The Host Family Program

What is it?

The Host Family Program of Jacobs University is designed to ease the transition of new students to living in Germany. It is a non-live in situation aimed to promote cross-cultural understanding by fostering interaction between the students and the residents of Bremen. The individual relationships between the families and the students involve social get-togethers, outings, meals, phone calls, and companionship. Many students develop relationships with their host families that last for years after they graduate.

What to expect?

Your local host family provides you with a home away from home. They may call you over for meals, invite you to family events, give you an opportunity to periodically get away from campus on weekends and some would welcome your family when they visit you in Bremen. Other activities could include attending a cultural or sporting event, attending picnics, observing holidays, going to movies, or shopping together. Activities shared depend on the interests of the host family and the student.

Your Host Family?

Host families are single or married persons who desire to know more about the Jacobs international community and the diverse countries and cultures. Jacobs recognizes the importance of matching you with a family with whom you are comfortable with and so we request you to kindly complete the Host Family Survey.

Mobile Phones

Is it necessary to have a mobile phone at Jacobs?

No, certainly not, because for some people it’s enough to have the phone in their rooms or just use any chat software. However, sometimes you will have some urgent matters to discuss and taking into consideration the complex scheduling of Jacobs University it gets nearly impossible to manage it using the methods mentioned above. Moreover, the more friends you have, the more connected you might want to be, and the more you will need a mobile phone. You can bring a phone from home and purchase a local sim card or or buy the phone at any local distributor in Bremen.

What is the best SIM option for students?

There are several mobile phone companies which offer different call options for students (T-Mobile, O2, Vodafone, Simyo). There are various price ranges and call-sms packages to choose from. This is highly subjective and depending on the extent of usage, one can make their choice. Its best to take one's time, analyse the cost-benefit ratio of all packages and then choose the best contract

How can I talk to the people from home by phone? (Except them calling me)

One FREE alternative is www.peterzahlt.de, but the only disadvantage is that you can call from Germany only to the countries listed there. Another way is to go to The Pulse (the shop on campus) and grab a Go Bananas calling card which you can use with your room phone. You will be provided a code that will permit you to call people outside the campus. The third alternative is quite expensive but straight forward—you can call them from the mobile phone. The fourth alternative is to use Voice Over Internet Protocol. The connected can be obtained through the internet for one's mobile phone (this is probably the cheapest alternative). The last alternative is to use Skype calling (by loading one's account with some credit).

Can anyone call me on my room phone from the outside?

Yes, and in fact it’s quite easy. You have to dial: 0421 200 xxxx if you are in Germany and 0049 421 200 xxxx if you are calling from outside of Germany. xxxx is the individual intercom number for the phone in your room. (There should be a sticker with your number on the phone in your room)

I know someone from the campus. How can I find his/her number?

This is very easy. You just go to http://ircitweb.irc-it.jacobs-university.de/ldap-search.php (Note: this website is only available under Jacobs internet connection). There you have the option to search for part of the person’s name, campusnet username, Jacobs e-mail, room number if member of the faculty. This search is also good in case someone calls you and leaves you a message and you don’t know whose number it is; then you can search for the number on LDAP. Note: you can only do this when you are connected to the internet on campus or signed in via VPN.

At what locations is internet available?

There is internet access (LAN) in all students' rooms, in quiet study areas and some lecture halls. At the same time, there’s also wireless internet access in a lot of places around campus, including the library, lecture halls, quiet study areas, common rooms, campus green and research buildings.

Is there wireless internet available in the student rooms?

Wireless internet is available everywhere in College Nordmetall. In all other colleges, there is only wired internet (via the standard LAN port). Wireless internet is available in all common area, classrooms and other places as mentioned above though.

Are we allowed to setup routers for our own wireless network?

No it is not advised to have a router for internet access sharing in the rooms. This is a violation of the IT Policy that you would agree to abide by on your arrival. It tends to slow down the average internet speed in the colleges. However if its purely personal and in-room usage then it may still be ok.

What are some restrictions on student online activities?

Students are not allowed to use any peer‐to‐peer networking protocols or programs, and Torrents are also banned. If one uses a peer-to-peer network or any torrent sites for download, internet in that room (and if on wireless, the respective campusnet account) gets blocked.

How many internet access points are there in student rooms?

There’s only one! But if there are multiple computers in a room, it’s possible to set up a wireless LAN so internet access can be distributed to each computer.

How reliable is the internet access?

Very reliable. There may be some scheduled down times during maintenance, but they’re not that often and internet is available around the clock.

How important is Internet to life at Jacobs?

It’s one of the most important resources at Jacobs. It’s utilized for all kinds of correspondences between students, faculty, admin, for announcements, home works, research work, and scheduling of classes.

Who can the students contact when they are having trouble with their internet?

There’s an IT support service dedicated to students in the Information Resource Center (IRC).

Is it compulsory to have a laptop at Jacobs? Can I survive without a laptop?

No, it is not compulsory to have one. It is your choice, but you need a laptop for many things, it is difficult if you don’t have one. There are laptops in the library of the university which you can use, but they are not many and all of them are not available 24/7 of course. Theoretically, you can survive without a laptop, but it is highly recommended to have one as you need to communicate with others and do projects, homework and stuff. A lot of the things regarding to the course material and homework are posted on internet. So, practically-no way!

If my operating system collapsed, what should I do?

On campus, we have the IT Support, who are very kind and can try to recover all your lost information in case your system collapsed. This however would be only if you bought the laptop from the university and not if you bought it from external places.

Is it worth it to bring my own laptop?

This depends solely on you. The problem would be the warranty, which, usually cannot be applied in other countries. So, if you know you’ll take good care of your portable, it is ok to bring your own, but otherwise, it is recommended to get one from the university given the fact that the insurance covers everything except theft.

How about buying one from Germany?

You can even buy a laptop from Germany. There are good stores for electronics here in Bremen, for example Saturn. But of course there can be some disadvantages for some of you as well, like for example a German keyboard and German software (which you can reinstall in English of course).

Where can I buy additional stuff for my laptop (i.e. external hard drives, webcams, mice, keyboards, etc.)?

There are several places to get this kind of stuffone would be the MediaMarkt, at the Vegesack Mall, or if you want to compare prices and even more utilities, go to Bremen downtown at Saturn and you have plenty of things to choose from. OR, you can send a spam to Jacobs-students and eventually someone has something to sell and you can get it cheaper (even though second hand) from one of the other students and you don’t even have to go that far.