Program Reviews

I grew up in a teeny-tiny town in the middle of Idaho, which made the transition to life into Buenos Aires, one of the largest cities in the world, pretty challenging and overwhelming. I was excited about the prospect of living in such a fun and culturally stimulating city, however I was surprised by all of the difficulties I encountered. Adjusting to the Buenos Aires bus system and public transportation overall is probably my greatest accomplishment to date. The hour-long commutes were a challenge, fearing pick-pocketers and taxi drivers, constantly being cautious and being surrounded by crowds 24/7, and getting cat-called aggressively 1-10 times a day, were among the things I struggled to adjust to.

IFSA-Butler's Argentine Universities Program has phenomenal resident staff and directors -- I absolutely loved working with them, and they all proved to be super helpful (especially when it came to health issues, homestay problems, and travel tips!) However, my biggest complaint about IFSA is that, if you aren't a fairly self-sufficient, independent, and honestly social person, you might have a tough time adjusting and enjoying life in Buenos Aires. The IFSA AU Program provides a few small excursions and trips (ex: kayaking, biking, rugby games, etc.), however beyond that, you won't see the other IFSA students aside from your classes, if you're even taking classes in the IFSA office. I was lucky to meet an amazing group of friends through IFSA, whom I was able to spend a lot of time with exploring the city, which was really great and super helpful. However, I see how it can be challenging for some to find those friends right in the beginning, during orientation. Outside of IFSA, the only way to socialize and meet people is to convince yourself to wander out into the city alone, and go to some of the many free social events around the city. This might be easy for some, but it definitely wasn't for me. My language skills weren't great, so trying to meet and socialize with Argentines especially was no easy task, and alcohol almost always had to be involved. I had poor host moms who were never around, or who did not talk to me, which made things lonely and challenging. And, due to rules prohibiting us to have friends over to our homestays, and due to the distance between homestays (15-45 minute commutes), I oftentimes felt quite lonely and homesick.

Overall I do recommend this program because I think it's a good program, it's fairly organized, the staff is phenomenal, there are fun excursions (especially for Thanksgiving the Uruguay trip is INCREDIBLE), and I felt supported for the most part throughout my experience. I had a challenging time personally because life in the big city was really hard for me to adapt to, and I had a really negative and lonely homestay experience. Buenos Aires is a wonderful city, full of unique opportunities, delicious restaurants (try the Japanese-Peruvian fusion, or the late night shawarma), fun street markets (like San Telmo on a Sunday), interesting people, super fun nightlife, and overall an out-of-this-world experience. My time abroad had its ups and downs, but I think looking back on it it just didn't suit me very well as an individual.

IFSA Butler facilitated the experience I was looking for. As a fairly independent person who wanted the opportunity to create myself outside of a super organized American program, IFSA provided me with the freedom to enroll in local universities and create my own personalized experience. While I absolutely loved my host mom, I knew various people that wanted to change, and IFSA was incredibly responsive to such issues. Beyond this, Argentina is absolutely beautiful and I would recommend to anyone who is considering studying abroad in South America to consider going there and on this program. You will have the opportunity to improve your Spanish, live in a vibrant beautiful country, and make friends from all over the world.

When I decided to study abroad, I wasn't completely sure what I was getting myself into. Others had told me studying abroad was a life changing experience, so I took the opportunity and pushed myself outside of my comfort zone. I'm extremely thankful that I went with IFSA's University of Edinburgh Partnership because I felt that they really made the difference. They told me everything I needed to know about navigating life and academics at Edinburgh, provided great resources and support for dealing with culture shock, and our trip to Inverness in the Scottish Highlands was the highlight of my semester. I met a lot of incredible people thanks to IFSA and I feel like they greatly reduced the stress of adjusting to a new country and made the entire experience so much fun. I recommend that even if you're not planning to go to Edinburgh to try and find a program through IFSA because they know a lot about the local culture and host school and the staff really want to make your time abroad special.

I enjoyed studying abroad in India because of my personal connection with the culture. I was fascinated with the experience and working with Manipal University. I enjoyed the food as well as the movies and music. There were challenges adjusting to the cultural expectations that were required of that space, but I understood that I can't be that moving force of change in that space. The amount of help I received at Manipal University was important and supportive to keep going. I also enjoyed the independent trips we had to explore India.

I spent my fall semester abroad in Heredia, Costa Rica on the IFSA Butler study abroad program at La Universidad Nacional. The program went from July 14 - Nov 14, and it was one of the greatest experiences of my life. I would highly recommend studying abroad as an exploratory experience to all college students. You will find adventure, new friends, and learn so much along the way. IFSA, specifically, does a great job of facilitating this experience of studying abroad. The abroad team is extremely knowledgeable, and they make it their jobs to be available to you for any help you may need. They made learning a language in a new country an thrilling challenge. The homestay they organized was great, and they even organized several trips for the students on our program to explore different parts of the country (the trips are great, I would recommend not missing out on them). Overall, 10/10 experience. I would recommend it to anyone.

