CIEE College Study Abroad in Barcelona, Spain

Our time in Barcelona was fantastic. We stayed in an apartment in the Les Corts area. We always felt safe in our neighbourhood, even coming home late at night. Our classes were interesting and engaging and the professors were wonderful. All of our professors and the staff at CIEE were so kind, passionate and fun. We looked forward to our classes every day and really enjoyed our time spent in the CIEE house.

I highly recommend Advanced Liberal Arts program of CIEE based in Barcelona. In terms of academics, it is a perfect fit for those people who would like to improve their Spanish skills and immerse into the language and culture directly from the first day. The CIEE support is very thorough and you won't feel as if you were just left there on your own. The staff is very helpful with whatever queries or doubts you might have during the whole stay whether it concerns academics, residential life of local traditions and ways of doing things.
Don't miss any of the excursions or trips organized by CIEE because they are worth it - every place you visit with CIEE leaves a bunch of good memories, pictures and great impressions of the wonderful places you get to see and learn about.
I liked this program so much that I wanted to extend my stay and I managed to do it, thanks to the supportive staff of both CIEE and the College. If there is anything you want to address to the staff, do not hesitate to do so and try to solve it by yourself - they are there to help and they can come up with a solution you might have never even thought of.

Coming to Barcelona, I was nervous about so many things. I wasn't sure what the living arrangements would be like, how well I was prepared for taking 5 classes in Spanish, or what living in a new country would be like. From the moment I landed, CIEE ALA had everything taken care of. Alberto, the program director, helped us select classes with professors that he knew would be sympathetic toward exchange students whose first language was not Spanish. He even invited his professor friends to our CIEE school to help us prepare for the exams at University of Barcelona. Whenever I was nervous about anything, I was confident Alberto could help me figure it out. As for my living arrangements, I immediately met Carla, my Spanish flatmate, when I stepped off the plane. Over the semester, Carla became one of my absolute best friends. My other 2 American roommates and I knew we could go to Carla for anything be it an academic situation, a question about Spanish, or even something personal. Today, 2 weeks after I am home from my abroad semester, I still talk to Carla almost daily. She is someone who I know will be a lifelong friend. CIEE ALA was by far the best semester of college. I learned so much about myself, my own country, and another culture. The friendships I made will last a lifetime and the lessons I learned are sure to guide me in the future.

One of my favorite memories from Barcelona was going to an FCB soccer game with my group of girl friends. I have been to many NFL games in the U.S. but I have never attended a sporting event like this one. It was incredible to see the amount of pride the fans had for their team through their jerseys and various chants. Cheering on FCB for the win was the first time I truly felt like a native. I will forever call Barcelona my second home!

It's really challenging to narrow down all the great experiences into this one review. Everything about Barcelona is absolutely incredible, so incredible in fact, that I moved back after I graduated from Indiana University. If you're looking for a life-changing experience that you'll never forget, on top of actually expanding your knowledge of Spanish and a fraction of its culture, you need to study abroad and you need to do it through CIEE.

Each facet of the experience had its own special qualities. Obviously, Barcelona is an amazing city, filled with rich culture and tons of history. Even if you think you aren't an art buff, or a history buff, or a foodie, I challenge you to let Barcelona change that because it 100% will. My favorite, and possibly underrated thing about Barcelona is how disjointed it is but in the best way possible. The combination of different eras and influences that Barcelona has experienced over the year really gives it all its beauty and charm. How can you not enjoy a place as fascinating and beautiful as Barcelona?! Not to mention the amount of things there are to do in Barcelona and your soon-to-be obsession with Spanish food. I still make paella at home for my friends and buy jamon serrano whenever I find it in the grocery store. It's such an easy and exciting culture to adapt to and is so inviting.

One of the reasons I picked Barcelona, and CIEE specifically, is because of the many opportunities the city presented. It's a huge tourist hub which makes travelling really easy, but our program already offered excursions as a part of our experience anyways. This was so awesome because we got to explore some parts of Spain that may have been overshadowed by the rest of Europe had all the travel plans been put in my own hands. I got to not only learn about Barcelona and Catalunya, but other cities and regions in Spain as well which really helped to broaden my horizons. While CIEE is a rigorous program, if you're studying Spanish at a high level already, you'll be perfectly fine. I would suggest the CIEE-ALA program specifically if you really feel you can adapt and immerse yourself fully into the language.

My biggest piece of advice that some people may not agree with: STAY WITH A HOST FAMILY. When the excitement of being abroad fades (okay, maybe not fades but lapses for a minute) it's nice to have a home base that you feel connected to and nurtured by. I am still in communication with my first host mother, and the whole reason I was able to move back was due to her brother and sister-in-law taking me in my second time around. So I'm fortunate to say that I have not one, and not even two, but multiple connections that will remain through the years. It's also really nice to know that if/when I return to Barcelona yet again, I will already know so many people from those familial connections I made.

