University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA (Asmaa A.)

Again a new post about another exchange. This time in Seattle!!! 

A student from AUI is sharing with us today her life experience during a semester in University of Washington.

Let's discover together how it was!! 

My name is Asmaa, a Business Administration student. On Spring 2014, I went on exchange to the University of Washington through the bilateral exchange program. My exchange was a full tuition exchange so I paid all of the fees (except for insurance) at AUI. One important point to make is that UW has quarters and not semesters like AUI. As in students take three to four classes per quarter. Winter Quarter ran from January to March and Spring Quarter from April to June.

Seattle is home to Amazon, Microsoft and Starbucks. It is one of the few metropolitan cities that AUI has an exchange opportunity in the US.

Classes I took:

Five of the six classes I took were at the business school. Interesting fact: University of Washington was ranked #11 in the world according to US News. All of the classes were unique and so interesting and VERY different to the way classes are thought at Note: I took Principles of Finance on my first quarter and it was one of the most challenging classes, I had taken during my entire four year. Not because of the methodology but the standards of my classmates’ were pretty high. Most of them had prior knowledge of financial terminologies, while I had never heard of the terms before. Nonetheless, I learnt a great deal from the class, and I eventually ended up majoring in Finance.

Excursions:

FIUTS is an international student organisation. It organized most of the trips and excursions, we went on. The first trip, we went on was to Leavenworth, where we got to hang out and get to know more the other international students. Excursions are organised throughout the semester to local companies (Boeing, Microsoft, Starbucks…). Getting a tour of Starbucks offices was one of my favourite experiences during my exchange.

Accommodation & Food

I lived on the West Campus where students had to pay over $2500 per quarter, so OVER $5000 for the entire semester. Luckily, I only had to pay 5000dhs at AUI émoticône grin Another amazing steal, by paying 5000dhs into the cash wallet at AUI, I received about $750 per quarter, so around $1500 émoticône smile You could use your UCARD at all of the paying locations at the university (Local Point, Subway, Starbucks). No joke, you can buy starbucks coffee ALL over campus so my stipend ran out pretty fast émoticône frown

Transportation:

The UCARD, given by the university, allowed us to take any bus we wanted on the Puget Sound area for FREE! (HOORAY!)

Travelling:

Seattle is located in the west coast of the US. Flight tickets are so cheap to California. I remember we paid $79 for a one way ticket to LA during Spring Break. So take advantage of the opportunity and try to see as many cities as possible in the West Coast. My personal favourites were Las Vegas and San Francisco.

Thank you Asmaa for your post!! We hope everyone enjoyed some information about Asma's experience :D