My Exchange to Boston College.

About Me:

I am 20 years old and I went on an exchange to Boston College in semester one of 2014, which was

my third year at the University of Otago, studying a BSc in Zoology.

Accommodation in Boston:

Boston College is located in a suburb called

Chestnut Hill which is on the border

between Boston and Newton. When

applying for BC you can select whether you

would rather live on-campus in a hall of

residence or off-campus in a flat that you

have to sort out yourself. Although I ticked

the on-campus box I was unfortunately not

selected which meant I had to find

accommodation by myself. Before I left I had

a look online at some flats around the area

and there appeared to be heaps to choose

from but I didn’t want to sign anything

before I arrived, so I booked into a hostel

(Hostelling International: Boston – a great

temporary place to stay), and hoped to find

something once I arrived.

Luckily for me, with help from the Residential Office at BC, I found a house on my second day in

Boston, right down the road from the campus, with seven other exchange students. Rent was $800 a

month, which was pretty cheap in that area, including water, power, cable and internet. The house

was perfect and acted as the “party house” for all the exchange students, which was great for

getting to know everyone and making great contacts overseas. I quickly became best friends with my

flatmate from the Netherlands and as well as travelling together after finals, we haven’t stopped

talking since.

Although I had a great time living off-campus, other

students on exchange who lived on-campus also had a

great time and it really is a toss-up as to which

accommodation is better suited for exchange students.

Just remember wherever you end up living, as long as you

get out there and make friends then you’re going to have

a great time on exchange.

Money:

I feel as though money is interesting to talk about, because if you wanted to live cheaply by not

eating at restaurants, or going to events, or travelling, then you easily could. However I believe that

while I was on exchange money didn’t really matter, because doing all those simple things was a

One of the many snow days at BC.

My house on South Street.

huge part of the experience. While I was in Boston I went to several concerts, basketball and

baseball games and travelled throughout the North East which all cost a fair bit but was absolutely

worth every penny. Transport in the US was fairly cheap, although I found that once I got to the

cities I was going to (especially New York) I could often find myself spending upwards of $500 during

a weekend away. It is possible to have a reasonably inexpensive exchange if you find cheap rent and

never eat out, but I honestly do not see any fun in that. Boston has such a culture that you can’t

have a properly fulfilling experience unless you are willing to spend a bit of money.

Academics/Course Load:

As a science student, I honestly did not think Boston

College was quite fit for me. It excels in its Business School

and therefore I urge Commerce students to go as it would

be very enriching. But for science, which Otago exceeds at,

I was somewhat let down. For the Animal Behaviour paper

I was taking I found that I was learning things I had been

taught in high school, despite it being a fourth year paper.

As for the work load I found it not as difficult as Otago,

with less internal assessments worth more credits, for

instance a Psychology paper I took had one mid-semester

exam worth 30%, a small assessment worth 20% and the

final exam worth 50%, so it was great in regard to

travelling and relaxing as much as you can while you don’t have any internal assessments and then

buckling down when you needed to sit those internals.

Transportation:

BC has an excellent transport system around the suburbs near campus with a free bus that comes

past every fifteen minutes. One of the bus stops was directly at the end of my street, and only takes

five minutes to get to campus, which came in very

handy on the days when I was running late or it was

-15°C outside and I didn’t fancy the fifteen minute

walk. When the weather was warmer I always walked

as the area around campus is flat and easily walkable.

As for transport into the city there is the ‘T’, which is a

train system that runs around Boston. The Green line

runs from campus into the city. There are three

different sub-lines around campus (B, C and D) which

go along different routes, but ultimately get you to

the same places downtown, the fastest train is the ‘D’-

line which was a five minute walk from my house, and

is situated in Cleveland Circle. The ‘T’ is great because

there are multiple lines (Red, Blue, Green etc.) which all interconnect and get you literally all over

Boston and you can hop on and off underground for the cost of one ticket, getting you to places like

the airport, the zoo, Harvard Square and the aquarium for a relatively cheap price.

A Two-Toed Sloth at the Franklin Park Zoo.

Gasson Hall at Boston College.

Weather:

Being in Boston for the spring semester meant I had

to face two months of bitter winter from the day I

arrived. Temperatures ranged from -20°C to about

25°C in the four months I was in Boston which is

much larger a range than I had ever experienced in

New Zealand. In all fairness, it was the coldest and

longest winter that the North East had experienced

in a long time, so hopefully future exchange

students at BC won’t have to go through it.

