Thule Grubbström: North Carolina State University, USA

How did it go with the preparations such as finding relevant courses, visa, housing and so on?

This part has no doubt been the hardest and most time-consuming part of the whole exchange. All the instructions have been there, but to accomplish it has been harder than I thought. It demanded a lot more time than I thought, and in retrospect I should have started the process earlier than I did. Because I was overly confident with the amount of time I had, I was always doing things at the last minute. Also, because I wanted to get an internship and a car on top of my visa, everything became even more time consuming. The good thing about all this is that I learned a lot about managing paperwork and overall, it’s been a good experience for the future.

Finding and choosing courses was also time consuming, not because of the system but because of it being a lot to choose from and thus being difficult decisions to make. The course catalog system was easy to navigate and when I decided on a course it was easy to apply. Housing was done through a NCSU portal and was not difficult. In summary, I would say that this whole process is very time consuming but not that hard in reality. If I could give any advice to people that are doing the same journey, it is to start as early as possible. It is funny because this is exactly what I was told, and I did not really take it seriously.

How was your overall experience at the host university? Was the quality of the courses good?

Overall, my experience has been great. It’s been many ups and downs, and in the beginning, I experienced a lot of homesickness. As the semester went on and I got to know more friends as well as getting used to the new way of living and studying, everything began to feel better gradually. In my experience, the end of the semester was the most enjoyable. This is where I really started to get comfortable with the new way of life. The quality of the courses was mostly good. I really enjoyed out of the three courses in particular. It was a course about silviculture that was designed to teach us a little about every important aspect of American Silviculture. The part of this course that made it so good was mainly the professor. You could say this professor used a kind of “old school” approach to teaching. What I mean by this is that she was very clear in the beginning about what she expected from us and how important it is to respect the professor. Things like using our phones during class was strictly forbidden. Also, she called us out during every lecture and asked us questions. Teaching like this is something I rarely see nowadays, but something I really appreciated. I quickly realized how much more I learned, because we really could not afford to zone out.

Which were the courses you took, and will you be able to transfer the credits?

FOR 504 - The Practice of Silviculture
FOR 506 - Silviculture Lab
FOR 531 - Wildland Fire Science
FOR 534 - Forest Operations Analysis

In total 10 credits. I will be able to transfer the credits to Swedish credits. 10 credits will translate to 25 HP.

Did you get the help you needed from the host university and from SLU?

Yes, I got all the help I needed. I am very thankful for how helpful both SLU and NCSU have been in assisting me with any questions I’ve had. I know that I’ve been asking a lot of questions, sometimes too many and too obvious ones, and the people have always been fast to answer and very helpful.

What was a “normal” day during your exchange? Any interesting activities?

My schedule during the semester was very light in terms of classes. This is mainly because I only took three classes making up 10 credits, while it seemed common for some people to take 15 and some even more. With that being said, in general I had one or two lectures per day or one lecture and one lab class. If the weather allowed, the lab classes were mostly outdoors in the form of small field trips. The large amount of time in between classes gave me a lot of flexibility in how I could organize my days, but since there were a lot of assignments and homework to be done most of that time went to studying anyways.

The big difference I noticed here from my education in Sweden was that we had a larger number of assignments. Back home, each course usually had a few bigger assignments or projects, while the classes at NCSU contained a larger number of smaller assignments. The bottom line is that I spent the same amount of time studying every day even though my schedule looked very thin. Again, because of the flexibility I could choose to schedule my work however I wanted and for example go to the gym in the middle of the day.

Most of the time I ate breakfast at the dorm and lunch at the dining halls. We tried to cook dinner at the dorm as often as possible to save money, but sometimes we ate dinner at the dining halls as well. The nights were used to hang out, study or to go to the gym. Towards the end of the semester and finals, studying took up most of the day and it became difficult to do anything else. At the same time, this was the period where we wanted to hang out as much as possible with the people, we made friends with, making it very enjoyable and stressful at the same time.

College sports are a big part of university culture in the USA, and since I studied at NC State during the spring semester, college basketball was the main thing to watch. Quite often, the college team played home matches at the stadium and watching these games was one of the most fun things to do. Worth mentioning is that the NC State Wolfpack made a historic run during the playoffs and made it to the final four.

In terms of things, we’ve done and experiences we’ve made, there are too many to include here, but I’ll include a sample. Spring break was a hectic week. The first weekend was spent in the Appalachian Mountains, hiking and spending time in a friend’s cabin. After the weekend, me and the other Swede (Isak) went to San Francisco for the rest of the week. While we were based in San Francisco, we took the opportunity to visit the Sequoia national park, which was one of the coolest experiences I ever had.

Other experiences mostly include everyday life and doing things on the weekends. After the exchange semester was over, me and Isak together with 4 other friends that travelled from Sweden went on a 2-week roadtrip through the southeast US. I’ll submit a few pictures in the Moveon portal to show a sample of the exchange.

What is the most important revelation you had thanks to the exchange experience?

My most important revelation is how much one can grow from an exchange, both professionally and as a person. Throughout my exchange, I had a lot of tough times, but despite this I am very happy I’ve done it because the good things outweigh the bad and that is what I will remember. From a professional standpoint the exchange provided me with many new perspectives which will help me in my future, but most importantly I got to know so many new people that I am very happy to have as contacts in the future. Another thing that I think is very important to mention is the way the world has opened up for me. Before the exchange, I felt like I was in a rut with my studies and that I was just going through the same motions every day. By traveling to such a different place and having to get used to a new way of living, I started feeling like I could do anything. If I could do this, I can do any other thing I want as well, and this really helps me when I feel discouraged about the future. What I am trying to say is that it made me realize just how many opportunities are out there, and that I can pursue any of them if I just act on them. 

Final thoughts

I am very happy that I made the decision to go on an exchange semester. I did have some difficulties with missing home and getting settled, but the good experiences outweigh the bad. I think most people will struggle with these things, some more than others. One thing I do regret is not making the most of my time despite these things. This is easier said than done, but in retrospect I wish I had made more efforts to enjoy myself even when I missed home. However, as I said, the good absolutely outweigh the bad and I am very thankful for this opportunity.

Throughout the exchange, I’ve gained lots of insight and knowledge that will be of great help for my future. However, the best thing about an experience like this is the people you meet, and I am beyond grateful for the people I get to call my new friends. Thank you to SLU and NCSU for their collaborative efforts in making this possible, not to mention all the people involved answering my countless questions over email, I truly appreciate it.