Great professors and organized events, lack of interaction with German students.

Berlin is an incredible city for anyone interested in WWII and the Cold War to experience for a semester or two. The program offers an abundance of extracurricular activities and field trips included in the program fee. To name a few highlights, I've been able to get an in-depth look at the Reichstag building, the German Chancellery and the German Foreign Ministry with the program, as well as be an audience member for the morning news broadcast ZDF. Each semester also includes an exciting week-long excursion to two other European cities. Past trips have been to Munich and Vienna, Prague and Nuremberg, Belgium and Netherlands, etc.

Academically, the language and subject courses here are all very intensive and reading-heavy. Each subject course is held once a week for 2.5 hours at a time. Every professor I had here was highly accomplished in his/her field and many were willing to accommodate any individual concerns I had when they arose. Although classes only run Monday to Thursday, do not expect to just coast through your classes and travel every single weekend during the semester. I would have preferred that the readings were accessible online, as each subject course has a very heavy printed reader of all the required texts that can be difficult to lug around while commuting or travelling. (Also not great for sustainability).

The main problem with the location of classes at the satellite campus is that you don't get to interact with many German students. However, the program does offer a tandem partner system that pairs you up with a local Berlin student so you can get to practice German and make a German friend.

Also, the commute to campus can take a while, which is typical of Berlin universities in general. Wherever you end up living in the city, the commute to campus is likely to take at least fifty minutes to an hour, as the Lankwitz campus is situated in a more suburban area of the city. Thankfully Berlin's public transport is generally very well-connected and reliable.

The directors and student assistants of FU-BEST are readily available and supportive should any problems arise during your time in Berlin. The program keeps you updated with new extracurricular options and excursions so you always have something you do, but it's never overwhelming. You have plenty of freedom and independence studying here in the German capital and you get as much out of the experience as you choose to invest.