IES Abroad Reviews

IES Abroad truly creates an Italian experience for American students. My homestay experience fully immersed me in Italian culture at home. At school, IES Abroad's wonderful professors embraced their culture and shared it with their students. The professors at IES Abroad are laid-back, kind, and caring. They want their students to succeed academically but also culturally. They encourage us to explore Rome and enjoy our free time almost as much as they encourage diligent study. I discovered new places and learned new quirks about Italian culture thanks to my professors and the IES Abroad staff.

During my time in Granada, I fell in love with the city. The atmosphere is great because there are so many young people, and while there is always a lot of activity, the people are very relaxed. People say the Spanish live in the calle, and it’s true. The streets are always bustling with Spaniards having a chat, walking to work, or meeting friends for a café con leche. There are always hippies playing music or blowing bubbles. People are spontaneous and will drop everything to meet a friend for a beer and a (free) tapa. Especially in Andalusia, people are very expressive and get excited over the smallest things. Living with a host family was definitely the most important part of my experience. Since this program is with American students, it’s great to live with a Spanish family to learn more about the culture, eat home-cooked Spanish food, and speak more Spanish. My family really treated me like a fourth daughter and constantly tried to give me the best experience in Granada possible. I also had an intercambio who I became good friends with, so I definitely recommend the intercambio program. Another way I interacted with locals was by playing on Granada’s ultimate Frisbee team. I ended up going to three different tournaments with the team to different parts of Spain. The IES staff does a great job organizing activities around Granada, and they will do their best to help you out with whatever problem you have. My Spanish class was probably my favorite because we always talked about different kinds of Spanish food or slang and lots of our assignments required us to try the food or talk about the slang with our host families. With IES we took lots of trips to other places in Andalusia and one trip to Morocco, which was my favorite. We stayed with host families, talked with Moroccan students our age, and even visited a family living in the countryside for lunch. I felt like with IES, I learned as much as I could in 5 days about Morocco. Overall, this is a fantastic program in a beautiful city.

I had never traveled abroad before going to Cape Town so I was extremely anxious going into the semester. The IES staff made me feel comfortable and at home. The center literally acted as a hangout space for all of the students on my program, quickly enabling us to become friends. The city has so much to offer between the beach, mountains to hike, museums to venture through, wineries, and so much more. Studying at UCT allowed me to immerse myself in Cape Town's culture and I truly left the country feeling like it was home.

The prospect of studying abroad in a country as far away and as different as China can be daunting, but if you're looking for the best semester of your college career, look no further. IES Abroad's Beijing program is the best of both worlds: a language-intensive classroom with plenty of opportunity for cultural immersion.

Housed on the campus of Beijing Foreign Studies University, IES Beijing is located in a fun and vibrant neighborhood on the western side of Beijing. Just a few minutes outside the door, you can find anything from authentic Chinese food, bubble tea and groceries to cat cafés, bars and karaoke clubs. No matter what time of day, there's always something fun to do just around campus alone. And, when you're feeling adventurous, you can always hop on the subway and visit anything from historical landmarks like Tiananmen Square to nightclubs and Western-style restaurants in Sanlitun.

The idea of a language-intensive program with a language pledge may sound terrifying, but the staff at IES Beijing are all warm and welcoming and ready to assist you by any means necessary. The amount of support with which the teachers and Resident Advisors provided us made all the difference, so when you're having a rough day and speaking Chinese is the last thing you want to do, they're always there for you. Despite the level of difficulty, Chinese class was always entertaining and enjoyable!

Choosing IES Beijing was, by far, the best decision I've made in my college career. I was able to not only vastly improve my Chinese, but also make memories that will last me a lifetime. The staff there will do anything they can to help you succeed academically, socially, and emotionally during your time in Beijing!

Studying abroad in Cape Town is something I miss everyday. I really enjoyed everything the city offered and I am grateful I was able to see so much of it. I was very pleased that IES offered us two long trips outside of school and made available to us smaller day activities as well. Because of these I was really able to bond with the other people in my program as well as the staff. I never thought I would miss my friends and the staff as much as I do now. They really helped shape the experience for me. Cape Town is a wonderful city that I wish more people had the opportunity to see.

So when I arrived in Rome it was about 5 pm and all I wanted to do was unpack and sleep... I didn't even think about what was in store as soon as I left my apartment the next morning or every day for the following 6 months! Well let me tell you about the typical day of an IES student in Rome! First, all of IES housing is in the beautiful Prati Area (basically the Upper East side of Rome)! Prati is great because you're always just about a 15 minute walk from the Vatican and St. Peter's or Castel Sant'Angelo which is right across the bridge from the IES Center! And the area behind the center is rich with history! There is the Pantheon and Piazza Navona. I am so psyched that I got to experience Rome with IES because everyday was spent among the history of Rome!... Yeah kind of geeky but, we spent most of our days studying on site... we studied the Colosseum from the site... we studied Early Christianity below Saint Peter's Basilica (literally got to see St. Peter's bones)!
During our down time, we got to take a gastronomical tour and wine tasting with IES, we had a terrace to tan or study on when we weren't in class and traveling was made easy with long weekends! You could have class in the morning at a church in Trastevere and then spend your afternoon on an Estate in Umbria (a different region)!
Looking back on my experience I wouldn't change one thing because, what was a typical day studying in Rome is a world away from a 'typical day' on any college or university campus here!

