CEA CAPA Education Abroad in Sydney, Australia

Name: CEA CAPA Education Abroad in Sydney, Australia
Brand: CEA CAPA Education Abroad
SKU: 273627
Rating: 4.87 (90 reviews)

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Location

Australia
- Sydney

Term

Fall, Spring, Summer

Subject Areas

Business Economics Entrepreneurship Environmental Studies Finance Global Studies International Business Marketing Sociology Sports Sustainable Development +1

Need-based funding, Merit-based funding, General grants/scholarships, Payment plans, Work study, LGBTQIA+ funding, BIPOC funding

Health & Safety

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Program Details

Program Type

Provider

Degree Level

Associates Bachelors

Housing

Apartment Dormitory Host Family

Pricing

Price Details

Included: Personalized Pre-departure Advising; Tuition & Registration; Travel Medical Insurance; On-site Orientation; Housing; Volunteer Opportunities; On-site Staff Support; Excursions and Cultural Engagement; Host Institution Services & Amenities and more. Scholarships available.

What's Not Included

Accommodation Activities Classes Transportation Wifi

Last Updated: May 21, 2024

Last Reviewed: Apr 17, 2025

Wish List

7 travelers are looking at this program

About Program

CEA CAPA’s programs in Sydney will give students a chance to study or intern in one of Australia’s largest cities. Sydney provides a perfect blend of laid-back and high energy, giving every student the opportunity to make the city their own. When you study or intern abroad in Sydney, you can enjoy some of Australia’s most iconic destinations like a local.
With arts, culture, an incredible food scene, and dazzling natural beauty, no two days will be alike for a study abroad student in Sydney. Consistently ranked one of the world’s most livable cities, study abroad students in Sydney get to experience a world class education that’s a short metro ride from your residence and study center.
Giving you the best possible study abroad experience is our top priority.

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Video and Photos

CEA CAPA students group photo with green grass and clear skies in Sydney, Australia

CEA CAPA Student kneels down next to kangaroo

aerial view of Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia

CEA CAPA student on boat in Sydney Harbor in Sydney, Australia

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Diversity & Inclusion 💙

BIPOC Support

CEA CAPA provides, in conjunction with Diversity Abroad, Destination Guides which provide resources and tips for Black/African-American students, Latinx students, Asian American students, and all other students of color.

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LGBTQIA+ Support

Through our personalized advising, CEA CAPA takes steps to understand the needs of a diversity of student identities like the LGBTQIA+ community. In addition to diversity and identity training, CEA CAPA leadership engage in continuous department level project work to identify and revise policies and practices using the appropriate Justice, Equity, Diversity or Inclusion lens as a frame to reduce bias and barriers that impact students, faculty, and staff. CEA CAPA is intentional in elevating diverse student voices and providing a platform for a broad array of identities to share their experiences abroad. The CEA CAPA World Blog promotes stories and personal experiences from the perspectives of diverse student bloggers and vloggers.

Neurodivergent Support

CEA CAPA is willing and able to assist students with learning disabilities and physical disabilities. Students are requested to disclose disabilities through the application health forms as part of their application and in discussion with their application advisor or program manager. The earlier CEA CAPA is made aware of learning or physical disabilities the better we can work with the student, institution, and overseas team to tailor an Individualized Education Program if necessary to support the student.

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Impact 🌎

Sustainability

CEA CAPA makes a conscious effort to create study abroad experiences that leave a positive impact on host communities. Each location implements a variety of strategies to support the local community and promote sustainability. Examples include:

Use of recycling bins in Study Center locations and in CEA CAPA housing

Signage in CEA CAPA housing urging students to limit water and electricity usage

Students are often given reusable bags and water bottles upon arrival to limit single plastic use

Students are provided with instructions for acquiring transportation passes to promote use of public transportation rather than taxis

Program Highlights

Hands-on learning experiences that transform the world abroad into a classroom.
Personalized Pre-Departure Advising, including visa and immigration support.
Comprehensive on-site support, including 24/7 emergency phone.

Program Reviews

4.87 Rating

based on 90 reviews

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Rating Spread Study

5 rating 90%
4 rating 8.89%
3 rating 0%
2 rating 0%
1 rating 1.11%

Academics 4.05
Support 4.85
Fun 4.85
Housing 4.7
Safety 4.85

Good for Students, Adventure travelers, Photographers

Showing 25 - 32 of 90 reviews

I studied abroad in Sydney during the Fall 2019 semester through CAPA and it is easy to say that it was one of the best decisions I have ever made! This was my first time ever leaving the United States so it was definitely a positive life changing experience. The staff both here in the US and Sydney were super helpful with our academics, internships, and were always there to help guide us along the way. They made this transition easy for all of the students. CAPA did a great job at having all of the students in my program get to know each other, and from this I have made so many new friends from other schools. We also went on fun excursions to the zoo and went on hiking trips that they set up. This was such an amazing experience and I highly recommend it for people to study abroad through CAPA Sydney!

