USAC Reviews

I loved this program! I had so much help from USAC before I went so I wasn't nervous at all. They walked me thorough the whole process. Once I got to Costa Rica I met my host family and the USAC staff and they were so welcoming and friendly and made me feel right at home.

As a plant science major and Spanish minor, this program had perfect classes for me to take. My favorite were the field studies that I took alongside my bio courses. We got to go out into the forests and jungles and do a lot of hands on learning.

I loved everything about this program and highly recommend it!

First and foremost, the USAC Staff on this program was phenomenal! They were there for the students no matter what and had our best interests at heart.
This program offers great language courses that really challenged me and helped improve my Spanish. Without these courses I highly doubt my language skills would have improved so much.
The location of this program was also wonderful; it mixes the big city of Bilbao with the suburbs of Getxo. I enjoyed being able to spend my semester in a place that had a small town community feel to it. I felt that I learned more about the Basque culture from being in this kind of setting.

The USAC Pau program provides numerous opportunities for all students learning French. The academic set-up of this program is to give all students an equal chance to learn French according to their abilities and speed. The onsite staff and professors greatly encouraged and supported all students regardless of level and that gave us a welcoming and accommodating feeling in a city we were new to. In addition to the in-class academics, USAC organized tours and field trips throughout the semester to nearby cities and towns. Not only did it give us the chance to improve our French outside of the classroom, but to also get acquainted to our surroundings and the culture of Southwest France.

The city itself is undeniably picturesque. The main street in Pau, Boulevard des Pyrenees, where much of the night life can be found, has the backdrop of the Pyrenees mountain range. With that, there are many opportunities for studies to experience the outdoors with university-led hiking, skiing and kayaking trips.

While Pau may be hard to find on the map of France, it is a phenomenal city with a phenomenal program. The amount of knowledge that I gained in not only French, but also about myself and the world is innumerable.

I highly suggest that you consider this program. The onsite staff, the host families, the professors and the community as a whole was so extremely welcoming. Pau will forever be considered another home for me.

One of the highlights of studying abroad in the Basque Country was eating dinner at the cider houses in the hills near San Sebastian. Groups of us took cab rides to the restaurants and were treated to a feast. The main event is the cider room, full of giant barrels of cider (all you can drink, of course). The food was incredible - tortilla de bacalao, bacalao with peppers and onions, and huge flanks of steak. I made sure to go three different times while I was in San Sebastian because it was always so much fun, and a great place to speak Spanish. When my parents came to visit me, they enjoyed it thoroughly and remember it as one of their favorite experiences in their entire trip through Europe.

Reading is the perfect place for people who are not interested in living in a big city like London. It's only a 30 minute train ride to the city, so getting there is easy if you want. UofR has so many clubs and orgs to join that really help you make friends with British people and break out of the international student bubble! I made lifelong friends with my flatmates and society friends. Go to Reading!

To this day, I recall the time I spent in Prague with the fondest of memories; there was incredible food, friendships that continue today, and misadventures that still make me smile in the middle of a real-life rough day. My claim to fame during my time spent in that amazing city is re-naming an impossible-to-pronounce Czech dessert. Imagine, if you will, a doughy, deep friend, cinnamon-sugar coated roll with chocolate spread all over it. Hard to resist, yeah? Also impossible to say in a language riddled with consonants- trdelnik. But when you constantly crave it, you have to name it so that's exactly what I did- in my group of friends it forever became known as a trandinkle. I would give a lot of money for one here in the states. It makes me smile to remember the day I tried and failed to pronounce it and then tried it for the first time, never to be the same person again. Prague will forever hold a special place in my heart for so many reasons- this is just a small one. I will return one day for that famous dessert.

Through USAC, I met the most incredible friends and family. I studied in San Sebastian, Spain for the spring semester. I stayed in an apartment during the semester and was able to set up a nanny/tutoring job over the summer through USAC. The helped me plan everything. I stayed for a month with a family in their home and taught English to their three children. However, this does not describe my experience at all with this family. They brought me into their family like one of their own. I could never show my gratitude towards this family in words. Family dinners, long conversations, games, dancing, laughter. San Sebastian is my second home abroad and I know most students will say the same about the city they studied abroad in. It absorbs you, molds you, takes away your blinders, and shows you the possibilities, the beauty, and the vastness of this life and this world. I will never go back to the person I was before I studied abroad. It has forever changed me into a person I am proud to be.

I loved studying abroad in Prague. For one thing, it's really cheap to live in Prague and it's so easy to travel. I went somewhere at least every other weekend. And the people who run the program, Jan and Dasa, are really funny and really helpful. It was a fantastic experience.

I absolutely loved my time in Costa, Rica. Heredia was a really good option for academics but I wish I had known how much time my internship was going to take! Still a really good experience.

The host families are hands down the best part of this program. They cook for you and really help with acquiring the language.

The town is a little boring but you can always find an adventure. Definitely go on the field trips.

This experience was truly life changing! I recommend anyone and everyone to study abroad and especially in this beautiful city! Nothing beats living out by the beach and getting to experience the city life at the same time.