Program Reviews

Day to day-
We got to pick our classes as long as they fit in a schedule, the Cuban students are actually very rude to their professors so that was a bit of a shock. In terms of academic challenge... there wasn't any.

Our residence was generally very nice, cleaned daily and we a breakfast and dinner that by Cuban standards was good but not by American standards. The beds seemed uncomfortable at first but you totally get used to it and forget.

Be aware of sexual harassment. There are a lot of men who will stand on stone walls or whatever and jerk off at you, and I wish I were kidding. This really impacted the beginning of the trip for me but, sadly, you'll get used to it. People also catcall like no other.

BUT we met AMAZING people there and ended up making a very close group of cuban friends. Because of how small our study abroad group was, we also became very close to each other.

Take advantage of the beach! It's about 45 minute drive but is well worth it.

The program director, Elena is just the absolute best. We all LOVED her and she's hilarious and beautiful and just the absolute best.

I would give anything to go back again.

I really appreciated that Arcadia provided me with a group of friends to start my time abroad with. Some of the people I met during the first week remained my friends until the very end. With that in mind, London is a very big city and it's hard to make friends unless you have initial connections. My dorm was terrible--I was at the Frances Gardner House and there was absolutely no way to socialize. I would recommend Ramsay or Ifor Evans for anyone doing this program.

My experience with Arcadia's London Now program was one of my best college experiences thus far. I lived in the picturesque burrow of Notting Hill, right on Hyde Park with 20 other college kids from around the world. Although that last part about the 20 kids sounds horrifying, it turned out to be one of the best parts about the trip. All 20 of us got along so well, we found that we had a difficult time doing anything without everyone present. Every weekend we went out to see a different show in London's West End and we explored the night life of the city. One of my personal favorite nights included getting free tickets to The Cripple of Inishmaan through one of Arcadia's professors and meeting Daniel Radcliffe afterwards. After the show my friends and I headed out to Piccadilly Circus for a night on the town, finished off by a ride on the London Eye, and a beautiful hour walk back to our home. My biggest problem with living in London was how much money I had to spend doing everything I wanted to do (the conversion rate at the moment is really hard to swallow). Another aspect to living in London I took issue with is the amount of drinking. The majority of my roommates were either 19 or 20 years old and from the United States. Therefore, drinking legally became the highlight of their trip and I found myself drinking more than I ever had before. Although going out legally is a lot of fun, it can get old after a while and I found that a lot of people would rather get wasted than get to know the city they were in. Having said that, with 20 roommates its always possible to find someone who wants to explore with you. I left this trip having made some wonderful life long friends and learning a substantial amount about the culture of the United Kingdom.

I really feel like Arcadia in Granada is an ideal study abroad program for someone who wants to go to Spain, develop or improve their Spanish language skills, and engage in a true Spanish cultural experience.

I found Granada so great and so fitting to what I was looking for. It's a small enough city that you can really walk anywhere (although public transportation is available), but it's also big enough that it has just about everything you would need. While at first I thought a 20 minute walk to school (my home-stay was a bit further away), I came to really enjoy the walks and fact that there was really no need to drive anywhere. The city also caters heavily to the large university there, and to the study abroad students, so there was also many events going on at night that were directed to the students. There's also great shopping in Granada and so many cool shops and restaurants to explore.

Speaking of restaurants, probably one of my favorite things about Granada was that they give free tapas with your drinks. While some places in Spain still do this, the norm most everywhere else is to charge for tapas or give very tiny portions of something with your drink. In Granada, some places would give almost a full meal. So you're basically paying for awesome wine that's super cheap compared to American bar standards, and you get a free meal with that. So great!

One of the main inconveniences of living in Granada was somewhat difficult travel to go outside the city. Granada's airport is quite small and most flights going out of there were more expensive. You would have to take a bus to the bus station, then from there you take a bus to Malaga, then a bus from the Malaga bus station to the Malaga airport, and then you leave on your flight. While it really wasn't terrible, it did make travel more difficult.

