Okay...why Scotland?

So some of you may be wondering why of all destinations across the globe did I choose to spend the spring of my junior year in Scotland. Well, it is an interesting question.

If you had asked me when I was in high school where I wanted to study abroad (or even freshman year of college) I probably would have said "I don't know, somewhere." When I got to Guilford and began looking into my options as a junior, I realized that Guilford offered a lot of really neat opportunities for spending time abroad. I could have gone to a spanish speaking country to practice the language, or to Ireland or India or even China.

However, when it came time to applying and choosing which location was best for me, reality set in. If I wanted to graduate on time (or close to it) I needed to be able to take courses while abroad that would fulfill my physics major. This narrowed my options to countries that spoke english (I can imagine it would be VERY difficult to learn physics in a different language when I have to work my butt of to understand it in english!) So, of the choices Guilford had I decided Scotland sounded the most appealing!

What is unique about my study abroad experience from what many other Guilford students do is that mine is considered a Guilford Affiliated program, rather than a Guilford Led program. What is the difference you might ask? Well, a Guilford Led program is where a group of Guilford students go to a different country with a Guilford professor and live and go to school together. A Guilford Affiliated program is where students are enrolled directly in an institution in a different country. So, when I go to Scotland in just shy of two weeks, it will be me, the University of Dundee, and Scotland...things should be interesting!