Callie Rouse, Senior Study Abroad Advisor: So why did you decide to choose this particular study abroad program?
Angelina Zhang: I wanted a study abroad experience to learn more math. There’s not many programs that have such focus in math, while also having the opportunity to go abroad and explore a new culture, so I thought that the Budapest Semesters in Math program was really unique in that it offered a very good math program that was well-known and rigorous, in addition to have the opportunity to be in Europe for a semester.
CR: Can you talk a little bit about what the academic experience looks like, especially if you’re a math major on U-M’s campus. How does the experience look different or similarly to a math major’s experience at U-M?
AZ: So at the University of Michigan, I’ve taken a lot of honors math courses. I took Math 217, Math 297, and Math 493, which are linear algebra, real analysis, and modern algebra. And then when I went abroad, a lot of the classes didn’t have as much homework as some of the classes I took here, but they were still pretty difficult. I think also, to some degree, you have a lot of freedom in how hard you make your semester since there are some classes that are more “intro level” and more focused on introducing you to real topics. So you can really design your semester as difficult as you want or as not as difficult as you want if you are looking for more of the cultural experience.
The thing that was really nice too, was that we had a two-week “shopping period,” which was some time where we didn’t have to lock in class registration, and we could try out a lot of classes. I think it’s just a great opportunity to explore a lot of math. Not every class transfers, but I do think a lot of classes will, and that’s definitely another major plus. So I would say that it’s not completely equivalent to University of Michigan math, but I think it really depends on the courses you choose, since some of the courses are definitely very challenging.
CR: What did that transfer process like for you? Did you individually petition the courses with your academic advisor, or how did you do the petitioning for the classes you took?
AZ: At the time I was a College of Engineering Student. So for non-math classes, I think the process would be going through your college. Since I took a Hungarian Art and Culture course, that transferred as ID 220. But I think for math courses specifically, it was kind of confusing, but if you know where to look, it’s actually really straightforward because you just go onto the math course equivalency website and then specifically search St. Olaf’s College since that’s the school that BSM is hosted under. So when you search that, if you scroll to the bottom, there will be a list of courses that have a course number followed by the title, and then it’ll say “Budapest Semester in Math,” and those are the classes that have been evaluated. Specifically, complex functions, topology, and the research course were the ones that I had evaluated. One of the classes that was already evaluated for me was combinatorics. But you can definitely get courses evaluated before or around the start of the semester, once you have the course information. You just would submit through the math department specifically, and usually they’ll take like two or three weeks to respond. So I will say, if you’re registering for a course, it’s not 100% certain that you can know that the course will transfer before you have to lock it in, but I’m sure you can also reach out to the program coordinators for BSM for more information, since they were amazing and super helpful and made things work for everyone.
CR: What was the research like? Did you have to compete to get into research or did you just have to state what research you were interested in? How did that whole process work for you
AZ: A couple of weeks before the semester starts, the research professors will put down a document that includes the introduction to the topic and then a couple of qualifying questions. If you’re interested in research, they would want you to do the qualifying questions and submit solutions. It was definitely competitive, but I don’t know fully how competitive it is since I don’t know exactly how many people submitted questions. Some of them seemed harder to me than others, so I basically chose one that seemed the most interesting and most feasible to do in the given timeframe. So I solved the questions and sent them in. In the end, there were three students in my research group, and honestly, it was a great experience since the professor was really passionate about the topic. It was something that he was really interested in and we were all working towards, and it was really nice because we got some results that we are currently writing up into a paper. It definitely was a great experience because it was the first time I was really working with other students and really brainstorming how to solve math problems that don’t necessarily have an answer key. And it was cool to work with my professor and see him proposing new ideas and having us work through them.
CR: Are most of the faculty local and Hungarian or are they faculty from all over?
AZ: This was also pretty confusing, because when I first came in I was told that BSM is a program and not really under an institution. BSM is hosted by McDaniel College, but the professors are from the Rényi Institute of Mathematics, which is a research institute for mathematics in Hungary.
CR: So you were in a study center environment with Budapest Semester in Mathematics, and the professors kind of came in but had full-time positions at Rényi Institute?
AZ: Yeah, pretty much. So it wasn’t a university where you’re on a campus or building and your professors have offices there. It was more like McDaniel College was a building, and BSM was just hosted in that building, so there would be study spaces shared across everyone attending McDaniel College, and the classes would just be held in the classrooms, but then professors from the Rényi Institute would come in to teach classes. We also had a visit to the Rényi Institute because we had a documentary showing about Paul Erdush, so that was kind of cool to see where our professors were working.
CR: How big were your classes, and were they mostly American students?
AZ: So I wouldn’t say that everyone was American, but pretty much everyone went to an American institution. There were some international students that went to American institutions. We didn’t really interact with that many Hungarian students. I will say in terms of class size, the class sizes were pretty variable. I had one class that was like five students. I had other classes that were along the lines of 20 or 30 students, but I wouldn’t say that any class exceeded 30 students, and it really depends on the class. For example, combinatorics is pretty popular because Hungary is known for combinatorics, so that class had quite a few students. Similarly, topology is a pretty common class that students will take for requirements, so that was one of the classes I took that had a larger class size. Complex functions was one where there were like five or six students, and that was really cool since there was a lot of interaction with the professor– a lot more than I think a lot of the Michigan math classes where there’s usually along the lines of 40 to 50 students per class.