One other somewhat downside was that the school all the study abroad students were in was affiliated to the University of Granada, but operated totally separate from it. This meant that all our classes were with other study abroad students, so it made it a bit harder to meet Spaniards. It was good, however, in the sense that classes were much easier and the Spanish was at a slower pace for those not already fluent when they arrived.

Granada was such a great (and beautiful!!) city to study abroad in, and what made the experience even better was the program itself. The staff were just awesome!! The directors that help you while you are preparing to leave are very helpful and responsive, and even more the directors in Granada were some of the nicest people I've met! They also had quite a few really fun excursions planned for us throughout the semester, both inside the city and in other parts of Spain. My favorite was going to La Alpuharra (the collection of pueblos outside Granada) around Thanksgiving time and going on an incredible hike, touring a place where they make jamon iberico, and having a full Thanksgiving dinner American style. The whole area was so cool, and the hike epsecially was just incredibly scenic.

Overall, this program is fantastic and I would really recommend it to anyone trying to go to Spain to learn Spanish and be immersed in the culture!

PKP has been an intense opportunity and you plan to do this program I highly suggest you go through Arcadia. The process to apply was highly tedious but very worth it. The staff at Arcadia's offices aren not always the mod communicative so you really have to push for information. The packets that tell us about the detail of our program came extremely late, during which no one knew about the detail of our stay. The staff at the Arcadia center in London, on the other hand where phenomenal, very friendly and helpful. The perk about going with Arcadia is that you get to London for a few days before the PKP program starts, which is not only fun but also gives you time to make a few friends before the start of the program and give you a broader sense of independence and confidence. Cambridge is very close to London so day trips to London are common, I took one by myself and had no problems finding my way through the city because of my time spent there. PKP, itself is challenging because of the amount of courses you take in 8 weeks. Most of the courses are held as the Cambridge Union society, although some are at Kings or Pembroke. My classes were interesting but beware of classes that don't have perquisites if the class is in your field of study. these classes tend to be lower level classes,in which the material may become repetitive. Take the art class with Thomas Newbolt, its amazing and worth the price of the program and more! Most of the professors on the program are welcoming and generally very good. I had one not so great professor but I still had no problems doing well in the classes. The price of the program is steep but I though it was well worth it.
The program included a trip to Scotland, this trip was incredible fun and its where I made good friends in the program. Besides Scotland, I had time to go to France, and Ireland, other people where able to travel more.
The housing was great for me, I stayed at Fitzwilliams and it was perfect. The place was old but pretty well kept and very simple. We had a communal kitchen,each a single room, most people shared a bathroom with one other person but I ended up with my own, and we all got along very well in the house. The location is convenient and my walk to class every morning was beautiful. The laundry room was right across the street from me and the, my shower did not always work well, overall I was very happy with my room.
Easting at Pembroke was a nightmare, the silverware was not very clean (use the plastic utensils), the food is bland or burnt and the eating space is overcrowded. If you have a friend that eats at Kings get brunch with them at kings, its worth the walk. The formal halls are a totally different story. Formal halls are amazing, they are fun, the food is delicious and its the moment to relax, go out and socialize.

When I found out in an email from my university that interning in London for a summer was a study abroad option, I jumped on that opportunity. To me, it was the perfect way to get experience in a career that I was pursuing as well as a great way to travel to a foreign country. I knew that it was going to be awesome, but I didn't think that it was going to be as awesome as it actually was. The program was set up so that we would take one course of our choice, one mandatory internship course, and intern for a company that matched our interests. Amidst all of that, Arcadia planned ahead trips for all of the students in the program to take to different cities all throughout England. All of the biggest things to see and experience in England, we experienced. It was the perfect blend of work experience, education, and culture. This experience is one that I'll never forget, and it's also one that every person I speak to about my work experience is the most fascinated by.

