USAC Reviews

I studied abroad with USAC in Shanghai, China, during the summer of 2015. It was the best experience of my life. The USAC resident director and assistant director at Shanghai University were excellent at educating us about Shanghai and helping us navigate the city. They made us feel prepared and safe to go venture out on our own. The academics were also top quality. They made learning Mandarin fun and stimulating. My business course and Tai Chi course were also challenging and satisfying. Shanghai is a very exciting place to be. Out of the other countries I have visited, China is my favorite, and Shanghai is the main reason. There are numerous places to go, things to do and see, people to meet, etc. It is a very global city. I met people from all over the world. It was an experience I'll never forget. Thanks to USAC, the study abroad experience went smoothly. The living arrangements, instructions and resources for the area, the education, and the weekend trips were more than I could ask for. I am very impressed with this program, and so happy I chose Shanghai!

I lived in both Heredia and Puntarenas, Costa Rica for roughly 5 months each while studying with the USAC organization and this heavily influenced my opinion on each program as I was able to see the pros and cons of each program. Puntarenas has a local facility that only teaches to Americans while in Heredia you will be attending a local University where the Costa Ricans study. If you genuinely want to learn Spanish then this alone should deter you from Puntarenas. The moment you enter the USAC building in Puntarenas you will only hear English from the students, and I promise you that this will not change not matter what group enters the program. Secondly the social scene in Puntarenas was severely lacking. It was nearly impossible to go out to bars to meet people unless you went out during a special event where there was a DJ. The bars in Heredia had more people during the weekday than the Bars in Puntarenas did on the weekends. Lastly, the university course work in Puntarenas was a joke. I never had homework nor did I feel I was pushed to truly learn the language. It was high school all over again. The instructors in Heredia will give you homework, they will make you work, but more importantly, they will make you learn the language. What my recommendation boils down to is... If you have a strong desire to meet other Costa Ricans while truly learning the language then I would steer you away from Puntarenas and towards Heredia. If you are a person that wants to enjoy a semester away from the states with very easy coursework, nice weather, and a stress-free environment then I would recommend Puntarenas.

I soooooooooo enjoyed my time in Chengdu with the USAC Program there. Not only did I learn so much, but I felt safe, enjoyed the culture, and was able to explore the beautiful city of Chengdu. I also went up and awesome mountain too 😊!!! From trying the Tibetian tu do bao zi to the spicy Sichuan hua-jiao peppercorns, I enjoyed the many wonders. For those more adventurous, you can try duck tounge, scorpion, and even pigs blood cubes in a hot pot. Would also highly recomend making some local friends as they know all the in’s and out’s 😉

I absolutely loved my program and I am so happy I chose it. My university offers a number of programs in Italy to choose from, but the USAC: Viterbo program had the best of everything Italy had to offer. It's not a huge city full of tourists, so we had an authentic experience away from massive tourist towns like Rome. The USAC staff on-site were wonderful. They helped us with everything we needed and were incredibly friendly. I loved the selection of classes and the fact that we could go on field trips to see what we were learning about in person. There are so many beautiful places around Viterbo to visit, we always had something to do and were never bored. Viterbo is a lovely city with an amazing history, lovely city center, and great social scene. The locals were friendly and we made a lot of friends with the other university students. The city is a perfect place to study in Italy and have the best experience possible.

The program was absolutely amazing. I was a trip of a lifetime to meet new people and explore a new culture. I would love to do it again if I were still a student.
The class that I took was called operations programming and it was taught by a professor who taught at the University of California - Poly Tech
The program allowed us to go to class in the morning and then have the rest of the day to explore the area and relax. The program also hosted a group excursion where we all spent a day exploring areas of Bilbao and being outdoors.

It was the best 5 months of my life and am so glad I was able to do it!i know it can always be hard to find the right classes and it was hard to find classes with my major in this school but if you save up your liberal arts they have plenty of interesting classes. No matter what semester you go for there will be snow but the spring is usually much more liked as the snow goes away pretty fast and is perfect for exploring the nature of Norway

This program was incredible, and life changing in ways that I had never expected. I took the intensive Italian language track 1, and drawing and painting Viterbo. Both of my professors were extraordinary people, and educators. I got tons of 1 on 1 feedback from them, and they cared about me enough to notice when I was withdrawing a bit in class because of homesickness. I learned an incredible amount of Italian, and although I did not leave feeling as if I had become part of the Italian community (any self-aware person will come to the realization that it's impossible to become fully integrated into a culture you have only known for 4 months), I met incredible people, who gave me a whole new faith in all the people around me. I came back to America with a new intrigue in my peers, and a willingness and desire to listen to other's stories. This is such an eye opening program if you let it be, and get past all the traps of falling back into your own comfortable culture while you're there! Thank you so much to my professors, family, and friends who were with me during this formative time in my life!

Prior to studying abroad in Shanghai, China, with the program called USAC, I have never been out of the country. However, the staff of the program were extremely helpful and super friendly. They have given me all of the materials needed for me to arrive safely such as the following: the address to my hostel (at the time, my dormitory was being renovated), the address to their office in the other dormitory, the number to contact in case of emergency, and etc. The day after my arrival, one of the USAC assistant/Chinese professor had assisted me in getting familiar with the campus and Shanghai overall. Due to this, not only did I gain a professor, but also someone that I looked up to. Before arriving in China, I had this imagination that the staff and professors were going to be with me throughout my duration, but I am grateful that they allowed us to venture off alone with friends or by ourselves especially during the holidays. If we were to go outside of Shanghai, they would tell us the importance of letting them know when we would arrive to our destination and when we would come back. This prove to me how caring they are and that they wanted to make sure that nothing dangerous had happened to us. Also during the excursions, we had the opportunity to go with or not go with them. This allowed us to essentially dictate our own life abroad. Since I've came back from my time studying abroad, I was given the privilege to share my experience with students whom are also thinking of studying abroad as well as making new friends and memories with people.

Where do I even begin to talk about the amazing time I had studying abroad! Not only did I learn a lot in my Intermediate Spanish class with an amazing professor, but I loved my time exploring Spain. I couldn't imagine not studying abroad because I completely changed as a person. The amount of growth that endured with traveling to a different culture, and experiencing what it is like to live in countries in Europe. I was fortunate enough to travel to neighboring countries such as France, England, Amsterdam, Italy, and Greece while I was in Europe and I gained so much independence from the experience. Not only was the location amazing and beautiful, but the USAC program was outstanding. The staff was exceptional and friendly. They made me feel so welcomed and supported. They encouraged us to emerge ourselves into the culture. I loved seeing the cultures within Spain and also France when we went on our field trip. Another part that I will never forget is the surfing class that I participated in. I finally learned how to surf and what better place to learn than in the surfing hub of Spain! Overall, the experience was unlike anything and I would absolutely love to travel back to San Sebastian to sight see along with possibly working for USAC one day!

The Czech Republic was one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. I was completely blessed to study here. The amount of beauty within the city is not comparable, the food, the people, the sites, the history. Everything about Prague was great.
In addition to how beautiful the city is, the price is great too! I was afforded to eat out every single day, with meals usually tallying between $4-8 including drinks! This was a surreal experience for me.
Also the friends I made while abroad are life long friends, we text and keep in contact every time someone travels, seriously I mean it. Friends you make abroad are friends that last a life time!
Let me put it this way, 10/10 EVERYTHING.