“From the moment you step onto the campus of Koç University, it's like diving into a scene straight out of an American TV series showcasing college life”. Elina Jafarova shared the individual study plan tips, opportunities offered by a Turkish university and life hacks on academic and extracurricular life in Istanbul.
Elina Jafarova, a 3rd year Marketing and Market Analytics programme student, spent a semester at Koç University. Discover what Elina loved about attending the top-notch private university in Turkey and why she decided to stay for another semester.
Briefly about Koç University and Istanbul
I spent the spring semester of 2023 at Koç University in Istanbul. Koç University is recognised as the best private university in Turkey and it follows the American educational system and its standards. The university is located far from the city center and surrounded by the forest. Koç University campus has really good facilities available to students: huge sports fields/stadiums, indoor courts, gyms, an ice rink, two swimming pools, its own theatre, amphitheatre, study atriums with panoramic views and many others. From the moment you step onto the campus of Koç University, it's like diving into a scene straight out of an American TV series showcasing college life.
Istanbul itself cannot be described in a few words. "City of contrasts", "Bosphorus", "Rich culture inspired by the Greeks" - these phrases cannot fully represent the uniqueness and peculiarities of this city, one has to experience it. But one thing for sure: if you only visited Istanbul as a tourist for a couple of days, you don't know the city at all.
Preparation for mobility
To be honest: it is rather difficult to avoid difficulties while preparing the documents for a mobility programme. Just a little patience, some effort and support from International Office managers - and you will definitely handle everything. The list of required documents is approximately the same for all of the students, so I’d focus on the individual study plan more.
Study plans are usually prepared a couple of months before the mobility, so those planning on coming to Koç University need to keep in mind that at least a half of selected courses might have to be replaced upon arrival, because of changes in curriculum and courses offered.
Another important point to keep in mind: students have free access to many courses offered by Coursera platform with their Koç corporate email. Consider this opportunity while adjusting the study plan as it is quite convenient and doesn’t cost anything.
Tip for anxious students like me: those planning to study in a Spring semester receive acceptance letters and further information in late November-early December, in a Fall semester - mid-June. Access to internal systems of the university, including dorm application form, will be available in another two to three weeks.
Accommodation
I went with the most convenient accommodation option - Koç University dormitory. I lived on the West Campus, located five minutes away from the main buildings by free shuttle. It took me about 1.5 hours to get to the Istanbul city center by public transport (bus+subway/subway+2-3 buses/bus+ferry).
My advice would be to search for accommodation closer to the city center if you are not planning on taking a lot of classes at Koç (check Erasmus student housing options). Perhaps you will be able to plan your schedule in a way that you will have 2-3 days of on-campus classes only to save some time on commuting. It turned out that living in dorms was not the best option for me as some of the classes were transferred online because of the February 2023 earthquakes and inability of some of the students to return to campus. As a result, there was no need for me to travel to university daily.
However, it is not really a concern as the university campus is rich in different facilities: there’s a gym, a swimming pool, two cafeterias and a co-working space with billiards, table tennis and football. There are also several supermarkets, chain cafes and even a pub close to the dorm. Campus is located near the big forest park and has some beaches nearby. Finally, you can never get bored in dorms.
Study process
Preparing individual study plans, course enrollment and timetable development — all of these can be done through the university's internal system. Almost all of the courses offered at Koç are available to exchange students. However, some of them have prerequisites and individual arrangements with professors may be required to enroll. Personally, I managed to take all of the courses needed for my ISP. But there were some cases when students had issues at this stage.
Professors at Koç are free to develop courses and create grading rubrics themselves, thus the grading system may differ from class to class. Some are more attendance and in-class activity focused, others assign individual and group projects more contribution percentage (teamwork is less common at Koç compared to HSE). There are also professors who base the final grade on exams only. The only thing in common among all of the courses - the way classes are organized. There is no division into lectures and seminars, all of the classes are more of the seminar with high engagement of students.
Exams, especially finals, are taken rather seriously. All of the exams are conducted offline only (even COVID times and earthquakes did not affect this). Some professors may allow bringing the cheat sheets or make the exam open-book, but this is usually applicable to midterms only. But you have nothing to worry about, if you’re well prepared. No one is going to lower the grade on purpose, especially for foreign students .
Extracurricular life
There’s no way you’ll be bored either in Koç University or Istanbul. All incoming students are free to join student clubs, sport teams or any other organizations on campus. You’ll get to learn more about it during the orientation week.
The university often organises various events as well, theme nights and coffee hours, picnics and trips. Besides that there are two international student organisations in Turkey that unite people from different countries — ESN (Erasmus Student Network) and ESI (Erasmus Sports Istanbul). These organizations are actively conducting various events, some are quite budget-friendly trips around the country for a couple of days. I joined some of such trips during my exchange semester at Koç University and it was a really memorable experience and a lot of new acquaintances.
It was surprising to know that Istanbul is a quite popular exchange destination for students from both Western and Eastern Europe, South America and North Africa. You can be sure that you’ll dig into the cultural diversity.
Overall impression
One thing for sure - the remarkable semester full of experiences and new people is guaranteed. I am very grateful to the HSE Graduate School of Business for the opportunity to spend a semester abroad and get such an experience. Even though I faced daily difficulties, had to overcome the language barrier and to cope with the unstable political situation both in Turkey and around the world, these six months of exchange were life-changing for me. This experience opened me up new opportunities and helped to define the plans for my academic future.
If you have an opportunity to spend a semester at Koç University, but some stereotypes about Turkey stop you, doubt no more and explore this diverse country from a non-tourist side. I was so impressed that I decided to extend my mobility to another semester and continue my exploration of this country.
Acknowledgements and contacts
I’m really grateful to the managers of GSB International Office and Shakhnoza Tashmetova particularly, who was always ready to assist in overcoming any difficulties. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me in Telegram @lina_jf.
