Why I Chose Dalhousie University

As you probably know by now, I will be studying at Dalhousie University in Canada. It was a decision that I spent hours making, but so far, I'm very happy with it (seems a bit premature, doesn't it?).

Believe it or not, I was originally headed to the UK. I spent a year there on a Gap Year after I finished school, and I was desperate to go back and spend some more time there. If anyone wants any information of doing a Gap Year, I'd be more than happy to do some posts on it - it is a fantastic opportunity that I would highly recommend.

In a series of unfortunate events (if you can forgive the Lemony Snicket reference), it turned out that my plans of returning to the UK would not be possible. At extremely short notice, I had to go back and choose another University that I wanted like to attend. I fell in love with Dalhousie from the first Google Search. Feel free to go and do a quick Google Image Search - I'll wait...
If you did go and do a search for yourself, I'm sure you will have seen the variety of images of Dal. If you didn't (which I'm assuming is most of you, let's be honest), here is a sample of what I saw:

Photo Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/mricon/1582130387/sizes/m/in/photostream/

Is it gorgeous, or what? Another particularly appealing thing to me will be the entire concept of fall; here, it basically goes from summer to "winter". I use quotations because our idea of winter is about 15 degrees Celsius - pretty pathetic as far as winters go!

I spent hours trawling the Internet looking at the University and what they offered, and I finally decided that it was the place for me. The atmosphere seems fantastic, and they offer a huge variety of courses. If you've seen my subject selections, you'll know that this definitely works in my favour!

One huge influencing factor in my decision was the support from Dal - if you've done an exchange, I'm sure you'll be able to agree with me here; it can be almost impossible to get any help or information from potential exchange Universities.

I sent a somewhat frantic email to Dal a couple of days before the closing date for their applications, and I had a response within 5 hours. It wasn't a short email either [Note: I just did a word count - 500 words]. I won't name names here, but the Student Advisor who assisted me was so helpful, and I really appreciated everything he did to assist me. After waiting months to receive responses from other Universities around the world, it was so utterly refreshing to have immediate, helpful feedback. I think it was at that moment that I had my heart set on Dal.

Check out this YouTube video made my Dal students - it gets so stuck in my head! Needless to say I'm very exited to get to Dal for the start of their school year in September.

If you have any questions for me, feel free to send me an email at asemesterincanada@gmail.com, or leave a comment. If you've been on Exchange, I'd love to know where you went and how you went about making your decision.

B x