LONDON — Ruhi Choudhury committed every minute, hour, and day she spent in London to living outside her comfort zone.
“I'm only here for five months, so I'd like to see almost everything I can,” Choudhury said during an April 7 interview inside Ground Café on the Queen Mary University of London campus.
Although Choudhury was in London for one semester, she found success forging her own story on a campus of more than ten thousand students located in a city of more than nine million.
In the end, she managed to make every minute, hour, and day a unique and memorable experience that she will remember for a lifetime.
What prompted you to study abroad? Why did you want to study abroad?
Choudhury is a junior computer science and economics major at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and was studying abroad in England during the Spring 2024 semester.
She said she chose to study abroad in London because of how unique the opportunity was for her.
“It seemed very much like this was the only chance I would get to do something like this,” she said.
And she said she picked Queen Mary University because she wanted to go somewhere that was different from what I'm used to.
“(Illinois) is very much a college town, and back home in California it's also pretty suburban, so I wanted to go somewhere that was different enough that I get to see something different, experience something different but not somewhere that I'd be too uncomfortable,” she said. “I think for me, it was important to go somewhere where it was diverse, where I could meet different kinds of people, and London is a good place to do just that.”
Academically speaking, Choudhury said she has been taking more economics classes and completing her business minor.
She is also participating in a class called “London Walking in the City,” which she chose just for herself.
“It's every week. We meet at different spots in London and then for two hours we walk around and learn about the history,” she said. “Again, that’s something that's really different from what I could have done in Illinois. No one's walking around Champaign talking about it, which is a cool way to learn about things. And that class only draws study abroad students. So, I got to meet a lot of people through that, which is really cool.”
Choudhury picked her own study abroad program, traveled by herself, made her own friends, and traversed all over London on her own.
That was exactly how she wanted to experience studying abroad.
“Going by yourself is valuable, and I'm glad I did that and (I’m glad) I didn't choose one of the places my friends did because I think when you go alone you don’t stick to your friends,” Choudhury said. “Back in Illinois I hang out with (my friends) all the time. Back home, I hang out with my parents. But it’s cool to go somewhere (by) yourself and do exactly what you want to do and not have to check with someone. I think going somewhere where I don't know anybody was sort of cool and like I feel like anything that I've done here, I said, ‘I did that myself.’”
How does academic and college life here feel compared to Illinois? Is there anything that surprised you when you came in?
When reflecting on her experience at Queen Mary, Choudhury said she noticed the teaching approach was more hands off.
She said there was an expectation that students should want to study and not have to be told to study.
“If you're here, it's your responsibility to come to lectures and that's on you versus I think in Illinois or just I would say America, it's more like, ‘I'm going to check if you know this so I'm going to give you an assignment or I'm going to give you a quiz or I'm going to track your attendance so I can make sure you're learning,;” she said. “Versus (in England), it's more like, ‘This is your job to make sure you're learning.’”
She said an example of how different the education environment is was demonstrated in one her classes where her final grade is based solely on two essay questions.
“No one checks (on you) in the middle,” she said. “If you need help, you should be asking for office hours. Professors aren't really going to advertise their office hours as much as they do in Illinois.”
Were there any goals you set for yourself in the beginning that you achieved while you’ve been here?
Despite the change in learning styles, Choudhury said her experience in London has made her more confident and she did achieve what she wanted.
She said she wanted to be able to say yes to new things and she wanted to meet people whom she would not have crossed paths otherwise.
“I think a very like a common goal people have is to just to say yes to more things,” she said. “I think I'm pretty hesitant about saying yes to new things. So, I'll think like 10 times more than it's necessary before saying yes. I think I've definitely been more open to say yes to things now and not being silly about it, but realizing I can say yes and then if it's not great, I can just leave.”
She also said she also realized she could make new friends on her own that are different from her current ones, something she also wanted to accomplish.
Choudhury said this was an important goal for her because she wanted to veer away from her usual friend-making approach and purposely meet other people who saw the world differently.
“The friends I have here, on paper, I really don't have a lot in common with them. They're all from different majors, different cities, different ethnicities, but I realized you don't need to have things on paper that are in common with someone to be friends with them,” she said. “There's a lot more than just having similarities with someone to be friends with them, which is nice. I think it's a good realization to have that. It'll take me further.”
Of course, having met these new friends has been the best part about studying abroad, Choudhury said, and it will be the thing she will miss the most.
She said she is already thinking about not being able to see these new friends after she leaves, which she said is something she did not expect.
However, just because she will not be seeing them every day does not mean she will no longer be friends with them.
“I think people gave me the impression (before I left) that friends here would be very short term… I don't think that's true,” she said. “I've made good friends here, who I'd like to stay friends with after.”
What advice would you give to other students?
The best advice Choudhury said she could give anyone is to first do their research—encouraging others to pick a place that they want to go to, not simply because that is where their friends are going.
The second piece of advice, she said, is accept that things will be vastly different.
“Things cannot be the same as they are at home…We have to take a class from Illinois about studying abroad, right and (in that class) I read a paper that said American students who study abroad want American things in other countries…which I can see people doing, I've caught myself doing that too,” she said. “Things are not going to be the same, so make a conscious effort to not just like things to what they're like at home and (instead) embrace the fact that it's different on purpose.”
Analicia Haynes is the storyteller and social media specialist for Illinois International. She can be reached at ahayn2@illinois.edu.