Best place in the world to go for studying?

March 4, 2009 6:13 PM

Where is the best place to take a vacation and self-study at the same time?

I am planning to take a "study vacation." By that, I mean that I will enroll in some distance courses, dump all my stuff in the storage room, rent out my apartment for the summer and go somewhere. I will spend my time there studying, studying, studying very hard.

So, I'm looking for somewhere interesting, beautiful, stimulating, and reasonably cheap. This place does not need to boast having lots of stuff to do or sights to go and see. In fact, I would prefer that it doesn't, because I don't want to be distracted. It just needs to be a great environment.

Consistent, easy access to broadband is vital for my distance courses.

Any ideas for where in the world I should go?

posted by giggleknickers to travel & transportation (4 comments total)

study what? are there topics or languages you're interested in? places you've wanted to go? I bet your fantasy is more specific than your question reveals (and budget would help, as well as info about where your home base is).
posted by moxiedoll at 7:32 PM on March 4, 2009

I don't know what courses I'll enroll in, but probably maths, since I would like to get my hardest courses out of the way. But I don't understand why you're asking that? How is a nice place to study maths different from a nice place to study psychology or history or chemistry?

I don't have any fantasy, unless you want to say that getting out of this dull town that makes me feel bored and lifeless and in completely the wrong mood for studying is a fantasy.

Budget is cheap to mid-range. Somewhat flexible, since if I find that the perfect place to go is expensive, then I'll work a whole lot of extra hours.

Home base is Europe, but that is irrelevant since I am willing to go anywhere in the world. I guess it's relevant to the budget, but that's it.
posted by giggleknickers at 7:45 PM on March 4, 2009

When I was in Ljubljana, Slovenia, I met people studying there who said it was high quality, cheap education, and they were having a blast being in such a beautiful place and in the middle of Europe.

I can't find any links to support all this though, sorry! Purely anecdotal.
posted by Admira at 8:17 PM on March 4, 2009

I don't understand why you're asking that? How is a nice place to study maths different from a nice place to study psychology or history or chemistry?

I don't have a good answer for you - such a broad question - but I think this question is worth considering. If you're going to focus on a topic through coursework, it could be really advantageous to put yourself in an environment with resources that support it. If you were going to study history, for instance, it would be great to be where there are monuments, historic sites, or a major museum that would offer you a chance to view artifacts from the time periods or events in your course. If psychology, you might want to be in a big city where you could observe lots of people interacting and reacting to situations - it might pick up on some ideas in your course. If literature, you might want a quieter spot with few distractions so you can immerse yourself in books. Math is pretty general, so it depends what kind - but I thnk since you are traveling anyway, it would be fun to pick a location that could somehow reinforce your topics.
posted by Miko at 8:48 PM on March 4, 2009