Hi, I\u2019m Rose and I am a psychology student at QUT, and I just spent 4 months at SUNY Oswego in New York state.<\/p>\n
I have always wanted to go on exchange. My ideas growing up were always going somewhere in Europe and living like a Hogwarts student, but after my cousin came back from her year in California and gushed over the culture and community at American universities, I changed my mind.<\/p>\n
I wanted the purest most quintessential American college experience I could find, so I decided on the most random, small-town university that QUT had to offer, which was the State University of New York in Oswego.<\/p>\n
Oswego is small town in upstate New York, that sits on Lake Ontario, one of the Great Lakes. The campus was beautiful, and my dorm room had a stunning view straight out towards the lake. Growing up in Brisbane, I have always lived near and been close to water, so having such a huge lake right outside my window every day was a comfort (insert window view of lake photo).<\/p>\n
I got extremely lucky with my dorm room assignment, with my lovely French roommate and a corner room that was double the size of the regular rooms. All exchange students were housed in one building along with some American transfers, so it was everyone\u2019s first semester. This made it very easy to make friends and soon enough we were one big family. We had weekly meetings about our social plans, we stayed up till 5am playing games and watching movies and took mini holidays to the surrounding areas together.<\/p>\n
The academic side was very easy, assessments were more frequent and weighted a lot less than my psychology units at QUT so there was always some work to do, even if it was just a small quiz worth 5 percent. As I had a bunch of electives left towards my degree, I decided to do some fun subjects in biology and environmental sciences, including a Great Lakes environmental issues unit. I found for me and many of my exchange friends the work was very, very easy compared to our home universities so stress and studying wasn\u2019t a major part of our semester, and we still ended up with straight A\u2019s.<\/p>\n
There was always something going on around campus, like movie nights, ice skating, cultural dinners, and frat parties. The staff in our building also held events specially catered to us international students, like apple picking or baking so it was hard to find yourself with nothing to do. (insert apple picking pic)<\/p>\n
The food was also surprisingly good. The dining hall had a vast array of breakfast, lunches and dinners and even had its own ice cream parlour.<\/p>\n
In late November, I finally got to see snow for the first time ever, which was hard to comprehend for many of my friends who had grown up in upstate New York. Being on one of the Great Lakes meant we got to experience Lake Effect snow, which is very heavy. This meant we spent a big amount of time having huge snowball fights and building massive snowmen (insert snowman pic)<\/p>\n
The hardest part of exchange is definitely coming back. It felt like I had an entire new life with new friends and new routines for 4 months and then suddenly it was over. Keeping in touch with people now all over the world and promising to meet up again is difficult to sustain after a while, and the constant missing being with my friends definitely took a toll on my mental health. So, while it sucks to now have friends living so far away, I now have friends literally all over the world who are always willing to house me if I travel there!<\/p>\n
My advice for those going on exchange is say yes to everything and take every opportunity possible to do something fun or new. Take advantage of every holiday and break to go visit somewhere that you\u2019ve never been or sounds cool. You will not regret it. I got to experience an American Thanksgiving dinner with my friend\u2019s family, I got to see my favourite band in concert, and I got to visit cities I have always had on my bucket list, and I finally finally got to see snow!<\/p>\n