If you did this all over again, what's one thing you would change?

If I could do this all over again, one thing I would change is going out to explore the city of Sydney earlier. Of course at the beginning it may take some time to adjust and find a schedule that fit with class, homework, and internship hours. I tried to go and walk around to different sites during my free time or even on my way back from my internship at least every day. What is nice about Sydney is that a lot of the sites and attractions are outside so you can easily walk from your housing/CAPA center to where you want to go. I would have taken more advantage of using the ferries as well.

In January of 2020, I traveled 10,000 miles away from home and started my monumetous adventure abroad in Sydney, Australia.

There I attended classes with my fellow CAPA students learning about Australian history; sports in Australian society; and gender, culture, and society in Australia. I also participated in an internship with Nutrition Australia, where I learned a great deal about the daily operations of a non-government, non-profit community health organization while also advancing my professional skills to complete tasks related to nutrition, dietetics, health promotion and public health. I am extremely thankful to Nutrition Australia and everything my mentors and coworkers taught me!

The CAPA Sydney program organizes housing for all students, you can choose between living with a host family or staying in student apartments. I chose to live with other CAPA students in the Oaks Apartments right next to Darling Harbour. I was lcukey to be placed with three amazing roommates, to whom I still speak with now that study abroad is over! All students are placed in the same apartment building which gave me the opportunity to meet others in the CAPA program outside of school.

Due to the global pandemic, I was not able to experience the full study abroad program and had to return back to the states a month and a half early. The CAPA program did an amazing job supporting us and helping to navigate us through this unpredictable time

My overall experience was a 11/10! I would totally recommend the CAPA Sydney: Study & Intern Program to any prospective students! I was extremely fortunate to meet so many exquisite

What is your advice to future travelers on this program?

Put yourself out there as much as possible! Meet new people, travel, learn to surf, learn about Australian culture! Take advantage of everyday!

If you are a student looking to study abroad during you time in college I highly recommend picking CAPA as your program. CAPA is a program that is so student specific and they really create close knit relationship with their study abroad students. My CAPA advisor helped me through the whole process step by step and made me feel very comfortable with what seemed to be a very intimidating/scary adventure. I studied abroad in Sydney, Australia and it was by far the best four months of my life, and I do not say that lightly. Everyday I was able to meet someone new from around the world and I had a great opportunity to directly enroll into one of the local Universities to continue my studies as a Biology student.

I had an incredible experience in Sydney through the CAPA program. I was able to take classes that truly interested me while also having time to explore Sydney and other cities and countries. CAPA provided amazing housing and I met lifetime friends through the CAPA program. The activities that CAPA provided to us throughout the 4 months were amazing, my favorite was the overnight at the Taronga Zoo! If you're in the process of choosing a program to study with, CHOOSE CAPA!! I would do it all again in a heartbeat if I had the opportunity!

What is your advice to future travelers on this program?

Step out of your comfort zone and say yes to adventures. There is so much to see in Australia, do as much as you can while you're there, but also truly make the most of exploring Sydney! There is so much to see in just one city!

I loved my experience in Sydney, Australia! My internship was amazing working with Chiropractors and a physiotherapist. My homestay was absolutely amazing, the best host mom and family. My class while I was abroad wasn't amazing as it was tailored to students that were business majors not students that were health care or anything else. The program for me was fine as I was happy with my internship and my homestay, however other students from my school didn't love their experiences and not being able to do all of the extra experiences that students from other schools got to do.

What would you improve about this program?

For my school in particular I would make it so that the students can do all of the activities the other schools got to do as well as make it more inclusive for our students to meet students from other schools. Since we didn't get to meet many students from other schools we spent most of our time with students from our own school and didn't get to make those connections like all the other students did.

Sydney Harbor at Sunset from the Manly boat

Holding a Koala from the Rainforestation Sanctuary in Cairns

My boss and I at my internship in North Sydney

Studying in Sydney was the most amazing experience. Sydney is such a magical city and CAPA made the transition so much easier. CAPA offered a great support system and really created a community for all the students.

CAPA Sydney is a study center, so your classes and housing will be with other American university students - making it a different type of experience. So, if you are looking to meet locals, thats on you to branch out and make those connections.

Having an intern experience was a great way to get to know the city and opens a door into a different type of study abroad experience.

