Welcome to Koç!

Hi all,

It has been just over a week since I moved into my room at Koç University and student orientation is still underway, but reader, it already has been an experience exceeding expectations. I might not be able to take you to Koç University, but for those of you that might be looking to study here in the future, I'll give you a virtual tour of the place, starting with my dorm.

I rented a single for the semester. Naturally, there is not a lot of space, but there are plenty of places to store stuff here. The doubles are very spacious, and the quads (compared to my freshman dorm) are quite large as well. I needed a single to focus on upcoming thesis work, but I recommend for anybody looking to really connect with the other Turkish students here as quickly as possible to take a double. Past exchange students have told me it really helps out. But, if you really desire a single, there are many other ways to interact with students.

For example, take student clubs. Although this is a small school, student club life appears to be much more vibrant than anything I have seen in the states. The clubs are very diverse as well. I've seen everything from American football, dungeons and dragons and dance clubs. I signed up for a cinema club that will be showing Turkish films on most weekdays. I have also heard of there being political clubs, which I definitely plan on attending. The students here are very involved in campus life; my exchange mentor is also the vice president of the international students association, the president of KU global aid. She has had very little sleep this week.



With the exception of technical support, whom I am told typically does a much better job (plus, it's easy to hate on tech staff), the staff as a whole seems to have been doing a great job at acclimating students to Koç life and İstanbul. Now, I can only say that they are apparently "doing a great job" because I have been here since June, so I am already very familiar with İstanbul. However, I can say with certainty that my mentor has been very helpful in showing me around Sarıyer, an İstanbul suburb, and being accessible.

When we are not being taken out of town to party or tour, we are at the student center finishing paperwork, finding supplies, making payments or relaxing with food and new friends. Coming from a very small liberal arts university, my perspective might be a little different from the average student, but the sheer number of conveniences to be found here are each reasons I am glad I chose to live on campus. To be found here are the two food courts, the University bookstore, several hairdressers, a copy center, a bank, and a tunnel network leading to many of the academic buildings on campus (will be useful when winter arrives).

The library is straight across from the student center, though, I think showing you can wait until I start to live there.

The athletic facilities are pretty nice here, too. Naturally, the main building is very spacious. The equipment here is very new here and nothing here is broken. I am a little disappointed in the lack of free-weights (there are plenty of dumbbells), but the quality of the equipment more than compensates. I have also seen a rock-climbing wall here and a dance room here, too. Trainers are also available on weekdays. Outside of the athletic facility is an outdoor ice rink, but, at the moment, it is a sauna inside of a tent.

I'm actually looking forward to classes starting here. I will be having my first class on the Turkish constitutional system this Monday morning.* Talking to other students other here, I feel even more lucky to have gotten into all of my courses. As at DePauw, the smaller amount of classes available  can make it especially difficult to get the schedule you want. That said, I have been told that you are much more likely to get into a class you have been "wait-listed" on if you are a foreigner. It might also help that my faculty at Koc is International Relations. Another cause of this frenzy might be the sheer number of students trying to study Business Administration, which is probably Koc's best department.

Having gotten into four classes, I am wondering how busy I will be. The average number of courses taken at Koc seems to be five, or in any case, most of the students I have asked are taking five. Several students take even more than that in a semester. I get the feeling that courses here might not be as intense here as at DePaw, but I am not going to bother picking up another course anyway, as my Theses essentially constitute as a fifth course. Choosing the number of classes to take also depends on your strategy. An exchange student from Singapore is taking six engineering courses in order to graduate on time, but is not too worried about being too busy because they are all pass/fail.

Regardless of how intense these courses are, I will be enjoying the landscape of the area, enjoying the beautiful views and great weather. Even when winter comes and I am restricted to indoors (İstanbul has four seasons), I can still look forward to having great food, quality facilities and good company.

*Delayed posting to take photos I forgot about.

One thing I am loving about this campus are the open spaces. Beautifully designed campus.

An exterior view of most of the on-campus dormitories

My Room. The mini-fridge is provided, though, you might not find much use of it if you plan to store alcohol in there. Drinking is usually prohibited on campus, and I hear they enforce it pretty well.

Standard double. Pretty spacious, yeah?

Balcony lounge in my dorm.

Weight room. Can hardly complain!

I had to pay a bit for the room, but laundry services are covered.

Roof-top restaurant in Taksim. Taken from a roof-top bar.

Monument erected around 479 BCE in honor of a Greek at Plataea over the Persians.
Relocated to present location from Delphi in 324, one can see that much is buried underneath İstanbul.

Visited the mosaic museum, which contains some of the best preserved Byzantine mosaics in the world. Some of the images
provide the only references historians and archeologists have for palace life during Roman and Byzantine İstanbul.

These mosaics, despite their incompleteness, have been wonderfully restored.