Life in Hungary
CR: What is something in particular that you think you’ll take away from your experience such as a particular story or anecdote that sticks in your mind?
AZ: I think one thing that’s pretty interesting is that I came into the program as not a math major, and then I applied to the math major basically after the program, so I think academically that’s something I would take away. But I think it was also really cool to just be living in Budapest and taking Hungarian Arts and Culture. By the end of my experience, it really felt like I could go through the city and know about some of the historically significant places like Parliament or St. Stephen’s Basilica or the Holocaust shoes memorial. It also was really cool to see history from the Hungarian perspective, since I think it’s very different to be in an Eastern European country rather than a Western European country where I think oftentimes history books are from the perspective of.
CR: A lot of people aren’t super familiar with Hungary or Budapest. If you were to describe what it’s like living there, what would you say?
AZ: I really liked my experience there because it felt very diverse and slightly different than a lot of other European cities because there’s a lot of history and grand buildings and churches that are classic to European cities, but there were also a lot of places that were run down because of World War II. In terms of daily life, the public transportation is really nice like in most European cities. You can get anywhere you want just through the buses, trains, trams, etc. But I think it was also really convenient to be able to walk everywhere. The cost of living, I think, is lower than in America, so groceries and food are generally cheaper.
CR: Is there any you’d like to share about your identity that has been notable or different from the U.S. versus your experience in Hungary?
AZ: I definitely think Budapest was way less diverse than I was used to. As an Asian-American, there weren’t many other Asians that I saw on a day-to-day basis, but I definitely saw people of Asian descent that were living in Budapest, so it wasn’t like I was the only one. But I do think there was notably less diversity than in America. I think while I was traveling in Europe, there would sometimes be experiences where I felt like I really am Asian in a place with not a lot of Asians, but I think in Hungary and in Budapest in particular, most people were very respectful, and I didn’t experience anything out of the ordinary. One notable thing in terms of language is that most people in Budapest speak English, so there wasn’t that big of a language barrier. I did learn some Hungarian, but definitely not passable at all. Also, the BSM program partnered with a Hungarian tourism program where we went to a lot of other cities in Hungary, and sometimes we would go to very small towns where the Hungarians wouldn't necessarily speak English, but we would have very normal and respectful exchanges where we would use our hands to indicate things. One thing that was really nice was that I felt pretty safe in Hungary even with the lack of diversity, and it felt like everyone was respectful.
CR: What locations and cities in Hungary would you recommend to students going on this program?
AZ: I visited Pécs, which was pretty cool. I think it’s similar to Budapest because it’s one of the larger cities in Hungary, but it was a really pretty place, and it was cool to walk around there. Also, I would say that some other cool places we went to were Mohács and Palkonya. Palkonya is a really small town near Mohács, and we stayed there to go to Mohács for their Busójárás festival, which is the coming of spring festival in March. It was a really cool festival because it was a Hungarian culture that I’d never experienced before. I think that was probably one of the biggest highlights because it was also the most “out of the city" place that I had gone to in Hungary. I didn’t get to go to Lake Balaton, which is pretty close to Budapest, and also Szeged. I was able to go to Szentendre, which is a 40 minute bus ride from Budapest.
CR: I know people are intimidated by the language. Was it ok to figure out the language? And did you do the Babylonian language class at the beginning?
AZ: Yes.
CR: Would you recommend that other students do that too?
AZ: I would say it’s 50/50. In order to learn Hungarian, even if you do the Babylonia program and continue to take Hungarian throughout the semester, you really need to put your full foot forward, which I don't think I fully did because a lot of the times you have to force yourself to speak Hungarian to people in shops, which is hard especially when you try to say something in Hungarian and they’ll just switch to English because they know that you’re not a Hungarian speaker. So I think it is difficult to fully learn the language and really integrate yourself. But I do think the Babylonian program was great to settle into Budapest before classes started while also getting a crash course into the language. While I can’t really reduce a full fledged sentence, I can say that after the program, I could recognize the patterns in the Hungarian language and some important and significant words. One really interesting thing about the Hungarian language is that it is a phonetic language in that pretty much everything that's written will be pronounced the way it’s written, letter by letter. So each letter has its own pronunciation, and it's not necessarily like English where different combinations of letters will have randomly different pronunciation sometimes. So to some degree, if you put a Hungarian word in front of me, I have an idea of what it might sound like spoken aloud, so that was something that was really helpful from the Babylonian program. I also think it was really nice to do the Babylonian program when I didn't do a Hungarian language program during the semester, since I couldn't fit it into my class schedule.
CR: What was your housing like? Did you have roommates?
AZ: Most people in the program got pretty lucky in terms of the fact that the apartments were pretty good and pretty close to the center of the city and to the school. You had the option of living in the city or the suburbs, and most people chose the city, but a couple of people lived in the suburbs, which is just a slightly longer bus commute. In terms of cost, the rent was around 400 USD per month with some extra cleaning fees since we had someone come in every two weeks. Something that was interesting was that we had to pay in cash every month, so there would usually be a time where I would go make a huge cash withdrawal from the ATM.
