Dream. Discover. Explore.: Dream...Accomplished

Keele University

I have always wanted to do a study abroad. However, being 30 years old, married, running a start up business, and with a baby on the way, the thought of doing a study abroad for most people would be out of the question. For a while it was out of the question, but about a year ago, Charity asked me if I would like to do a study abroad. I was taken a-back by the question because even if I did, our situation was not the most ideal. We decided to look into it. If we were to go, we would need to go to an English speaking country, since we didn't have the time to learn a new language, and it would have to be economically feasible. We found out the UTSA has a direct exchange with Keele University in England, that means that I would only have to pay UTSA fees VS Keele fees (which would be 1.7 times more). So I started the loooooong application process and we started applying for countless scholarships since we did not have the financial resources to go without scholarships.

The lawn is full of students when the it's sunny out

To make a long story short, I was accepted at Keele and God gave us a lot of favor and we were able to get enough scholarships to pay for the whole trip.

Upon arrival at Keele, I scouted the Uni (as they call them here in the UK) and found it to be quite a wonderful little place. Well, actually Keele is the largest in the UK, as far as acreage goes. However, the campus part of it is the size of a community college in the USA. If fact, it feels more like a community college than a Uni since it's out in the country and has about 10k students.

One of the paths at Keele

Here are a few tidbits of information about Keele. It was the pioneer of the dual honours in the UK, it is the largest Uni in the UK, it is the greenest (most vegetation and grass), it was the 20th Uni founded in the UK, the land and Keele Hall were sold for £31,000 to the Uni by Ralph Sneyd. Mr. Sneyd had inherited the land from his ancestors who acquired it from the King of England, and it so happens that the king had stolen it from the Knights of the Templar after he had murdered most of them (very interesting these Nights Templar, I've read a book about them).

My time at Keele has been wonderful and tough at the same time. I took four computer science courses since they didn't have the exact match for my Information Systems (IS) degree. Needless to say, they were tougher than IS courses since they

The same walk as above just a few months later

involved a lot of programming. Also, I was a bit nervous that I would not be able to understand the thick English accents of my profs, however, I was releaved after going to my first class in each course that I could understand every single one.

Many options for walks

The way Keele tests is completely different than in the USA. They have one project worth 40% of

The computer lab - home away from home

your grade and one exam that is 60% of your grade. The exam is taken at the end and is essay format in which you have to answer 3 out of 5 questions (they don't give a hint as to what the questions might be) and each question is divided into 3 questions. The exams are taken in a room with 300 other students (all the different classes all take their exams at one time). I don't like that system at all, since all of your grade depends on one exam. But gratefully, I passed all my classes.

At times I would spend 10-12 hours in the computer lab working on my programing, but not without a break to take a walk around several of Keele's lush paths.

One of the many Keele fields

As far as the other Keele students go, my fellow students were awesome, they were all very helpful and kind, and their British humor rocked! They would stop and give me a ride if they saw me at the bus stop, offer food if they had some, and would sit with me for hours helping me with my projects.

My time at Keele is now over, I have enjoyed the experience thoroughly and would do it again in a heartbeat.