Hey there! My name is Lydia, and I’m a Dutch student of the Religious Studies BA program. For the first semester of my third study year, I studied at one of the faculty’s partner universities. I attended Lehigh University for the Fall semester (August – December 2022), a gorgeous college in Bethlehem, PA, at the crossroads of New York City, Washington D.C. and Philadelphia. I've had an interest in the United States since I was a child and, when I noticed that studying abroad in the US was an option in the third year, I was sold. I spent a lot of my second study year preparing for my exchange, because there is a lot you need to complete and achieve before you can set off on an adventure like that. It's also a very costly experience, especially in the US, which is a significantly more expensive country. But, it was all 101% worth it! I took very interesting classes at Lehigh, which focused a lot more the current world, and they were taught by dedicated professors from all over the world. I've played sports and went to many of the organized activities on campus with my friends. We also undertook lots of (day)trips to NYC, Philly, Washington D.C. and around green and mountainy Pennsylvania.

Lehigh is very dedicated to provide its students with a memorable college experience. It has a green, hilly, fairytale-like campus with lots of pretty buildings in which you study and attend classes, and it was +20 degrees outside up until half November with a lot of sun. Students live on, or very close to, campus (I lived in a new dorm building) and we ate in one of the many canteens or restaurants on campus. The campus is its own ‘mini city’; countless activities take place there, there are +300 student associations with their own focuses (theatre, sports, the outdoors, arts, academics, volunteering, languages, minorities), a doctor’s office, libraries, parks, seating areas, walking trails, multiple gyms, a shop, pools, and sports fields. I've met innumerous amounts of lovely souls at Lehigh, Americans and people from all over the world, as well as some of my best friends and my boyfriend.

Studying at an American partner university will give you the full American college experience; gorgeous campuses, living in dorms, participating in the enormous range of extracurricular activities, partying at frat houses, exploring American life and culture and meeting people with a wide range of backgrounds. If, by this time, you are still doubting whether to go on an exchange in your third year, to the US or to any other place in the world, I can only tell you: GO. It will be the half-year adventure of a lifetime! Money will come back, time won’t. I've grown immensely as a person during my time abroad, got a better outlook on what I want in life and while, certainly in the beginning of my exchange, living abroad was a rocky road sometimes, I quickly settled in and had the most amazing months at my American college that will long hold a special little place in my heart.