Final report International semester

Final report International semester
I stayed abroad via: Fonds Studiepunten Buiten Nederland (FSNB)
Name and surname: Mathijs Verheijen
E-mail address: m.f.verheijen@student.tue.nl
Department: Technology Management
Contact Person TU/e: Anita Gerardu
Period of stay: August 2006 to January 2007
Name institution: Carnegie Mellon University
City and country: Pittsburgh, United States of America
1. Preparation and financial matters
Instead of the long preparation time for my former trip to South-Africa,
preparation for going to Carnegie Mellon did not take very long. I browsed
through our departmental brochure in which all our international relations of our
studies are described. Since most of our relations did not have anything to do
with Information and Communication Technologies, I had limited choice. Africa
was no option anymore, because of my previous stay. Furthermore I thought if I
go abroad it might as well be to another continent. Therefore I decided to go to
the US. Carnegie Mellon University has a single department especially for
technology and policy issues, namely Engineering and Public Policy. This
department is in particular interesting for students who are currently studying the
Master Technology and Policy. Additionally, Carnegie Mellon University is world
famous for their computer science departments.
To get accepted to Carnegie Mellon was not a problem. As long as you write a
serious letter and take care of all your paperwork they will accept you without
any problems since the Technical University of Eindhoven has built up a good
relationship.
Unlike stories of other students I had no difficulties acquiring a Visa. Just be sure
that you fill in all forms neatly and precisely. If you do not look like a terrorist and
you behave normally, you should receive your visa the day after a short visit of
15 minutes to the American consulate in Amsterdam.
Be sure to save enough money before you to the US. First of all visa
requirements oblige you to have enough money in your savings account (They do
not specify the exact amount, but something like $1000 per month should be
fine). Second, I spent a lot of money on food and housing. All your fellow
students are Phd student and therefore have a fixed income. Since they work day
and night, most of them like to go out for dinner after work. This is of course
great fun to join, but is also a costly activity. Third, healthy food is crazy
expensive in Pittsburgh. If you like to eat good and healthy, reserve some
additional funds for food.
2. Accommodation
CMU does not provide housing for graduate students, so you have to find housing
yourself. CMU will help you as much as possible and Tue students who have been
in Pittsburgh before (like me now..) could help you. So do not hesitate to drop me
an email. Another good way to get good housing is via this website:

http://pittsburgh.craigslist.org/ . This website is comparable with the Dutch
equivalent http://www.marktplaats.nl . This site is also excellent to get 2 nd
handed furniture or even a car as we did. The best thing is to find a temporary
accommodation to stay and once you are in Pittsburgh go and visit housing
offers. There are always students within the department who offer you a free
room for the first weeks or even months.
Eventually we found a nice house in the area Point Breeze. 7717 Tuscarora street.
This house has nice rooms (3) and one nice old guy (Jeff, 53) living there
permanently who is happy to tell you everything about Pittsburgh and Americans.
The land lady, Kenya, is an associate professor in the department of Literature (I
do not know the name anymore) and has her office is the same building as our
department EPP, Baker Hall. If you are looking for nice accomadation, perhaps
together with somebody else, you can call her on her cell phone +1 4127219208.
Just mention my name and after a while she will remember me. I rented a room
for $425 a month which is a normal price in Pittsburgh. The rooms are fully
furnished (bed, desk, closets and etc.)
3. Language and culture
It is obvious which language is primarily used in the US: English. I think almost
every student participating in a Master study at the Tue will not have any
problems understanding and making him/herself understandable in Pittsburgh.
Perhaps the first few weeks it will cost you some extra energy and you have to
get used to all the different dialects/accents from the students of the EPP, since
they are from all over the US and the world. If you are not confident about your
writing skills just ask one of the students to proof-read some of your work. I did
the same and you learn a lot from it.
As a developed western country the culture in the US is similar to the culture of
the Netherlands. Do not think that everything in the US is the same everywhere,
because the country is really big the difference can be big too. As I wrote before:
there are many different people in the department and they grew up from every
corner of the US. Most cultural things are just as you have seen on television
about the US. It is simply the way it is. People work really hard in the US. It is all
about achieving the top and protecting your wealth. I have seen people sleeping
in our department… I could handle the work pace, but you have to be persistent.
After the semester was over I was happy to start working at our university again.
4. Free time and travelling
You do not have a lot free time, because they keep you busy with a lot of work
and assignments. A really nice thing was the introduction camping trip, which was
organized by second year students of our department. We were in the middle of a
remote forest with our accommodation. The first day we had a great rafting trip
and barbeque. At night we had drinks and songs around the campfire of course.
Another nice trip I did was to Philadelphia together with my Dutch friend, an
American girl and a Portuguese guy. We were welcomed by a big group of
American friends of our female friend. Philadelphia is such a nice city! Just be
sure that you eat a Philly Cheese steak with Wizz cheese. I did numerous others
trips, including an East-coast/ New England round trip with two of my Dutch
friends and a Pittsburgh holiday of two weeks with my girlfriend.
Besides the travelling I went out a lot with fellow student and did a lot of
sporting. If you want to play badminton at a good, competitive level, please
contact me and I will get you in touch with the right persons.
5. Contents of my project abroad

I wrapped up some courses which I really enjoyed. Professors are really fanatic at
CMU. They make sure that you do a lot and therefore learn a lot. If you work hard
you will definitely achieve good results. I was happy to be part of this university
and I have respect for the fulltime students there.
You are allowed to follow any course before that you have register officially, so
just be sure to check out some courses for two weeks and then decide what to
do.
6. My best experience
I fully agree with Daniel Vijge’s (my predecessor) previous words:
“I really enjoyed being in Pittsburgh. Although the city is not that exciting, the
people at CMU were really nice. I had a great time getting to know them, make
new friends and go out.” People you meet in the department are really special. It
is nice to meet so many people who completely share your broad interest in
technologies and policies.
I went together with Stein Smeets form the Tue. He is completely different then
me and therefore learnt me a lot. My good bye party was truly special too. So
many people showed up to give me a great good bye.
Another great experience was the finishing the final exam after many weeks of
really hard work.
7. My worst experience
I had only one bad experience which is not related to CMU at all: I got heavily
injured during a badminton tournament in North Carolina. I cannot think of
anything else…