I'm so glad to have been a part of the IES Language and Areas Studies program and would recommend it to anyone who consider's studying abroad!

I really enjoyed my time in Madrid! I personally enjoy spending time outside. Because of this, I spent a lot of time in the parks around the city. This was by far my favorite part of the experience, walking around the city to explore the parks and relax! Sometimes I would spend 3 or 4 days a week at various parks doing homework, walking and just enjoying the environment! Madrid also has so many museums, plazas and culture to take part in and enjoy!

I lived in a home stay for my semester abroad. I was with a single mother and her two daughters during this time. I was very satisfied with the interaction between the family members and also the meals that were prepared for me with dessert and everything.

The one area that maybe could have used a little improvement was the administration system at the school. The IES program partnered with a local university and used some of the extra space at this university for classes. But since the school and IES weren't one in the same entity, there sometimes was miscommunication between the two that led to certain issues. Things such as a lack of access to rooms that students were expected to have access to and lack of support for the IES program teachers because they weren't technically professors of the school. I felt the instructors often did the best they could with what they had but were limited by this situation.

Overall, given the opportunity, I would love to do this over again if I could and would recommend it for those looking to improve their Spanish and experience the culture first hand as well.

Before studying abroad, I could never have predicted that I would come to call another place home. The time I spent in Barcelona was the best three and a half months of my life, and I wouldn’t trade the experience I had there for anything.
Although I was nervous to leave my family and friends, I felt completely prepared for my travels thanks to IES’s detailed pre-departure information. Before, during, and after the program, IES was there to support students. The staff was attentive and genuinely cared about their students’ safety, health and happiness.
Another great thing about IES staff was how much effort they put into placing students in the best housing. I was assigned a homestay in Horta, a neighborhood relatively far from the city center. It didn’t bother me that Horta was far away from the IES center because my homestay was absolutely perfect. My host mom immediately made me feel at home. Our house was beautiful, spacious and clean. She not only taught me to speak Spanish, but also many countless things about culture, food, kindness, family, and life. She was the happiest, most kind hearted person I’ve ever had the pleasure of knowing.
The city of Barcelona is unspeakably beautiful. I was worried about living in a city, especially considering how prevalent pick-pocketing is in Barcelona. It turned out that within a few weeks I had a thorough understanding of the layout of the city, public transportation, how to protect your belongings, and, most importantly, how to keep yourself safe. The city offers limitless options for things to do, sights to see, places to eat, and stores to shop. And if you do want to escape the city for a day, Barcelona is located just south of the beautiful Costa Brava beach towns.
I would encourage anyone and everyone to do this program. Barcelona is such a diverse and exciting city – there is something there for everyone. It was also a great location for weekend travel throughout Europe, since, as a big city, there were reasonably priced flights from El Prat Airport to anywhere you could want to go. Then again, you might find yourself in this city not wanting to go anywhere at all…

IES Abroad Milano was an incredible experience. I traveled to 18 countries and 54 cities during my 5 months abroad in the spring of 2016. I developed incredible relationships with the staff, my roommates, fellow students in my program, and local Milanese. I learned a great deal about the incredibly diverse world we live in and how blessed I was to be afforded such an incredible opportunity. I highly recommend IES Abroad as a program due to the incredible flexibility that the program provides you to enjoy your own unique time abroad and cannot speak highly enough of Milan as a host city.

Studying abroad in Madrid was the greatest experience of my life. Although that may sound pretty cliché, it is completely true. The opportunities I had to become fully immersed in the culture while I was abroad were truly incredible. I will never forget my time abroad!

My host family welcomed me with open arms. Of course I was a little nervous to meet them and live with them for four months, but they were the most loving family I ever met. We had family dinners every night and my Spanish improved tremendously! I got to live with a mother, a father, and two kids who were 7 and 10 years old. They were absolutely adorable and I loved playing with them! They always made me smile and asked me how my day was. I felt really connected to them and the entire family.

The city of Madrid is just absolutely beautiful. It’s clean, the people are nice, and there is so much culture on every street. My walk to class would consist of passing by tons of restaurants, markets, and even parks. I went on excursions with the program to different parts of Spain, took a class in the Prado museum, spent my weekends in Retiro Park, and even went to a Real Madrid soccer game! These were only some of the amazing opportunities I had while I was in Spain.

As a Spanish Education major, my Spanish improved so much with my time in Spain. Talking with locals, ordering at a restaurant, bargaining a price for a purse, and talking with my host family: these are just a few of the things I would do to improve my Spanish. Learning Spanish in a classroom is great, but getting the opportunity to fully delve into the culture and be with true native Spanish speakers is the best teaching tool of all.