Overseas Exchange experience
During the final year of Singapore Management University, I went for a overseas exchange semester to Babson College. I was always interested to study at USA and I was fortunate to be selected in this exchange program. I chose Babson College as it is the best entrepreneurship university in the world for 22 consecutive years and felt that it would be a good place to learn about this field.
There are few reasons why I would encourage everyone to go for exchange study programs:
- New culture- Education, religion, values and customs are different in Asia compared to USA or Europe. It is important to understand various cultures and ways of working when we work with different cultures. Babson College has a lot of international students from different countries and I was excited to interact with a lot of students.
2. Make new friends- There were 30 other exchange students at Babson College from different universities. I went to travel with exchange students from Hong Kong and Japan. I also stayed in the Babson College dorm with an American roommate and ate in the dining hall with locals.
3. Travel- This could be one of the best reasons to go overseas if you love to travel. Your exchange classes will not be counted in your GPA and you have a lot of time to travel around and explore. I went to more than 10 cities within USA and I particularly loved San Francisco.
4. Experience snow- If you have never experienced snow then exchange is definitely a good reason to experience it. Even though it was freezing with less than -10 degrees celsius on some days, I enjoyed the view and experience.
5. Extra curricular activities- Sometimes you don’t have enough time within your full time school to pursue extra curricular activities due to the hectic schedule. As the modules in the exchange university are pass-fail, you have more time to participate in these activities. I participated in Zumba, yoga, toastmasters and martial arts through my experience at Babson College.
Babson College is definitely a great choice if you are considering exchange. I would strongly advice you to go for overseas exchange to come out of your comfort zone and challenge yourself.
