IES Abroad Reviews

I absolutely loved my time in Buenos Aires! The IES staff was extremely helpful. Let's face it, studying abroad can be challenging. Living in a foreign country and being away from family and friends can be scary. The IES staff made the transition as easy as possible. If you had a problem, they would do whatever they could to help you out. For example, when I had issues with one of the local bus companies while traveling, Florencia, one of the Student Affairs coordinators, became my advocate. She went above and beyond to help me solve the issue. As someone who isn't great at Spanish, that meant the world to me. The entire staff is like that. The field trips offered by IES were really cool! They offered different trips and activities that exposed us to different aspects of Argentine culture. We took tours of Buenos Aires, attended rugby matches and saw musical acts. I highly recommend the trip to Salta and Jujuy. It is expensive but if you can afford it, it is totally worth it. The trip exposes you to the Argentine countryside and life outside of Buenos Aires. I really enjoyed my classes as well. There were a lot of reading assignments in my courses but overall the workload wasn't unreasonable. My professors were extremely knowledgeable and were more than willing to help you. Overall, I loved my time in Buenos Aires. I of course had some bad days along the way, but the good far outweighed the bad. I would highly recommend this program to anyone who wants to experience life in the Paris of the Americas.

I had an absolutely wonderful time in Nantes, France through IES Abroad. You take five classes through the program, one of which is a French language class (which you are placed into by the program staff, unless you test out of it), and you choose the other four. You can also take classes at the local university, which I did and had a great time! The classes at IES are geared toward U.S. students so, while they're ALL IN FRENCH, they are structured much more like an American college or University. I took four classes at IES and one at the university and was very pleased! As mentioned, the classes are taught completely in French, which really helped me to improve my language skills (my principal goal) very quickly. My host family, with our dinners together almost every night, also helped me improve my French skills very quickly. My host family was absolutely amazing. By the time I left, I felt like they were my real family; they treated me like one of their own daughters. Not everybody had this experience from what I heard, but most people liked their host families. Expect cultural differences regarding ideology and politics, though. Getting involved in athletics/dance at the university was a blast too! I highly recommend this program for someone looking for an immersive French experience, but who also doesn't want to be so bogged down on school work that they can't adventure. I definitely had time for both.

IES Abroad Milan is a fantastic program that offers a wide array of opportunities for all kinds of students. Whether it be business, music, or an interest in the Italian culture and language you have the ability to dive deep all while living in the wonderful city of Milan. With being in the northern part of Italy, it provides you with the ability to travel very easily. T he staff are very kind people who will go out of their way to assist you at moments notice.

Don't be discouraged to pursue studying abroad in Madrid if you are an engineering major. I was able to take equivalent courses for my Electrical and Computer Engineering degree, and balanced the course load with travelling just fine. In fact, I was able to schedule my courses so that I had a free Friday, allowing me a 3 day weekend to sight-see.

IES provided students with a weekly tutoring session with professors of their courses, similar to "Office Hours" but held alongside other IES Abroad students in your class. These were not only very helpful, but also attendance counted toward your grade(about 20-25%). The toughest part about courses at Universidad Carlos III was the lab sessions. To quell the difficulty, I made sure to use the tutoring sessions to go over any problems in the lab sessions. Official homework was not assigned, but these tutorial sessions provided a space to clarify any issues during the lecture.

Others have written about the many tours and excursions during the program and I highly encourage students to go on these, even the optional ones. At best, they are a fantastic way to learn about new cities(Toledo, Segovia, etc) thanks to guided tours and at worst, they can be a fun way to meet other IES students and get free food! I always learned something interesting from these excursions, and wish I went on more during my time in Madrid.

When I look back at my experience abroad, it seems almost like a dream. Thanks to the IES Abroad it really was a dream that came through. Never would I ever have thought that I would be able to study at a huge internationally known university, meet so many amazingly diverse people, or even get to see someone the greatest world wonders. This was by far the greatest program to experience this through. From the moment that I confirmed that I wanted to participate in the program to when I arrived at the airport to staying connected once arrived to even now after the fact, the IES family has helped me along the way. All of my questions were always answered. The trips that they had planned for us, from the Great Barrier Reef to canoeing and hiking, were better then I thought they were going to be. Sydney is a beautiful, thriving and welcoming city, but with IES I was able to go beyond that to see the country and experience Australian culture. Plus, I have friends from all over the world thanks to the Sydney Studying Abroad Program and IES. I can't wait to go back for more and I hope you get the opportunity to go through what I went through as well!

