<p>ZMCIngus, I went straight to grad school after UR and I just graduated from grad school this past May. After 6 years of school I had a manageable amount of student loans, but I’ve only been paying back my loans since last November and now I live in NYC. Needless to say, I have not paid back all of my debt. </p>
<p>Lakemom, I studied abroad the fall of my junior year. I was actually able to take all of the same engineering courses my classmates were taking that semester, so I did not have to overload or spend a summer playing catch up. The teaching styles in the engineering classes abroad were surprisingly similar to my classes at UR. The lectures usually consisted of going over problems and new material followed by smaller workshop sessions lead by TAs. That being said, the engineering class sizes abroad were much larger than courses at UR. In fact, the smaller workshop sessions were about the same size as a typical ME class at UR, while the general lectures were always larger than 200 students. This difference in class size definitely took some getting used to. The professors at the school I studied abroad did not seem to care all that much about the students. Moreover, there seemed to be much less academic support available compared to what’s available at UR.</p>
<p>Although the academic experience while I was abroad did not match the caliber of UR, the experiences I had outside of the classroom more than made up for the academics. I cannot stress the importance of studying abroad enough. I got to see and do things I would have never even dreamed of. Not to mention the people I met and the lasting relationships I was able to make. Engineering students should never let anyone tell them that they can’t study abroad because they are an engineering major; it’s simply not true. Many of my engineering friends studied abroad and still graduated on time. It is often more difficult to find certain engineering courses abroad, but with enough research and planning it is possible.</p>