If you couldn't tell, I'm a little obsessed with Barcelona.

I fell in love with Barcelona -- all the different neighborhoods, the classes at UB, the CIEE building and all the staff there, my host family, my friends...I would absolutely recommend this program to anyone looking for an independent study abroad experience.

The immersion aspect of this program helped my Spanish improve so much. I stayed with a host family, and my host mom and I still talk often (and hopefully I can return to visit her soon!) I loved my literature classes at UB, in the beautiful historical campus of the school (If you can take a class with Dunia, do it...she's super cool and helpful with foreign students).

CIEE does free weekend excursions for students, and I recommend taking advantage of them. It's also very easy to travel out of Barcelona.

This program changed my life. If you have the ability to study abroad, take the plunge and do it--and do it with CIEE Advanced Liberal Arts. It's a close-knit group, a very helpful immersion experience in terms of learning the language, and an incredible adventure.

I had already studied abroad once my first semester freshman year in London before deciding to study abroad again in Barcelona. The first time around I somehow was less anxious than when I packed my bags to move to Spain. I was nervous to leave my friends, my city (Boston), and feared that the classes taught in Spanish would tear apart my GPA. I was wrong for worrying. This program changed so much for me. Barcelona is the most amazing city I have ever been to, and the friends I have made in the 30 person program I embarked on are people I still visit (I made a trip all the way to Nashville to visit my study abroad besties), FaceTime with, and talk to everyday.

The staff at CIEE is absolutely amazing. In my Catalan Art class we visited a new museum almost every week, and coming from someone who isn't an art enthusiast, this was my favorite class because I learned so much about the city I was living in and the buildings I would pass by every day, making the experience of living in Barcelona an even fuller one. I am a fluent spanish speaker, so moving to a spanish speaking country wasn't necessarily a stressor for me. However, I had never taken a spanish class in my life until CIEE. The spanish class I took at CIEE was for spanish speakers and I ended up learning so much about grammar, accents, and writing in spanish. I went from someone who had never read a book in spanish to someone who was studying clinical psychology at UB in spanish and submitting essays on gender roles and the media in my second language. Overall the academic component of the program (relative to the US) is relaxed, and adventurous while still challenging and a bit uncomfortable (in a good way).

The staff at CIEE is young and alive and always trying to make your time abroad the best it can be. I asked them for restaurant recommendations, which bars the locals go to, and which clubs I should go to on which nights and they would research for me, ask their friends, and tell us about places they had gone to and loved. It's homey atmosphere makes it cleat that it is called "la casa" for a reason.

The only negative part about the CIEE/UB program, if I'm being honest, is scheduling your classes. It is a complete disaster and probably the only stress you'll experience in Barcelona. Alberto (the program director and the nicest man in the world) helped me calm down "Nicole, no te preocupes, vamos a solucionar todo" he would say, and in the end everything worked itself out and all of my credits came back fine. The classes at UB are harder in a sense than the CIEE classes since the professors are not necessarily used to teaching American students and you are not used to the Spanish system. But as long as you put in effort and show them that you are trying they will be very accommodating to the difference in culture education wise. I was always able to ask for help from CIEE and they communicated efficiently with my professors when it was a problem bigger than I could handle.

I laugh now at how nervous I was to leave Northeastern University, unsure of how I would immerse myself into a new city, with new people. Because, as I reminisce on my time in Spain, studying abroad with CIEE was hands down, without a doubt, the best decision I ever made in my collegiate career. This program will change everything for you- in Barcelona and when you return home. You will look at the world in a new light, you will feel as though you have grown as a person and a spanish speaker, and you will return home, back to all of your friends with an experience so valuable that no one but you and the people that ventured on such an incredible semester with you, will understand.

Caution: you may never want to leave.

The CIEE ALA program struck a perfect balance between the comfort and support of my home university and immersion in Catalan culture. The size of the program—about 30 students—was perfect and meant that I got to meet a lot of awesome students, while still being close with the whole group. The instructors and program directors at CIEE were some of the warmest people I've met, and classes at 'la casa' were always interesting. While the classes at the University of Barcelona were challenging, the professors were understanding of the difficult transition to Spanish-language instruction, and were—for the most part—helpful inside and outside of class.

Beyond the classroom, the CIEE program couldn't have been more supportive. There were multiple occasions where we met with our program directors outside of class for meals or other adventures. We traveled all as a group to San Sebastian and Bilbao, an had an amazing time together. They were also incredibly helpful with things like setting up medical care and straightening out banking difficulties, which made being far from home much more comfortable.

Barcelona is like a second home to me after my experience last semester, and I couldn't imagine a better study abroad program.