Going back to the time where I had to choose my destination for my semester abroad I was not expecting to live such an amazing adventure in the heart of Europe!
It all started in the second semester when I had to pick a location for my semester abroad. At that time Prague was my third choice, behind South Korea and China. In the end, I decided to go to Prague for my semester abroad due to personal reasons. And Thanks God I went to Prague, or I would have missed a huge opportunity! Before even going to Prague I had kind of a negative impression of the city, but quite fast I learned that my negative impression was only the result of my lack of general culture. After my first few days in Prague, I understood that the city was very beautiful and that it had a lot of history dating back to 880. From the Vyšehrad Castle to the Charles Bridges passing by the Old Town Hall, the Astronomical Clock, the Prague Castle, The Church of Our Lady Victory and so many other monuments can one enjoy a variety of beautiful architecture and learn about the history of Prague. Needless to say but Prague isn’t only about beautiful architecture and history, Prague is also known for its party culture. There is a lot of festivals, night clubs, bars and concerts where you can enjoy a good party and taste Czech specialty: Their Beers! Also, there is a lot of nature outside and inside the city, There are a lot of parks where you can go enjoy a nice walk and get a view over the whole city. A little extra that I particularly enjoyed during my stay in Prague was the quality of the food in restaurants and bars. If you love meat, Prague will not let you down! If you go to Prague for your semester abroad you have to try Czech specialties like goulash accompanied by a good cold Czech beer! It’s a must!
Let’s speak now about the university where you might be going: UNYP! Before arriving in Prague and being at the UNYP introduction day, you may not know much concerning the university and how it functions. UNYP is a great university with very competent teachers and every single teacher has solid work experience and/or own their own companies. UNYP uses the American grading system for grading (A+ / B+ …), the minimum passing grade is B- and it is equal to 70/100. During the semester you will have two exam sessions; the midterm exams and the final exams. In between the two sessions, some teacher might give you homework, presentations or essays to do, obviously, they are all graded and will count in your final grade. Your final grade will be based by calculating the results of your midterms and finals exams + homework/presentation/essay + attendance. Yes, attendance does matter for your final grade, it actually represents 10% of your final grade! It is important to know that if you miss more than four lectures in one course (without justification), you will fail the course automatically.
At first, when I heard about all of that during the introduction day, I was afraid that the amount of work for the semester would be huge, but I couldn’t be more wrong. All the homework that the teachers ask you to do at home are directly related to the exams, so if you work each week 4 to 5 hours to prepare for the given homework, when the time for the exam comes, it will be a real piece of cake since you would have already answered similar questions previously.
The last thing I want to speak to you about is work, and by work, I mean student jobs opportunities. Prague is located in the center of Europe and links western and eastern Europe, therefore a lot of big companies such as ABInBev, Sony, Honeywell, SAP, Amazon… have offices in Prague. Those international companies are all offering working student jobs requiring to speak English, German… Which makes it easy to find a very good job opportunity that will greatly help you in building a network of connections in the professional world and improve your CV.
It may not look like it but a lot of people go to Prague to start their working career in a big coorporation and then get transfer in another country
I had mixed feelings returning to Munich after those amazing 4 months, that flew by way too fast, I feel happy to come back and meet all my friends who were also away, but I feel sad to leave UNYP and such an amazing and lively city such as Prague. Who knows, maybe I will go back to Prague to do a Master Degree at UNYP.
