CIEE Teach Abroad & TEFL Reviews

My time in Thailand has been amazing and should be on everyone's 'Must Do' list. The country itself is full of beautiful places and amazing people. It has been such a rewarding experience to have the opportunity to live here.
I am thankful for CIEE in helping with the process. CIEE does a great job of providing information before leaving your home country, providing visa assistance, and requiring the school to help with visa extension in a timely manner. While the pre-departure information was helpful, I think the most important thing for me was visa assistance. I am very grateful to CIEE for their help in this process and that alone would make me use them again in the future. I also appreciate that any time I have a question I feel that I can contact the coordinator and she will help me the best she can very quickly. She is very approachable, helpful, and resourceful. These things were very important to me in living abroad for the first time and have made my time in CIEE much smoother. On top of this, going through a program like CIEE, that recruits many teachers and includes an in-country orientation, guarantees that you will meet many other teachers. These teachers will become great resources and people to connect with about teaching and missing home, but may even become some of your best friends. I owe it to CIEE (and the in country program OEG) for all of the valuable relationships I have made on this journey.
If you are looking to live abroad and change the lives of young people while doing it, but aren't sure how. I can promise that CIEE will make the move as seamless as possible.
I also took my TEFL course through CIEE instead of another company and felt that CIEE did a good job with this course. Now that I have it, I am set for life and will always be able to use in future teach abroad endeavors. I believe that if you are interested in teaching as a career, or at least plan to teach abroad more than just one time, the TEFL training is definitely worthwhile.

My experience has been incredible so far in Thailand. CIEE and OEG were beyond helpful in the entire process of settling us into our schools and helping us adapt to living in a new country.I felt like the orientation time was very adequate, any shorter I would have not felt prepared, and any longer I would have been ready to leave Bangkok. It was also fantastic meeting other foreign teachers throughout the orientation. I made many friends that I have been able to travel with during my time in Thailand. That was a huge advantage of teaching abroad through a program like this. The CIEE and OEG staff was all super helpful and friendly, and were always there to help and walk you through the process of living in a new country. I would highly recommend going through this company, but it is a little pricey. Cheers!

I’ve had a great experience with CIEE! It’s changed my life for the better and they’ve made the process of moving so far away from home much easier than it would’ve been had I done it by myself. Having their support and guidance has been everything especially with housing/taking care of any larger issues. I enjoy my placement and they’ve answered any questions I had when they arose. They took my placement preferences as a priority which was very refreshing as well.

They also make sure that they invite back previous or current teachers to talk about their experiences which is very helpful and very honest. It’s nice to hear from them because they’ve recently gone through or completed the process.

CIEE answers questions in a speedy fashion and they are knowledgeable about all the laws in Thailand which sometimes come up as later questions or concerns.

Moving abroad can be challenging, but CIEE and OEG were exceedingly helpful with this transition. They organized school placement, housing, and ensured all steps were correctly completed to receive a work visa. Of course these logistics can be completed independently, but it was reassuring to have the support of OEG staff that are knowledgeable about the school system in Thailand as well as the culture. CIEE and OEG have always been available to answer my questions from when I first started my application to the extension of my contract this month. The staff support as well as the numerous resources provided on teaching, traveling, moving to Thailand, and Thai culture was tremendously helpful! The orientation was also a great opportunity to meet so many new friends on the same journey!

I'm coming up on the end of my 6 months of teaching in Thailand and it has been such an incredible experience! I had been working a 9-5 job out of college and was craving a new adventure. I had always been interested in teaching abroad and CIEE provided all the help needed to make it happen. Upon being accepted, CIEE gave an abundance of useful information about the visa application process, teaching requirements, life in Thailand, and so much more - all of which would've been very confusing and difficult to prepare for had I not gone through an agency like CIEE. Teaching in Thailand provides you the opportunity to not only get out and explore the world but to also help make a difference in the local community. Teaching can be hectic but the children make it totally worth it! I highly recommend CIEE and teaching abroad!

CIEE is definitely an excellent program to start through. They are always available to answer any questions. They take care of placement and the school you're placed at takes care of everything for your visa. The steps to be a legal worker in Thailand are long and tedious so I am very thankful to have that taken care of. Orientation was great, however, I feel like many negative aspects were omitted. Everything was always answered positively instead of being upfront about common problems one might experience. I think a positive attitude is important but there was definitely a lot of false advertisement on how happy and great everything is. You will most likely face many unprepared challenges. There were also a ton of fees that needed to be paid for in the first couple of months that were never mentioned on the application. I unfortunately do not have much to do in my city nor do I have many people to hang out with (this may be a good thing depending on your preferences). However, I did meet amazing people during orientation who I travel with on the weekends frequently. I believe your experience really depends on where you're placed and who you are placed with. Overall I would say my experience has been great and I am thankful to have done this.

I am glad I ended up going with CIEE. The program is expensive and I am not getting paid much in Thailand. But CIEE made moving to another country easier. I am not sure I would have been able to do it myself. Now that I am here, I have the experience to go off on my own and find a placement better for me. Going to a city and school without knowing much is risky and scary. But it turned out to be pretty good. This is a year I will never forget and one of the best decisions I have ever made.

I had plenty of time to travel and see Thailand. At times I have had to be very careful with how I spend my money. It is a comfortable amount and I have been able to go on lots of trips but at the end of the month I usually do not have any money left. I have also been lucky to be placed with 4 other CIEE people and it has been wonderful.

My name is Elizabeth Faiella. I am more than half way through my semester as I write this and I wish I could extend. The experience I have had is something people dream about but never actually do. It is so easy for Americans and other people to get caught up in this what you should do life. You graduate you take a bottom feeder job working 9-5 or longer in hopes one day it will pay off. You get engaged and then married and start a family. Next thing you know you are 30 years old and haven’t seen the world. You say you will do it when the kids get older but you have to pay for college etc. it may never happen... I am 25 years old and I wish I did this when I was 22 so I could have stayed much longer. Unfortunately I have some obligations in America so I must go back. That being said DO NOT WAIT ON IT! Apply now, come next semester, make it work you can and you will not regret it. See the world for what it is. BIG.

Ultimately I am happy I went through CIEE. As someone who knows nothing about the school system in Thailand, it was extremely helpful to have an agency who placed me at a school and helped me find housing. I would have had a very hard time doing this on my own. That being said, there was confusion and misinformation given to me before I departed on behald of CIEE. I think there was a lack of communication between CIEE in America and OEG in Thailand. That was frustrating to deal with right before I left and moved across the world. However, I am truly thankful for the agency placing me and making sure I had housing. Figuring this all out in a new country would have been hard and it took a lot of stress and pressure off of me. I feel completely safe where I am placed.

Once in Thailand OEG was extremely friendly and helpful. They have continued to help and answer questions while I have been abroad as well.

The staff is super friendly and you'll feel welcome from the time you set foot off the plane. They provide a decent amount of materials for teachers to use in the classroom. The staff is great with communicating with participants whenever you need to ask a question or ask for help. The orientation in Bangkok is fun and engaging with a trip to the Grand Palace, the most sacred site in Thailand, and activities that enable you to engage with other participants. CIEE is a program filled with amazing people who care about the participants and their success. They will help you as much as they can with anything you need. I would definitely choose CIEE if I were to teach abroad in the future. The pricing is fair and they make the process of going abroad and teaching abroad as easy as they can make it.