Student review [#11816] for Biology
at Bilkent University

I am an undergrad student in the Molecular Biology and Genetics department, currently in my senior year. I can only speak for what I have experienced personally, and its been slightly difficult. The department offers some amazing courses but sadly not many suitable instructors to teach them. Which is saying something because we are also low on instructors. There are three good instructors and they have honestly been the highlight of my academic journey at Bilkent.
While some of the instructors may come off as uninterested in the academia, or just inept at teaching, they are very accommodating. They are willing to help you out, give some much needed counselling and write good recommendations.
Additionally and more importantly, the university has its own labs, headed by the instructors. These labs are a great learning experience if you manage to convince the instructors to let you work with them. They let you work on ongoing research projects and even let you have an independent side project of your own if you work there long enough. So while I haven’t had an amazing experience in the classroom, I have enjoyed and learnt a lot from my time in the lab.
The university also has a separate institute (UNAM) dedicated to research in biology and Bilkent students have the opportunity to work side by side with the researchers there.
Essentially, the university provides exceptional learning prospects outside the classroom but is unable to provide them inside the classroom. Its a hit and miss sort of situation, and i’m glad to say it was a hit for me.

P.S.The campus is really pretty and the university buses take you all the way to the city centre whenever you get tired of the pretty.