I studied abroad in Sydney, Australia during the fall semester of 2019 and absolutely loved it! My semester was filled with travels to wonderful beaches, great food, and overall a great adventure for my independence. The classes at the CAPA center had wonderful professors that enjoyed helping students, and really cared about ensuring that our study abroad experience gave us enough time to enjoy the new country we were in as well! The city of Sydney itself was beautiful and featured easy transportation since CAPA paid for our transportation. The excursions that we went on were amazing, from a hike in the blue mountains with an energetic tour-guide to an overnight stay at the Toronga zoo where we got to see nocturnal animals at night and even feed giraffes their breakfast! A unique aspect of CAPA is the ability to also participate in an internship while abroad. I enjoyed it thoroughly because I was able to network with my employer there, improve my sparse resume, and learn information necessary to my future career once I graduate. I would definitely recommend this program to anyone looking for an incredible adventure where they can experience another country's culture, improve their resume, and become more independent!

What is your advice to future travelers on this program?

Travel to as many amazing places as you can! Traveling can be expensive in Australia, as well as to other countries around it, but it will be so worth it! I wish I traveled to Bali and New Zealand!

Read my full story

I had never been out of the country by myself before, so my journey to Sydney was unique, in that, I was no longer constrained by other’s schedules but did things on my own time. This allowed me to go do and see things that I have never even thought about seeing before. Such as seeing the rolling grassy hills and nature centers in New Zealand, while on the flip side, having the opportunity to still enjoy the city life of Sydney. So, my advice to future study abroad students is to make a lot of adventure plans and follow through on them.

If you did this all over again, what's one thing you would change?

If I had done this all over again, I would have definitely travelled to Bali and the Great Barrier Reef.

Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland in New Zealand

Sydney skyline with the Opera House in the background.

Questions & Answers

Alumni Interviews

These are in-depth Q&A sessions with verified alumni.

Why did you choose this program?

CAPA was one of the only programs offered at my school that included an international internship along with a study abroad experience, so it was easy to narrow my choices down given my options!

CAPA also had incredible excursions outlined for participants and a wonderful support staff that answered all of my questions, and I have always wanted to visit Australia, so for me, it was an obvious pick!

What did your program provider (or university) assist you with, and what did you have to organize on your own?

CAPA assisted me through the entire application process. Whenever I had questions, I was able to reach out to someone at their local Boston office, and my issues were always resolved in a quick manner.

Once I had been accepted into the program, they also supplied me and other students with the instructions to apply for a Student Visa in Australia, which took a lot of stress out of that process as well. Additionally, they even found our internships for us by asking what fields we were interested in, and acted as a third party to set us up in the internship!

The only thing I had to do on my own was to handle the plane ticket!

View Entire Interview

What is one piece of advice you'd give to someone going on your program?

Travel!

A common misconception about studying abroad in Australia is that there are not a lot of opportunities to travel as you would have to study abroad somewhere in Europe. This is definitely not the case! I was able to travel within Australia with ease, and even got a chance to visit the Great Barrier Reef! Additionally, a lot of my friends traveled to Bali, Singapore, Fiji, and New Zealand, and saw some of the most beautiful sights

Australia is a wonderful country with lots of grandeur, and despite the price, you may see to travel to where you want to go, do it anyway! You will not have the same opportunity again!

What does an average day/week look like as a participant of this program?

Our classes were held once a week for three hours. My schedule was really nice since I went to my internship for eight hours a day, Mondays and Tuesdays, and then took my other three classes on Wednesdays and Thursdays. This left me with a three day weekend to go to beaches, shops, and travel!

It was rare for someone in the program to have class or the internship all five days of the work-week.

Going into your experience abroad, what was your biggest fear, and how did you overcome it? How did your views on the issue change?

I was terrified of not making friends and being left all alone for three and a half months. The best way to combat this is to throw yourself into activities with people as often as you can. By doing so, I made four great friends that I still talk regularly with even though our program ended months ago. This program made that very easy because we were all housed in the same hotel, and therefore, were only a few rooms away from each other.

You should say "yes" to any opportunity that interests you, whether you're feeling a little tired or unsure of it (as long as its something you want to do!). I traveled to as many places as I could afford, and spent every weekend with those four girls and had the time of my life!

Any tips for students to save money and budget their bank accounts?

Learn to cook! I can not stress this enough. Right off the bat I began cooking myself meals and limited my trips to Starbucks for frappuccinos. By doing this, I was spending way less money on eating out and could put it towards souvenirs, gifts for my family, and of course traveling.

By the end of the program, I did start to splurge a bit (because I totally deserved it) and I still came home with more money than I anticipated having leftover.

Kailee Stobbe

2019 Alum

Kristen Cotter

2019 Alum

Kate Orsi

Bridget Dix

2014 Alum

Jacquelyn Keville

2014 Alum

Ciara Johnson

2014 Alum

Rachael Taft

Kayla Sutter

2013 Alum

Sean Ma

2013 Alum

Staff Interviews

These are in-depth Q&A sessions with program leaders.

