Study Abroad at HMC
I serve on the Study Abroad Committee at Mudd
and am very interested in seeing our students experience living abroad.
One of the main reasons I have written this document is to motivate you to seriously
consider studying abroad because it provides such an excellent introduction to the wide
wonderful world of experiences available when living outside of the United States.
Fortunately, studying abroad as a Mudd student has just gotten easier because of our new
Study Abroad Web site, which details everything
you might want to know.
Some of the links I find most useful are listed below:
Why I Am Particularly Interested in Seeing You Live Abroad
The main reason I'm interested in seeing more students study abroad comes from
my own experience as a college student.
When I was an undergraduate at UC Berkeley I wanted to study abroad -- and there were certainly
plenty of opportunities to do so --
but I unfortunately never managed to "find the time."
One of my best friends, who took the time to seriously investigate his options while in college, ended
up doing an internship in Paris, and this ultimately led to him working for this French company
for four years.
As a result of his experience, he will never be the same. His perspectives on leisure time,
food, history, culture, community, democracy, freedom, work, etc. will forever have a
not-entirely-American slant.
After I graduated, I worked as an engineer in the States for six years, and became painfully aware
of how much harder it is to find opportunities to live abroad once out of the college setting (remember
that, with a typical US job, you're lucky to get 2 weeks of vacation a year).
As I grew older and began to travel abroad -- particularly in graduate school, where I had
the opportunity to attend conferences overseas -- the regret concerning my passiveness
in this decision grew and grew.
After graduate school, I used this regret to force myself to apply for an
international research position, and was fortunate enough to receive a year-long Fulbright
research grant.
Seizing this opportunity was one of the best things I have ever done, and once
again, I realized first-hand just how much more viable this opportunity was
because I took advantage of it while immersed in an academic setting.
Studying Abroad as an HMC Computer Science Student
Here's a list of things to consider if you plan to study abroad as a CS Major.
Its also worthwhile considering what others who have done so have to say about their experiences:
Karlsruhe, Germany: Living Abroad as a Computer Scientist
I spent my Fulbright in
Karlsruhe, Germany, working at the
Universitaet Karlsruhe (TH), with the
Structure in Music
group.
Fortunately, since I didn't speak German, my colleagues were willing to interact
with me in English. I found the university a vibrant place, and the research
environment was of very high quality.
As an academic, my time there was well spent.
For example, two publications, written in collaboration with my German colleagues,
were accepted in refereed international conferences
(Issues in Melodic Segmentation,
Melodic Segmentation: Evaluating the Performance of Algorithms and Musical Experts).
Concrete accomplishments aside, there's a great deal to learn about ones work when interacting
with colleagues in another country on a daily basis. For example, I learned:
- What its like to be a colleague in Karlsruhe.
Here, people don't keep their office doors open, so the hallways felt a bit austere. However,
upon rapping on someone's door, you could be rest assured that a lively and stimulating conversation
would result.
There's also a much bigger distinction between "Professors" -- who are always addressed
using the formal "Sie" (and usually greeted with multiple titles, e.g. Herr Professor Doctor John Doe) --
and "the rest of us."
- What its like to compute in Germany.
While free software is often used -- should you find yourself needing Microsoft, beware:
that you can select your
"language of choice" as an option in the control panel does NOT mean that the system's
error messages or help files will be in English.
And then of course there's the German penchant for stringing words together to make even
longer words, something that's most heartily embraced when creating technical jargon...
- What its like to do research in Germany.
It was my experience that science tends to be more interdisciplinary, philosophical, and eager to tackle
big questions, whereas in America there tends to be more focus on creating solutions to specific,
more well-defined but smaller, often industry-motivated, tasks.
Germany is also one of the best-educated countries. It seems like everyone has a Ph.D. in part
because such higher-education is finely paid-for and available to anyone who has had
the appropriate schooling.
Regarding personal life, I cannot overemphasize how much more enriched my experience was
because I lived in Karlsruhe, rather than "just" visiting.
Of course its always better to visit a foreign country -- as opposed to not going at all :-) --
but realize that, in becoming a resident, all sorts of amazing experiences and realizations
simply become a part of your everyday life.
For example, I learned:
- What its like to be a neighbor in Karlsruhe.
In particular, I discovered (the hard way!) that tenants are expected to
share cleaning duties for the common areas of an apartment complex.
In other words, when that schedule is posted and it is your week to
sweep the atrium, you had better do so...
- What its like to be a consumer in Karlsruhe.
For example, I was pleasantly surprised to be so trusted when dining out -- and Germans do this
quite a bit! -- especially in the venue of a Bier Garten. When paying your bill,
its not at all uncommon for the serving person to have a seat at your table,
open up their steno-pad, pull out a pencil, and ask "Now what'd ya' have?" (in German,
of course).
I was also amazed to discover that I'd get yelled at if I tied my dog up outside of
a fancy department store (its considered cruel and unusual punishment!).
Rather, take them inside, and of course have them ride the escalator.
Needless to say, my dog was pretty freaked out to be dragged by the all-glass perfume
counters...
- What its like to live in the community of Karlsruhe.
For example, I learned about clubs -- they're called "Vereins" -- for absolutely everything:
singing, gardening, opera-making, you name it.
If locals want to form a Verein for some venue, they can apply for local funding.
This creates, among other things, many Verein-related jobs.
One of the German friends I met while living there literally conducted for Verein-based choral groups
for a living.
Vereins are also part of why gardens are everywhere in Karlsruhe (you can't walk more
than a block without seeing a bed of flowers). Many of these are maintained by local
Vereins.
- What its like to socialize in Karlsruhe.
I must point out that, when first meeting this conductor-fellow, it would've been
perceived as quite strange had I asked him "What do you do?" -- in America, the standard innocuous lead-in.
Rather, one should ask "What did you do last night?".
While in America, this might be misconstrued as a pick-up line, in Karlsruhe it
reflects a deeply ingrained different sensibility, where
there is much more attention payed to free time. So much so, in fact,
that on Sundays all the stores are closed (because this is the time to "hang out").
One result? I've never seen more fathers walking in the park with their children on Sunday afternoons...
In short, take the time to smell the flowers, live abroad, and what a better time to do so than while you're studying?!?
Last modified: Fri Aug 29 20:41:53 Pacific Daylight Time 2003