I chose this program because I wanted to really experience Italy and be as little of a foreigner as possible. I cannot say enough good things about Arcadia, Umbra, & Perugia. It was truly the experience of a lifetime.This program was outstanding and I would not change a second of my time in Perugia. It is a wonderful little town. The people are friendly and always thrilled to hear you try and speak Italian. Arcadia did a special welcome program at a slow foods farm where we all learned how to make pasta! The day Arcadia planned at the farm was a lot of fun and a great way to get to know others in the program (other programs just do a dinner so this was something special!).
Umbra really did their best to submerge you into the Italian culture. With tandem nights throughout the semester we were able to meet with local Italians and help them with their english and in return they helped us with our Italian. Going to Perugia without knowing any Italian other than Ciao, these nights were extremely helpful & lots of fun!! Umbra's classes also had lots of embedded field trips which were fabulous. My favorite was going to Parma to see parmesan reggiano cheese be made.
One of the amazing things about Perugia, that you would not get from a big city experience, was that you really did get to know the locals. Perugia is a vibrant town filled with wonderful people, food, and festivals. I could not have chosen a better place to study abroad and have missed Italy everyday since returning.

Classes were usually two days a week for about two hours. I had to use the tube system (underground subway) because it was about a 45 minute journey to class from my housing with walking and going through the tube. I tried to go to as many markets as I could while I was there because there is great shopping and wonderful food choices that range over many types.

After the orientation week is over, you have the ability to make your own travel plans and I took many four day weekend trips to other places around Europe. Using the bus system is a great way to travel around England and can be very inexpensive. I suggest finding people that you want to travel with potentially very early in the trip and buying plan tickets through Ryan Air and EasyJet because they go up in price the closer you get to the date.

The staff in this program are extremely friendly and helpful! Most of them are younger and have a lot of great suggestions on where to travel and places to go see in London itself. I would take advantage of the school and their free printing and computer room. They are open everyday but Saturday and it was a great place to do homework and print it for free!

This is a great program and I would suggest it to anyone who wants to experience a different kind of classroom experience but still wants the availability to travel around Europe and have free time! This is an awesome program!

I remember finally seeing the ocean. Emily, Bonnie, and I had been biking (or more like hiking while walking our bikes) for several hours in an attempt to find a cave on the beach to camp in. Although those hours were tough, similar to the hours it took to get to the magical country of New Zealand, it was totally 100% worth it. The view was magical. The community members in the village on the edge of the water were friendly and greeted us with huge smiles and waves. Once we settled in the cave, we realized that the fire wood was wet and lighting it was not going to happen. So, we sat in the dark - enjoying the sound of the waves crashing on the rocks and the sand while breathing in the freshest air my lungs have ever had the pleasure of experiencing. The morning started by watching the southern hemisphere sunrise which I had yet to experience. Considering the fact that our trip there took longer than expected, we decided to get an early start to our trip back home. Luckily, we found a cafe to stop at for a delicious breakfast, to me, anything would taste better than the bread I had packed for the trip. In an attempt to find a shorter way back, we ask the employees of the cafe for advice back to the university. We decided to go with their advice and turn left instead of right on our way out. The whole ride home was along the peninsula, down hill, going through cute towns along the way. This experience, which took place just 2 weeks into being in Dunedin, made me understand why everyone I know has fallen head over heels in love with New Zealand. The scenery was beautiful. The air was refreshing. Most of all, the people were the kind of human beings I have dreamed about - friendly, caring, happy, and helpful. If the rest of the world could learn something from New Zealand it would be to take life with a grain of salt. There is no need to worry, always find a way to enjoy life, find a reason to smile everyday and the world will smile with you. I can not wait to go back to the land of the long white cloud.

The Arcadia staff was very supportive while still making sure students learned and practiced independence. Our living situations were very nice in my opinion; however, as the semester went on a lot of household items began to break and stop working. Our landlord was not very supportive, but the Arcadia staff was always trying to help the students be comfortable in their living situations.