IES Abroad Reviews

Barcelona is a city that is truly alive. There are always festivals, parades, human towers, rallies, you name it, that makes the city what it is today. The problem is that many students find that they come to the city as a tourist, and leave the same. In order to integrate into Barcelona, I found I had to learn about its history, and the history of Spain. This allowed me to understand both the hardships and the triumphs that the people have gone through, and I was able to discuss it with them. I mostly utilized my host family. They taught me their opinions on the past. I also watched the news which gave me even more insight. I have found that natives will see you as a tourist until you earn their respect, and I did that through knowledge. Once I was able to talk to them about things that they found imperative to their livelihoods, I could tell that they took me more seriously. I learned that you must respect the culture, people, history, and customs of wherever you travel and be aware that, although they may have prejudices about who you are, if you are able to communicate effectively, you will only feel like an outsider for a short time.

Every single day that I spent in Chile felt like an adventure. My Spanish improved daily and I learned so much from my host family. I was able to travel from the Northern most city all the way down to the Southern most city and everywhere in between. Santiago is an amazing home base with an amazing social scene! It is surrounded by the Andes mountains and multiple vineyards. Weekend trips by bus were always taken and empanadas were eaten daily!! I will forever be missing a piece of my heart because I left it with my second family in Santiago!

As for the difficulties, I was very homesick and that sadness was met by an amazing support staff at IES! They were also amazingly supportive when I had an emergency gallbladder removal surgery in the middle of my semester there! I highly recommend this program!

Check out my pictures below! I included a picture of my host family and me, a picture from my visit to the geysers, and a photo from my visit to an island inhabited by only penguins!!

IES Dublin rocks! The staff is so nice and accommodating. The housing was great. Trinity is very cool, historic school with plenty to get involved with. The age of the school means some processes are inefficient. I made amazing friends in my group. We managed to immerse ourselves in the culture well. The Irish people are so welcoming and friendly so it's easy!

Many people have told me that studying abroad is a "once-in-a-lifetime experience." After completing my program in Paris, France, I realized just how true that statement was. I had so many adventures while I was abroad, and I also had the opportunity to make life-long relationships. All this was possible through my program!
IES Abroad is a great program that helps students dive into the culture by providing many excursions and opportunities to learn about the important aspects of that culture.
Through the program, I also got to meet my host family, and I am so thankful that IES placed me with them. It was an incredible experience to live with them and be a part of their lives.
I really recommend the French Studies program with IES because 1) your French will be greatly improved, 2) you will meet awesome people in your program, and 3) the activities IES provides are really fun and engaging. Overall, IES Abroad is the perfect program to participate in for that "once-in-a-lifetime experience."

Studying abroad in Madrid through IES provided me with a multi-dimensional understanding of the city and country. The staff was so supportive in making sure that students had a plethora of options to do whatever interested them. For example, I was given a guitar sot hat I could continue practicing at my home stay. The field trips through the program were incredibly informative and gave us a deeper understanding of the history of Spain. My homestay family truly feels like my second family, and I miss them dearly.

I really would recommend IES Madrid because the strong staff really are the backbone of the program. The program allowed me to feel a sense of security and provided me with the confidence to travel through Europe independently.

My favorite memory includes Spanish, French, Italian and American students cooking traditional dishes to celebrate "la noche vieja universitaria"! Salamanca will give you the opportunity to immerse yourself in the beautiful cultures of the world we live in while perfecting the castellano language and learning about Spain's captivating past and present.

I had the privilege of studying in Granada, Spain las semester and it was incredible! I would recommend this IES program to any student looking to study abroad in a Spanish-speaking country. I would argue that Granada is one of the most ideal places to study abroad. Fore me, the size of the city is ideal as it is not as large as a place like Madrid, but big enough for you never to get bored. The people there are all so friendly and welcoming as well and there is also a large population of students. And don't forget the free tapas! This provided for a unique and fun social culture, and allows you to stay on a college student's budget. Without a doubt, I fell in love with the city and it will always have a special place in my heart. I can definitely say it was the time of my life. The IES staff were a crucial factor in making my experience what ti was as well. They fostered an environment that allowed me to grow and learn in and outside of the classroom. There are a variety of classes to choose from and many allowed me to gain a thorough understanding of the culture and history of Granada. They also plan a lot of exciting field trips both in and around Spain, which were all so memorable. I will be forever grateful for IES, as I don't think I would have had the experience I did without them.