After a year abroad with IES, I fell in love with Shanghai. What's not to love? It's exciting and always has something to do! It has amazing food where you can sample local delicacies like 小龙包 (Xiao long Bao), authentic Chinese regional cuisine like Sichuan and Zhejiang food, and international staples when you are craving a little taste of home. My favorite part about IES Abroad's program was having the ability to be independent. Our apartments couldn't have been in a better location. It was about a 10-20 minute walk to the Bund, and we had a major subway line really close to us as well. I also enjoyed the local life of our neighborhood. During the day, the streets were crowded with mopeds and taxis as people drove to work. The restaurants were filled with people during their lunch or dinner breaks. At night, the street vendors began to open up shop feeding brave customers without much understanding of food safety the most delicious stir-fried noodles and grilled squid. When I wasn't eating or exploring Shanghai's beautiful parks, extravagant malls, and historic sites, I was studying Chinese and other classes relating to China. The Chinese classes were great. I loved my teacher both semesters because they always found ways to make a 2.5 hour Chinese class relatively fun. As for my other courses, I enjoyed having the freedom to choose what I was interested in, but the 3 hour long classes could be tough to get through sometimes. IES Abroad's program in Shanghai didn't have class on friday, which allowed me to travel during the weekend to some pretty amazing parts of China. I valued that free time to help me gain a more holistic understanding of Mainland China.

Spring 2016 I was able to study in Sydney Australia and it was the best experience I've had. Going through IES made it easy because they provided us with housing and trips throughout the semester. Housing was great because it was in the village of the University. I was able to meet many Australians through this housing placement as well as other Americans. The trips they took us one were amazing. We were able to go hike in the blue mountains, Cairns to snorkel in the Great Barrier Reef, have a cultural experience with the Aboriginal people, and many more. The location of Sydney was amazing because we were right in the city and very close to night life as well as the different markets and the Harbours. Traveling around Australia was very easy as well. I think that choosing Sydney Australia was a great choice and I highly recommend it to anyone looking to study abroad. You will be able to see so many amazing views, meet the kindest people and eat the best food!!

My time abroad gave me a great opportunity to really think about culture, the impact the US really has on so much of the world, how much privilege we have living here, and of course language. Through the experience, my Spanish improved a great deal, especially my confidence when speaking. I always knew I wanted to study abroad in Spain, and I decided to study in Granada because it's a smaller city. It was nice to be in this size of a city because I could truly get a feel for it and all of its different neighborhoods in the short time there, there was less influence of the English language so I was forced to speak in Spanish all the time, but it was still sizable enough to have a lot of life and excitement at any time of day (and I mean any time--the discotecas don't usually get busy until 2:30 AM).
The IES program and staff were great and very helpful as I tried to navigate my way through my time abroad. Most of the staff members in this program were enthusiastic, helpful, and really seemed to love what they do and interact with their students.
Granada is a beautiful, exciting city and I loved being there for four months. The city itself is one of my favorites that I visited in Spain, as it has a unique vibrancy, incredibly interesting architecture, upbeat and beautiful city streets and plazas, and of course an amazing tapas culture. One of my favorite parts of the city was that it's in a very mountainous area, making it incredibly picturesque in every part of the city. Every day as I walked home to my homestay I would look up at the end of the street and see snow covered mountains in the distance. This kind of terrain also provides for some of the most incredible views I have ever seen. I really felt like the city was my home for my visit and I felt comfortable traversing and exploring it independently.
All in all, my stay in Granada was incredibly positive. I grew a lot as a global citizen, a Spanish speaker, a traveler, and a person. I would highly recommend this program to other students looking for a Spanish study abroad experience!

When I arrived in Amsterdam for my semester abroad, that was the first time I had ever been outside of the United States. I did not go into this program with any friends from my home university, so I was pretty nervous and overwhelmed the first couple days. I also was missing the second half of my swimming season back at home, so I knew that would be difficult to come to terms with as well. Within the first week of my time in the Netherlands however, I went to four museums, joined a Dutch swim team, and met students from around the world. Throughout the course of the semester, I learned how to adapt to my new surroundings and made many new friends. I was able to travel to Germany, Belgium, France, and Poland. I am a European History major, so all of that was very exciting for me. I learned to view the world through a different perspective and had many valuable conversations that challenged my previous perceptions. I gained so much from my time abroad and I am very grateful for my experience.

My study abroad experience was awesome. I absolutely loved my time abroad and would do it all over again in a heartbeat. I recommend IES Abroad for the student who wants to take advantage of every opportunity while abroad, because IES did an amazing job with extracurricular activities. Some of the many offerings (all at low cost!) include a 2 day pilgrimage to Assisi and the Basilica di San Francesco, cooking and baking classes, a soccer league, museum tours led by our own professors, grocery store tours, shopping excursions, pottery classes, and dinners out. These were all opportunities I would not have participated in, without such an amazing staff and program . I absolutely loved my homestay and some of my best friends that I made in the program were also in homestays, and they were located within a 5 minute walk of my home. It was awesome! i would definitely make sure to look into what classes are offered and how easy it is to get into the exact classes you want, before you choose a program. Sometimes it can be difficult to switch in due to certain classes being more popular than others. Also make sure your school will give you credit for the classes you actually end up taking!
IES Abroad made my study abroad experience truly incredible. It flew by and I can't begin to describe how much I grew and learned while abroad.