Koç University, everything you'd expect from a private university and more...

To describe Koç University as beautiful would be and understatement...

While in the Turkish countryside surrounded by free range horses and cows, it operates essentially as its own city. Encompassed by a thick forest, there are numerous roads that cut through the forest that connect it to the surrounding towns and the Black Sea.

It is owned by the Koç family, which is one of the richest families in Turkey. The Koç family owns Yapi Krediti, which is a national bank of Turkey, and a market store called Koçtas, which is like a home depot (with the orange aprons and all). The school is, if I am not mistaken, the second best and most expensive private school in all of Turkey. The only more expensive school is Bayiazaçi University which is located in Rumeli Faneri, a castle on the banks for the university. It is populated by all of the richest kids imaginable. While normal college students in the states would probably drive a SUV or some sort of sedan, the standard mode of transportation here is either the BMW, the Mercedes, the Range Rover, or some other type of luxury car. Despite the students wealth, the students here are accepting, intelligent, and ultimately genuine people. It is really comforting to find such helpful people so high up on the socio-economic ladder.

The school is set up and divided into three parts: the academic buildings, the student dorms, and the professors colony. The school sits on the top of one of the highest hill here and overlooks the beginning of the Bosporus as the Black Sea’s waters are channeled through it. From the 8 story tall clock tower, you can see the entire campus, the surrounding area, the Black Sea, the ships in queue, and the thick forest sprawling out in every direction. The forest acts as a buffer zone from the world and if that wasn’t enough, there is a barbed wire fence that surrounds the perimeter of campus. We even have to show our student ID’s to the guards posted like sentinels around campus whenever we cross the threshold onto campus. While the campus sleeps, there are an army of maintenance people and cleaning staff that literally clean the University from top to bottom. Transformed, the school is in pristine condition when the university students descend upon it and the whole dance starts all over again. While just about the size of Rice (3500) it operates on only a few majors. Most of the people that I have met here are business administration, economics, or international relations. Finding that very few people are actually engineers (and even less that are women except for the Bio Engineers), I have discovered that engineers command great respect from the entire school. The way it should be in my opinion :p.

Getting around campus has been quite entertaining. Here, the use of the steam tunnels is not just permitted, it is encouraged. From the student center, there is a tunnel that connects each and every academic building. Changes in the type and color of the tiles as well as helpful graffiti drawn by students helps you locate where you are in the steam tunnels. Of course for me, I just have to walk to the very end of the tunnel to get to the engineering building. This is funny/sad because I live in the S dorm which is the furthest away from the engineering building. Sometimes you just have to laugh at these things… I’ll have an awesome butt from doing all these stairs, so I can’t really complain too much.
 
After getting used to the stares and all of the girls kind of following me from building to building, I decided to brave the food court. I must say, that even the cafeteria food here is worlds better (and less expensive)than what we have back in the states. Even with this benefit, the exchange students and I have completely taken over the S dorm’s kitchen. Every night around dinner (7-10:30) you can find a flurry of English, German, Italian, and Singaporean students perforating the halls with sounds of merriment and delicious food. I call it the Exchange Café. The kitchen, which thanks to us is fully stocked and always in use, is the curious spectacle of all the Turkish students here. Dinner is not only meal, it is also a social event. Meeting new exchange students who have heard about our cooking exploits and through word of mouth have come down to join in on the merriment. Tonight we were about 30 people strong. The maintenance staff keeps curiously popping in and seeing what we are cooking as well as offering the chef’s numerous cups of hot apple tea. I could not have asked for a better surprise upon being put in this dorm.

Until next time,
You are what you eat, and I am eating with all my new friends!