However, because it snows so often there, they

have great systems for keeping the roads and

footpaths ploughed which means it is almost always

safe to drive or walk to wherever you need to go.

I couldn’t tell you how many times it snowed in Boston, all I know is that it was a lot, but for the

majority of March it was clear (except for one heaping on the 28th), but by the time April came

around the weather was warming up rapidly and the last snow melted quickly. So for my last month

and a half in Boston the weather was beautiful, warm and clear, and we were outside as often as

possible. I think it only rained three times the whole time I was there, which was a shock to the

system after Dunedin. Despite the ridiculous amounts of snow and the freezing cold, I found that the

weather didn’t really influence my decisions of whether to go out or not, it just made me run a little

faster, but that simply just added to the experience.

Eating:

First things first, you have to know that on Sundays the free BC bus goes all the way down to

‘StarMarket’ the supermarket near Cleveland Circle, which is a real treat since you don’t have to

carry your groceries. Although honestly, I can’t say I went to the supermarket all that often because

it was about an eighth of the size of a normal Countdown and didn’t have nearly as much variety,

unfortunately that was the case for the other two supermarkets in the area as well. For the first two

months I ate groceries but then found myself going away for the weekends and not being able to get

the free bus and not wanting to walk for half an hour carrying my groceries – so I got takeaways.

By living so close to Cleveland Circle it meant I was in very easy

walking range of all the takeout shops, my favourite by far being

Eagles Deli – you have to go to Eagles. There is also Chipotle, FroYo,

Pino’s Pizza and a couple of stores with Vietnamese and Mexican

food, and of course a Starbucks and a Dunkin Donuts. Takeout has

this illusion of being cheap, until you go there too many times and

realise you spent far too much money on food.

The other option for food is to eat on-campus at one of the many

dining halls. One of my favourite things was to go to Hillside and get a Panini (“With chips and a

pickle?”), where you have to remember that chips always means potato chips and never means hot

chips. But Lower Campus dining hall and Mac (the upper-campus dining hall) are the two busiest

One of the many choices at Quincy Market.

This was a “light” snow day.

places to eat with the biggest range – including some healthy food. Food on campus is pretty

expensive so it really benefits you to make friends with someone who lives on-campus and has a

meal-plan, where they prepay $2000 at the beginning of semester for meals and during the last few

weeks are eager to get rid of the $1000 they still have

– getting free meals off them is cheeky, but worth it,

and we always paid them back by having parties every

week and supplying the beer.

Things to do:

There are a million things to do in Boston, at the

college and in the city. First of all, I wanted to go to as

many American sports games as I could. In my first

month there I went to the Celtics vs. the 76ers and it was one of the best nights of my exchange.

Overall I went to two Celtics games and two Red Sox games, and I would have loved to have gone to

a Bruins game but the tickets were a little out of my price range – you need to book quickly for the

hockey. If you go in the fall semester make sure you go to a Patriots game since they are meant to be

incredible. I went to a few concerts in Boston at the TD Garden, including Justin Timberlake who was

absolutely flawless, and I strongly suggest getting along to as many concerts as possible because

they are way cheaper than they would be in New Zealand, and the artists come to Boston (rather

than you having to fly to Auckland to see them).

On campus you need to get involved with the College Sports games, I

went to a BC hockey game and it was awesome, the atmosphere was

crazy and all the students get so into it. There is also college basketball

and baseball in the spring semester which are also great to get along to.

I also went to a few plays, productions and a cappella group

performances which not only starred a few of my exchange friends, but

were professional quality performances that were mostly free. I loved

getting to check out the local talent of the students at BC.

Finally, around Boston area there are so many things to do. A few of

my favourite things included Whale Watching and the New England

Aquarium, (where you could buy a pass for both for less than $50),

shopping on Newbury Street, going to Quincy Market for some

unusual but delicious food, going to Joe’s for the most delicious

Veggie Burger ever, going to the Franklin Park Zoo, and going to

Legal Seafood’s for clam chowder in a bread bowl – America loves

putting soup in bread bowls, but the best clam chowder you’ll get is

in Boston itself. However my absolute favourite thing to do in

Boston was to walk down to the Chestnut Hill reservoir which was

right next to campus and just walk around it a couple of times, at

sunset it is the most beautiful and peaceful place you’ll go on your

whole exchange at BC.

My flatmates and I at a Celtics game at the TD Garden.