I spent this past fall in Vienna, Austria and had an amazing experience. Vienna is an amazingly beautiful city that offers a large variety of cultural experiences. While studying abroad in Vienna, I was able to go to ballets, operas, museums and experience many of the delicious cafes. Vienna is a city that is very easy to navigate as it has a great public transportation system. IES is incredibly helpful in getting you set up in the city and the staff is a great support system to help you adjust to your new surroundings. IES gives each student housing and I lived in a great apartment with five other American students. The staff was incredibly helpful and willing to assist me whenever I had a question. Academically, IES offers a large amount of classes covering many different academic areas. Specifically, I enjoyed taking classes that had weekly outings to different museums and historical locations throughout the city. I felt that these classes really helped me to learn a lot about the city and Vienna’s history. The professors at IES were very knowledgeable and understood the different aspects of a study abroad experience the students were looking for. Overall, I had an amazing semester abroad experience through IES in Vienna.

IES Abroad's Madrid Language and Area Studies' program provided me with a full and cohesive abroad experience. I was able to do everything I wanted to; live with a host family, interact and make friends with Spaniards and with people from all over the United States, take classes through the local university and really experience city life in Madrid.

IES's Madrid program is very integrated with the Universidad Complutense and makes it very easy to take classes through the different schools at the university. Unfortunately, the IES schedule and the university schedule don't sync up exactly for the fall, but I was still able to take the class I wanted to (Screenwriting) at the Universidad Complutense and move my final exam earlier.

IES Madrid also offers many great classes of their own, including an art history class taught at the Museo del Prado which in itself made the program worthwhile to me. It was an unbelievable class which exposed me to art in a way I had never experienced before. I know because of that class, I will have an appreciation for classic paintings for the rest of my life.

IES Madrid has a great team. The staff are wonderful; they make themselves very available during the school day to answer questions about activities or help fix problems. They also do a fairly good job of encouraging speaking Spanish as much as possible, although there is still a fair amount of English spoken as well. IES was not as strict about total language immersion as I was expecting going in, but I still found my Spanish make huge strides. I now feel confidently fluent, and can hold an intelligent conversation behind "I thought that was good." However, I would have appreciated more of an effort on the part of the teachers and the students to put more emphasis speaking only Spanish at the center.

One of the most wonderful things about IES Madrid is the opportunity to live in such an amazing city. The program does a good job offering outside classes and tours to expose you to the city, especially right off the bat, helping you get out and about while you develop confidence navigating Madrid. It's a gorgeous city to live in and explore. There is always something going on if you look for it and it is impossible to be bored.

Studying abroad is an invaluable experience. I learned so much about myself during my four months in Madrid with IES and I know when the time came for me to leave, I wasn't ready to go.

Making the decision to go to Vienna was a highly personal one - I wanted to be immersed in a musical culture and environment that my school could not offer me, to be interacting with fellow musicians and improving my own skills daily.

This program met and exceeded my expectations, and also settled the worries I had about my living situation and adjustment to the new culture.

Living:
I lived in the 5th district with 5 other girls, and the program did a fantastic job with placement according to interests and personalities - I can say that I finally found the group of solid college girl friends I had been looking for ever since freshman year.

Adjustment:
The adjustment process was definitely tougher than I imagined, but the kindness of the staff and the teachers on the program eased the process greatly. One day I was feeling very emotionally overwhelmed due to a family situation and my own personal struggles against the pressure to do well on the program and just left class. I emailed my teacher afterwards and he was nothing but understanding. I appreciated that student well being was a top priority for IES.

Music:
It was a struggle trying to balance rehearsal time, personal practice time, private lessons, and concert/opera attendance. I ended the semester more frazzled than I would have liked to be, but I still would take this overload of music training and experience to a less challenging experience. For me the highlight was my private lessons and the weekly accompaniment sessions that IES offered to music students. I gained invaluable experience from my accompanist and my teacher regarding expression and performance technique. Of course, being able to go to the Musikverein for 5 euros and listen to things like Mahler 1 and Schubert's 9th didn't hurt the whole experience either.

Overall, if you are a musician looking for an environment where you can have fun and thrive, you should definitely consider this program.