IFSA changed my life for the better. I lived at urbanest (an apartment style housing provided through IFSA). I also had a difficult time choosing between living with the Ozzies or living with americans but again only my experience, I'm SO glad I lived with Americans. Living in urbanest a lot of people in your program will be there which turned out for me to find literally INCREDIBLE gems. I'm not joking when I say I met the best americans and friends abroad through living arrangements than I could have ever imagined. Like life-time long friends, who I actually see a lot now back in America. This is realllllly important for the aftermath of abroad when you're back and sad and going through reverse culture shock (lol adapting back to America....) to have this support system of tons of incredible friends who experienced the same as you and will literally keep your abroad experience alive for the rest of your life. I'm actually in the process of making post graduation plans with one of my friends I met in my urbanest to go live in Sydney for a year or two! The facility itself is really great also, very safe and secure and in really good locations close to trains and buses and lots of fun lil' cafes and sidebar (more for that if you want). IFSA was also incredible with creating a new support system for your home away from home.

I studied abroad in Galway through IFSA-Butler. It was incredible; I've never been happier in my life than I was in Ireland. Everyone at IFSA is so helpful and kind and supportive. They walk you through every step of the application process, help you prepare to leave, meet you when you arrive, and help you get settled. There's always someone ready to answer any questions and troubleshoot issues. When I first arrived in Galway, we had several days of orientations where we moved in to our apartments, met the other students on the program, and IFSA staff literally walked around the whole city with us, took us on tours, and bought us meals so that we could get to know Galway and feel comfortable there. IFSA also organized two weekend excursions that are included in the program, to Kilkenny and to Belfast. They were both incredible, with a mix of planned activities and free time, so we didn't miss out on anything. The whole time I was living in Ireland, I personally knew the IFSA staff who were my contact points- they came to campus regularly to check in and chat with everyone, and would even just hang out with us in town if they had free time. If I ever needed anything, all I had to do was send a text, easy enough since IFSA provided us with Irish sim cards for our phones! IFSA is just a fantastic program, they took such good care of us and really went above and beyond to make this trip the highlight of my life.

Galway is also an amazing city. It's very safe, whether you're walking home at 3pm or 3am. I was NEVER harassed the entire time I was there. It's beautiful and historic and small enough that you can walk pretty much everywhere, but big enough to include several ruined castles and open fields full of horses. And if you're interested in learning the Irish language, Galway is a great place to be. It's near the Gaeltacht, and NUIG offers Irish language courses for international students that include a weekend homestay in Connemara, which was an incredible experience. I met some of my best friends at NUIG. I loved everything about my semester abroad, and that was made possible by IFSA. If you're serious about going abroad, CHOOSE IFSA and CHOOSE GALWAY!

From the moment I arived in china until the day I left, the company and my host family made me feel at home and so relaxed. They truly helped me make it a very memorable experience. I've learn a lot about the culture of China through the culture activities and culture classes they gave, all of them were really enjoyable and gave me a whole new look at China. The language classes was of an exceptional standard and the teacher got us all involved which made the learning so much easier and in all I really enjoyed taking the classes.

Thanks to Aupairia and all the ladies in the office for the chance to experience all these great things.

Studying at Queen Mary University and living in London was by far one of the greatest opportunities I have been lucky to have in the first 21 years of my life. Not only did I get the chance to explore a new city, but also I was able to enjoy learning for the sake of learning.

Coming from a rigorous collegiate institution in the U.S., I am used to being bombarded with assignment after assignment. From my experience at QMUL, the approach to learning is a little different in the U.K. While the academics at Queen Mary are by no means unchallenging, the work load is reasonable and manageable. Instead of having multiple assignments each week, I had only a few assignments during my semester abroad, with each carrying most of the weight of my final grade. With fewer assignments worth more, I was able to simply enjoy going to class and engaging with the course material without the pressure of too many graded assignments.

In addition to the academic experience, I also enjoyed exploring the London social scene. I had plenty of time to try out the various food markets, pubs and clubs. In terms of my living situation, I had the best of both worlds, because I lived with British students attending QMUL full time and other students in my program.

I studied at the University College London (UCL) for one semester. The semester was arguably one of the best times of my life. I learned a lot about other cultures, my culture, a different education system and the world at large. I was privileged to travel to about 7 countries throughout my time abroad and each experience was unique and enriching.
UCL is an academically rigorous school just like my homeschool Rice but it was interesting to see how the different the rigor was because of the different systems.
I would recommend studying abroad 100% to anyone.