Oktatás | Tanulmányok, esszék » Julia Kargl - Erfahrungsbericht, Agnes Scott College, GA, Atlanta

Erfahrungsbericht – Agnes Scott College, GA, Atlanta – Julia Kargl Last semester (WS 07/08), I had the chance to study abroad. I got a scholarship from ISEP and could study at Agnes Scott College in Atlanta. It is a very small college with about 1100 students. Even though it is a Liberal Art College, it has a big science department and is known as one of the best pre-med schools in the south-east. For this reason, I chose this school, because my major is molecular biology. Another reason for this school was the south and that the school was in a big city. That was one of the best thing, because you easily can leave the campus and go to concerts, go to the movie theatre and so on. When I arrived, students from my school picked my up from the airport, they organized a room for me and I had nothing to pay for housing and meals. All the exchange students arrived one week before classes started, and members of the office of international education showed us around in the city, helped

us with our class choice and registration and made it easy for us to make friends with new people. I have to say, I did not expected so much help, which was amazing In general, all the students a professors where very friendly and helpful and you really can see that professors are interested to help you beside your classes. Usually American students take four classes per semester, but almost all the exchange students only took three. I would say, the classes were not that hard, but we always had a lot of homework, midterm exams and so on. The biggest classes at my school, was about 30 students, which makes it very personal and professors have a lot of time for you, but you have to be prepared for class and teachers ask during classes and want students to discuss topics and hold presentations. All students at Universities in the US have the opportunity to be a member of sport teams, which was a great option for me to meet new people and work out with others. I was a member of the

swimming and cross country team at Agnes Scott and also went to competitions with them. The College paid for food, transportation and hotels, which was a great chance for me to see the country. I was travelling with my teams in four states. I was really excited when I got the scholarship, but it got better. I had a great time in the US, I met many new friends and I had the chance to stay in the US until the end of January. I spend Christmas with a friend and her family which was a great experience. Classes: • Molecular Biology 316 – This class was really interesting and our professor paid a lot of attention to his students. We were a small group of students and in the lab everyone had his own workstation. Most of the time in the class we were talking about pro-and eukaryotic transcription in theory but also we where discussing results of experiments and how to interpret data, which is a really important skill in the lab. • Special Study 410 • Internship 450 - The

special study and the internship is usually a class which cannot be taken by exchange students. These internships, students from the college take in med schools or other labs to get some experience in their fields of interest. I made my internship at Agnes Scott I worked around 20 hours per week in the molecular biology lab of professor Finco, which was a great opportunity to get some experience in molecular biology research and to work in my own two projects, the effect of two different transcriptionfactors on the LAT gen, which is involved in the T-cell development. If you have questions, let me know and contact me julia.kargl@eduuni-grazat Take the chance to study abroad and have fun. Julia