I had three roommates, and we each had our own room. We had two bathrooms, but some units had one bathroom. We also had a washer in-unit, but no dryer, and so did most people. We had to hang our clothes to dry after washing. I really liked where I was living. It was a 20 to 25 minute walk to school, but I could easily take the bus and get there in 10 or 15 minutes. It was a pretty short walk to some tourist areas. The Ruins Bar was really close to me, and I was a train ride away from St. Stephen's Basilica and other places. I was in a good spot in terms of public transportation since the metro station was a five to ten minute walk, and the main street Rákóczi was a two minute walk, which is the blue line bus. So, I really lucked out in terms of location. Some people were a little bit further out, but in general, it was all within walking or busing or metroing distance. There was also a grocery store really close by, and a lot of small shops and food places close to the school and my apartment.
CR: Is it still pretty cash based in Hungary or do you use card?
AZ: Most places will accept card, like shops or food places. Originally, I had Discover, which most places wouldn't accept, so I got MasterCard, and that was enough to pay for almost everything. Rent was cash based and also if you were to go to smaller shops or farmers markets you should probably expect to bring cash. But for the most part, I think I kept around $20 to $30 worth of Forints in my wallet and usually I wouldn't run out.
CR: If you were to talk about a week in your life, what would that look like for you?
AZ: A lot of people didn’t have class on Friday, so they would have a three day weekend. I had class Friday, but I didn’t have class on Monday, so I had a three day weekend, but it misaligned with a lot of my friends. But essentially, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday I’d just be going to classes, I’d probably eat lunch somewhere close to the school building and then study and then go home. On lighter days in terms of classes, I would go somewhere like a coffee shop to study or hangout. There are a lot of really nice coffee shops near the school and near my place; they’re just scattered everywhere.
For the most part, weekdays were devoted to studying but I usually would travel over the weekends. Towards the beginning of the semester, I traveled to a lot more places in Hungary. Especially during the Babylonian program; I pretty much didn’t leave Hungary during that time. I did go to Prague towards the end of the Babylonian program, but in the beginning, I was going on trips to Pécs, Palkonya, and Mohács. And we also went to Szentendre. Towards the middle and end of the semester, we were traveling somewhere every other weekend. I think it was really nice to be in Hungary since I was a train or bus ride distance from a lot of Eastern European countries. So places that I feel like I wouldn’t necessarily really travel to Europe just to visit, I was able to visit from Hungary a lot more easily. For example, I went to Slovenia, Ljubljana specifically. We also went to Croatia. The coolest place I think was Turkey; we went to Istanbul. We had to fly but it was a pretty close flight.
For a lot of these places, if we wanted to go somewhere, we would just check the flight prices and then see if we could fit it in. And with Ryanair or other cheaper airline options, it was pretty feasible. I also know some people didn’t travel over the weekends by flight, but they would train to places nearby instead. And I know a lot of people did bigger trips during spring break, like Spain. I went to France, specifically. There’s a lot of opportunities to travel, and this is where you can think about the trade-off of choosing between classes and traveling, since you can really create a schedule where you have more time to travel. Simultaneously, you could focus more on taking hard math classes. I tried to opt for something in between. I think I was lucky since I did choose quite a few classes, but none of them had such a high workload that I couldn’t fit in a lot of travel opportunities.
CR: What is something you are most proud of doing or experiencing while abroad?
AZ: I would say the balance of academics and fun was something I was most proud of, since I really had the opportunity to spend a lot of time learning really cool math. And also I still had a lot of time to travel around in Europe. At one point I was thinking about traveling around alone, but I got a little scared of it. But even if I didn't travel alone, I think it was really cool to have the opportunity to plan my own trips and lay out all of the logistics, like hound people together and be like “Let’s all go to this place.” And I think I really valued managing a lot of that alongside academics, since during the week I would feel like I did and learned so much, and then during the weekend I would see so many new things. So it really felt like such a fulfilling semester because of the combination of both.
CR: Is there anything else that you want to share about your experience or that you want to definitely highlight to future students who are interested in the program?
AZ: I definitely think that for any student who’s interested in going abroad and interested in math, this is the perfect program because there’s so much flexibility in terms of academics. And I really want to highlight how awesome the professors and the admin are. The professors are super nice and they’re super accomplished. And it’s really cool to learn a new perspective of learning math that’s a little bit different from Michigan. And I really think that one of the best things was how nice everyone was there, like the admin because any questions I had, they would answer. I’d have a lot of questions about transferring credits and housing mishaps, and I would reach out and would instantly be there to respond. So I thought that was really comforting to know that if you go to Budapest and you’re studying abroad alone and not necessarily having a ton of established friends coming with you there's a lot of cool people you'll meet and a lot of people that are passionate about math and a lot of support from the program.
Have questions for Angelina Zhang about her experience at Mathematics in Budapest, Hungary? Contact her at angzh@umich.edu.
