program. There were maximum six students in Berlin in one semester. This made social life difficult at times, and is different from many other programs that sometimes have hundreds of students from American Colleges and Universities to mingle with. However, I was able to meet people eventually, but the program does not necessarily provide robust social opportunities given the small amount of students. In the first semester I was there, I thought that academic expectations were clearly communicated, and that they had a strong ability to manage administrative tasks (visas, etc.). The staff are very invested in your wellbeing, sometimes to an overwhelming extent, but I think that is for the best. There were some miscommunications around deadlines in my second semester that were sometimes frustrating, that at the time were very stressful to deal with, but of course, I ended up being fine in the end. I would say one should only do this program if you are ready to live in a new, sometimes daunting city by yourself, because that is effectively what you are doing. Knowing that staff were there for safety needs did provide a great sense of security, but they really give you a tremendous amount of independence. The downside of this, of course, is that you need to try really hard to make friends for yourself given the small amount of people on the program. If you think that you could thrive in such an environment, I would really encourage you to do so.