Nora Larkin

Program

CEA CAPA Education Abroad in Sydney, Australia

Nora Larkin is the Institutional Relations Manager at CAPA in Boston. Nora is a graduate of the University of New Hampshire, where she studied International Affairs, European Cultural Studies and German. To complement her majors, she studied abroad in Salzburg, Austria and Heidelberg, Germany, which inspired her to pursue a career in international education. Her passion for travel and cultural exchange have inspired many trips throughout Europe and northern Africa, including to CAPA Global Cities locations Dublin, Florence and London.

Nora Larkin - Institutional Relations Manager at CAPA Boston

Did you study or intern abroad? If so, where and what inspired you to go?

Nora: I studied abroad for a semester in Salzburg, Austria and again for a semester in Heidelberg, Germany. I was fascinated by the cultural similarities that are embedded in the differences – the idea that there are other countries with basic, similar structures of government, education, businesses, etc. that operate in entirely different languages and cultural assumptions. Living and studying in a foreign environment was a personal and academic challenge that I felt compelled to experience for myself.

Any tips for first time travelers?

Nora: Remember to say “please” and “thank you.”

What aspect of working at CAPA inspires you the most?

Nora: We recently invited some of our alumni to our Boston headquarters to speak about their experiences on CAPA programs abroad. It is so rare that I have the opportunity to hear directly from our alumni, and I was blown away by the students’ stories of how their semester abroad taught them to be more mindful, tolerant, independent, and engaged. This is really what it’s all about, and it’s a pleasure to work for an organization that understands this and is constantly working to improve upon and provide more meaningful opportunities for our students.

How do you see the field of international education changing over the next 10 years?

Nora: What a tough question! Reflecting on my own experience abroad as a student ten years ago, I’m amazed how the field has grown in terms of the types of opportunities available. Internships abroad seem to be the norm, as students are seek out more experiential learning opportunities for cultural engagement and professional growth.

With some universities now requiring study abroad or opening up their own campuses abroad, I imagine study abroad in the next ten years will become even more integrated into college missions, curricula, and student life. Such efforts may increase the accessibility of study abroad for students with financial need and from under-represented groups, including first-generation college students and STEM majors. I am also interested in how the field will respond to the national discussion on the cost of higher education, as well as the opportunities for integrating study abroad with online learning models such as MOOCs.

If you had to choose one, which destination would you recommend to prospective students? Why?

Nora: This is an impossible question to answer, even though I have only visited three of CAPA’s Global Cities locations, but I’m going with my roots on this one. As a (half) Italian American, I have a rather cliched, but nonetheless authentic, lifelong desire to learn Italian and walk in the shoes of my ancestors for an extended period of time. Go to Florence!

What is one piece of advice you would offer someone considering going abroad?

Nora: Someone once told me that while abroad it is best to, “be less sensitive on the inside, and more sensitive on the outside.” It’s definitely a piece of advice that has stayed with me, and helped me learn to take things less personally while also being more mindful of my surroundings.

Debbie Shively

Sydney Resident Director

Location

Location:

Sydney

Currency:

Australia Dollar

Weather:

Jan-Mar

79 F / 63 F

Apr-Jun

72 F / 48 F

Jul-Sep

66 F / 46 F

Oct-Dec

77 F / 55 F

Airports:

Sydney Airport

( SYD )

Sydney is considered the oldest and largest cosmopolitan city in Australia. This city has become iconic and has many monuments that any traveler would recognize like the Syndey Opera House. This city is wildly regarded as one of the most livable cities.

About CEA CAPA Education Abroad

With 22 destinations across 13 countries, CEA CAPA Education Abroad offers an ideal balance of academics, internships, and adventure to more than 4,000 students each year. Click on “Visit Site” to explore our study and internship opportunities and find out just out how far international education can take you. Why study abroad or complete an...

Program Details

Pricing

Program Highlights

Alumni Interviews

Angella Barton

Why did you choose this program?

What did your program provider (or university) assist you with, and what did you have to organize on your own?

What is one piece of advice you'd give to someone going on your program?

What does an average day/week look like as a participant of this program?

Going into your experience abroad, what was your biggest fear, and how did you overcome it? How did your views on the issue change?

Any tips for students to save money and budget their bank accounts?

Staff Interviews

Nora Larkin

Did you study or intern abroad? If so, where and what inspired you to go?

Any tips for first time travelers?

What aspect of working at CAPA inspires you the most?

How do you see the field of international education changing over the next 10 years?

If you had to choose one, which destination would you recommend to prospective students? Why?

What is one piece of advice you would offer someone considering going abroad?