A cultural rather than academic experience Past Review

Academic rigor, intensity, resources, etc.

While classes in Amideast were overall good, I would not consider them anywhere near the level of my home institution's classes. Readings for classes rarely ran over 75-100 pages a week and, in many classes, weren't actually necessary. Papers were lightly graded, with students getting A's and B's on papers that they called their worst paper ever. Some assignments were forgotten by the professors or were allowed to be ignored by the students. However, I will say that if classes had been as intense as they are in the States, I would not have had nearly as many opportunities as I had to get out and explore Morocco. I still learned things for the most part, but there is clearly a trade-off in studying abroad.

On-site administration of your program

In general, the staff were useful and happy to help. Doha and Sarah Daoudi in particularly were pleasant additions to being abroad and were always ready to be of assistance.

How satisfied were you with your living arrangements?

There are always going to be awkward parts of living with a host family, but in general the Amideast-approved families were a nice addition to the study abroad experience.

Although some people had stomach problems with the food and water, Moroccan food is delicious. Just be ready for a lot of it--and some additional weight.

How integrated did you feel with the local culture?

It's never going to be possible to be fully integrated as an outsider but I still feel as if Amideast could have worked to better integrate us. The language partner program was hit-or-miss, with some language partners being amazing and others being largely absent; many Americans simply tried to avoid their language partner regardless. An added level of complication is that many of the language partners were busy with their university studies and, as Amideast students are in their own program building interacting only with other Americans all day, it can be harder to get to know and have common interaction with Moroccans of our age group.

How well were health issues addressed during the program?

Health care was largely easy to use. Amideast's insurance paid for all of my expenses when I had to see a doctor or get medicine, and for general check ups, Amideast brought the doctor to you. However, health care still isn't the same level as it is in America so diagnoses and prescriptions aren't always as effective as you might desire.

Rabat is an extremely safe city, and Morocco as a whole--excepting a few cities like Sale and Casablanca--is also safe. I never felt threatened. However, as I am a male, I also did not have to deal with sexual harassment, which was largely a daily occurrence for the female participants in the program. I don't think it ever came close to threatening any of their lives but it is an added part of life to take into account.

(1 = not very easy/$200+ on food & personal expenses/week, 2.5 = $100/week, 5 = very easily/minimal cost)

Morocco is a fairly cheap country, and Amideast's weekly meal stipend helped offset costs of eating during school days. Breakfast and dinner were provided by the host families, removing those costs. Daily transportation is also cheap. The biggest expense was traveling during weekends and breaks, which can add up quickly--especially if you're traveling to Europe. However, even then, I rarely found myself spending more than $100 for a weekend trip, which would be the cost of the hotel alone in the U.S.

0 = No encouragement, 5 = frequent encouragement to use the language

Although the program made a handful of attempts to encourage us to use the language, it largely left it to our own discretion outside of Arabic class.

Select all that apply

• Host Family

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• Americans
• Host Family

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• Americans

• Location (Rabat)
• Kind staff
• Moroccan food

• Darija classes
• Required program activities
• Inflexible bureaucracy (D.C. HQ vs. the Rabat office)

The Academic or Linguist