A seal at the New England Aquarium.

The Chestnut Hill Reservoir.

My flatmates and me on the Brooklyn Bridge.

Places to Visit:

Once again, there are a million places to visit in Boston, and the

real way to find your favourites is to just explore as much as you

can. One of my favourite places to go was Harvard Square, just a

quick trip along the Red line, it’s full of cute stores, great

restaurants including Charlie’s Diner and IHOP (you need to go to

IHOP), and of course Harvard University which you can look

around and find a super smart American to bring home to your

parents. Another one of my favourite places was Little Italy,

which consists of two streets at the North End of Boston, Salem

Street and Hanover Street which between them have over a hundred restaurants dedicated to

Italian cuisine. Mike’s Pastry is a must-see in Little Italy and it has the best cannoli’s you will ever eat.

But overall you need to travel outside of Boston as much as

you can. New York, Maine, Philadelphia, Niagara Falls,

Toronto, and Cape Cod are all just a bus ride away (some

you need to go to New York first) and you can find buses for

extremely cheap prices. Some of the best experiences I had

on exchange were when I wasn’t in Boston. Washington

D.C. and Chicago are also fairly close and you can find flights

from Boston for super cheap. Weekends away are relatively

inexpensive compared to the experience you gain from

them and they’re a great way to bond with fellow exchange students, who I strongly suggest you

travel with. Also, if you have the time and money at the end of your exchange, definitely go to the

West Coast. LA, Seattle, San Francisco, Las Vegas, the Grand Canyon and

Alaska were some of the best places I visited.

New York was only a four hour bus ride away and generally the price of

the bus was around $20, there is an enormous amount of things to do in

New York and even though I went four times I feel like I barely touched

it. A few of my favourites were the Rockefeller Centre, the Empire State

Building, seeing The Lion King on Broadway, going to the Highline and

Magnolia Bakery, crossing Brooklyn Bridge and visiting the 9/11

Memorial and also taking the ferry out to the Statue of Liberty. New York

is a must see if you decide to go to Boston on exchange.

I definitely enjoyed Alaska the most, I went for ten days and hiked

around and took boat cruises and saw so much wildlife, it was the

most inspiring place I’ve ever been and if you have the money and

the time while on exchange it would be my number one place to

go, you won’t see anything like it anywhere else in the States.

The perfect thing about exchange is meeting like-minded travellers

who also want to go where you do; you never have to travel alone!

At the Niagara Falls, Canadian side.

Statue of Liberty on Spring Break.

At Holgate Glacier near Seward, Alaska.

Tips for Future Students:

I guess a few tips for future exchange students at BC would be

that before a weekend away make sure you research where you

are going and jot down a few places that you’d like to visit. A big

part about travelling is spontaneity, but if you have absolutely no

plan then it can easily turn into walking around in circles until

you finally decide on something. Another tip on travelling is to

try to avoid travelling in a group of more than four people, once

there’s more than four, decisions take way too long and it really

cuts into your exploring time. Also, take as many photos as you

possibly can, it’s a regret to come back and realise someone else

always had the camera.

Whether you’re living on or off-campus at

BC, do not stress! You will make friends

wherever you live, you just have to be open

and friendly and be prepared to do anything

and go anywhere.

Make sure you get involved with locals and

with other international students, whether

it’s auditioning for a play or a choir or joining

the social football team, being part of a

group will really enhance your exchange.

Take every opportunity you can to get to know the country you’re living in, whether it is a trip away

for the weekend, or going to a sports game, or a concert or simply an afternoon trip downtown – do

as much as you can, I cannot stress that enough, because every simple thing you do builds the

experience you have on exchange, and it will definitely be a good experience, but do as much as you

possibly can to make it the best experience you could have.

Last but not least - do not get tap beer at MA’s, the pipes there are unsanitary - go for bottled beer

every time. And if I’m honest, going to America before you turn 21 is great, but it also feels so

restricting. Think back to being 17 and not

being allowed to even step foot in a bar

without your parents accompanying you –

that’s how it feels to live in America as a

twenty year old. All I say is to think carefully

before signing away legal drinking for your

whole exchange. But even if you do decide

to go while you’re underage, like I did, you

will still have the best time of your life; you

simply cannot regret choosing to go on an

exchange, especially one to Boston College.

At the Grand Canyon after finals.

The International Social Football team, playing at 11pm Mondays.

An exchange student selfie at our farewell function, courtesy of Claire.