Madrid and the CIEE staff are wonderful!

CIEE's Engineering and Society program in Madrid was amazing! The staff is very friendly and helpful--I felt very comfortable talking to them right off the bat and they always suggested cool places to check out in Madrid.

All of my classes (apart from the three week intensive language course) were direct-enroll, so I was in class with local Spanish students--though my classes were in English. This was a good way to get to know local students as well as gain an understanding about their perspective on academics and education, which was different from what I am used to in the US. In doing this I also met a lot of other American students that were not in CIEE..

The staff organized a lot of social and cultural events (like Flamenco lessons, bike tours, socials with local students, and cooking classes to name a few) which were very fun and a good way to make friends with other people in the program (as well as non-engineering-CIEE students). My favorite things they organized were our weekend excursions. My semester we went to Bilbao and then on the way back we went wine tasting in La Rioja. We also took the high speed train to Sevilla, which was another great city. It was really fun to have these excursions organized by the staff because it enabled us to explore different areas of Spain with some direction (they covered hotels and most meals and tours) while giving us enough free time to bond with other students and explore on our own.

Madrid is my absolute favorite city after living there for a semester (and I live in NYC!). The people are nice and the Spanish culture and night life is so fun to explore! I stayed in a homestay which I really enjoyed (as it was where I developed most of my language skills), but I also know people who enjoyed living in an apartment with other students.

All in all I recommend this program!