Sandra Fischer
Germanistik, Anglistik/Amerikanistik, Slowenisch
University of Arkansas, Fayetteville WS 2006 - SS 2007
Fayetteville is a nice little town in the heart of the so called Bible Belt. It is smaller than Graz with a relatively bad public transportation system. I can recommend arriving on XNA airport, which is the closest one to the university, because the responsible coordinators are very friendly and helpful and arrange a ride from this airport to your residence hall or apartment. It takes you about 30 min by car. The cabs cost about the same price as in Graz so it is too expensive to take one from the airport. In case you can not get a ride there is a shuttle service at the airport that charges around 20 $.
Anyways, people are generally very friendly and the coordinators of the Study Abroad Office take good care of everybody. You can really rely on them and you will be supported from them with everything you need.
I stayed in Holcombe which is one of the dorms there. I shared my room with a very nice girl from Bulgaria with whom I had a wonderful time and who turned out to be one of many good friends I made there. I can recommend living on campus because you don’t have to rely on the public transportation system which again is very bad. Holcombe is an International Living and Learning Community where every foreign resident has an American roommate. This is your first possibility to get to know new people, maybe also with a car, who can give you a ride and show you the city. The halls also organize a lot of events that you might want to participate in. Another possibility of housing is Garden Park, which is off campus and supposed to be the party metropolitan area. It is an apartment complex that is located about 20 min from campus. It is very nice there but also very noisy. Most of the people are from Latin American background. Generally there are a lot of Latin Americans in Fayetteville and speaking Spanish can be a great advantage for you. Another apartment complex is Carlson Terrace which is even farer away than Garden Park. It is very nice there since it is located right next to a very beautiful park but it is quiet far away from everything and you depend on the busses. Humphreys Hall is supposed to be a nice dorm and is on campus. The Northwest Quad is one of the most expensive and luxurious dorms located also on campus. This year they built a new hall, Maple Hill, which might be the nicest one but I guess that it will be hard to get a place there. Anyways, I can really recommend Holcombe because it is not too big, it is a nice and clean hall and it is relatively cheap compared to all the others. One disadvantage of living in the halls on campus is that you have to take the meal plan although there are kitchens which means that you have to eat in the cafeterias. The food is not too bad but you get tired of it.
If you can afford a car I would very much encourage you to buy one. However, I did not have one and Americans in general are very helpful and offer to give you a ride at any time. You just have to ask and they don’t mind it. Always keep in mind that our standards don’t appear to them. They are happy to help you out with that.
As for health insurance you have to have one if you want to study in Arkansas because they will not allow you to study there the following semester which is not important for you if you only stay there for one semester. Still I would suggest you take a travel insurance from Austria because health insurance in America is unimaginably expensive. Don’t forget to take a tuberculosis test in Austria and bring all your documents with you otherwise they will test you there. Normally this is for free unless your test is positive. If it is they will take an x-ray of your lungs and that is quite expensive. Other than that your insurance covers everything and the university has a health care center on campus which is very comfortable. Don’t forget to show your insurance card there! Otherwise they will charge you again!
The first week after you arrive in Fayetteville you go through a so called Orientation Week. This is very helpful but also crazy. They keep you busy from the morning till the evening and you don’t need all of the information they give you there because they are not familiar with the exchange program so much. They are responsible for international students in general which includes people who do their whole degree abroad. I would encourage you to go there for free meals and programs and trips. Other than that the information about taxes, enrollment procedures, the health care waiver and the immigration status is important. If you want to work on campus you first have to find a job and then you can apply for a social security number. Only with a social security number you can work on campus and only for 20 hours per week. There is plenty of opportunity to work on campus such as for the cafeterias (chartwell), for the Survey Research Center or for the computer labs. Just apply; often they prefer Internationals to Americans. Working might be a good idea since traveling out of Fayetteville is expensive because the airport XNA is a business airport. Don’t take the busses to far away places alone! They can be scary! School books are really expensive and you are required to buy them. Other than that you need approximately the same amount of money as you need in Austria.
I took a whole variety of classes since it is not easy to get what you want. Exchange students are the last one to enroll for classes so very often all the spots are already taken. You can ask for overrides but they will not always give you one. The same appears to graduate classes as an undergraduate. Unless you stay there for longer than one semester and can show the teacher that you can take it, it will be hard for you to get them. Overrides are easier to get if you are majoring in this field, so choose your major carefully. Generally classes with a 1000 or 2000 number are very easy, too easy for you I guess. If you are planning to take English classes you are required to take a placement test. This is only to place you into the right class in order to make sure you can follow the lessons. Don’t worry about it.
I took Comm 4143 “American Film Survey” with Dr. Scheide who is a really good and nice professor with relatively easy and interesting classes. He is well known to be a good teacher. I can recommend him and his classes.
Comm 4843 “Computer-Mediated Communication” with Mr. Chung was a hard class but very interesting. He is a nice person but his English pronunciation is not the best and sometimes he is hard to understand. Still I learnt a lot.
Jour 1023 “Media and Society” with Mr. Purvis is a good class although it is very easy. Mr. Purvis is a sports journalist and crazy for baseball. He is a really funny teacher if you are willing to listen to him in huge class rooms.
SCWK 3163 “On Death and Dying” with Dr. King is really easy and well known for that reason. All Americans recommend it to you because it does not require a whole lot to have a good grade. Still it is very boring and depressive. I would not take it again.
Phil 2003, “Introduction to Philosophy” with Roman Briggs was very interesting and I can recommend the class a lot although it is very easy, especially for people who have already read and studied philosophy. Introduction always means the basics.
Comm 2333“Communication Research” with Mr. Smith was totally uninteresting and useless He permanently canceled classes because of snow and his spoken English is hard to understand. Don’t take it, at least with him.
Comm 3343, “Introduction to Contemporary Communication Theory” with Dr. Webb was kind of boring as well. You read out of the book for one hour and she is pretty narrow-minded. The book is good though and you will study a whole lot of theories that you might not have the chance learn about in Austria.
ITAL 2013, “Italian Intermediate II” with Dr. Rosier was a good grammar class. I learnt a lot of grammar with her and she is a good teacher. Don’t plan to talk Italian there though.
Summarizing I can say that I had a great time in Arkansas and that I don’t regret that I went there. I am sure you will have the same experience!