Yrsa Fossgreen: BOKU (Universität für Bodenkultur Wien) University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, Austria

Why did you want to do an exchange?

I wanted to do an exchange to broaden my horizon and to experience new things and meet different people, and the Erasmus exchange was a very good
opportunity for these things. I selected Vienna because I have the good
fortune of knowing German as well as English, which of course made my
exchange in Austria very smooth. But it is also perfectly possible to get by with English in Vienna.

Vienna itself has great and diverse architecture throughout the city, and is very well connected with public transport. Surrounding Vienna there are many great destinations for day trips, or also weekend excursions. I myself visited the Castle Park in Laxenburg, which is the biggest landscape garden in Austria. There is also the zoo in the palace park in Schönbrunn, which is very
well renovated to preserve the old architecture, and simultaneously ensuring modern animal welfare.

Which courses did you take?

The biggest challenge during the exchange was to select courses that fit
together in a schedule. Courses that i ended taking are presented in the table
below. Specifically at BOKU it is going to take a lot of time to select your courses, and it might be hard to get exactly 30 ECTS, so if it is possible for you to arrange it so that you don't need precisely 30, that will save you some stress. If a course you want to take is already full, a friendly email to the professor where you explain your situation will most likely solve that. There will also be overlap of schedule between the different courses, this is normal and okay if it's not too often. 

What was the student life like outside of your courses?

In regard to sports there exist a large selection of courses to choose from for students in Vienna at a discounted price here: https://www.usi.at/en/ Make sure to sign up fast in the beginning of the semester if there is something specific you want to practice, such as archery or historical european martial arts. Since classes can be quite popular.

Advice for future exchange students:

If you end up traveling to Vienna, make sure to participate in the
local coffee house culture. It is such a distinct practice that it has
even been designated as an intangible UNESCO heritage. Advice for
future exchange students would be to expect a lot of paperwork, and
it is important to start planning early, and also to gather information
about the different steps you have to take. And have fun!