A beautiful country, great academics, & an American bubble Past Review

Academic rigor, intensity, resources, etc.

Academics are a strong suit of CYA. While classes are at times less demanding than those back at college in the US, these were also some of my favorite classes--with very caring professors, many fieldtrips, and relevant material.

On-site administration of your program

While most administrators were great and very helpful to anyone with questions, there were times where certain administrators were rude or didn't take complaints or concerns as seriously as they should have.

How satisfied were you with your living arrangements?

I lived in an apartment 5 minutes walking distance from the academic building with 4 other CYA students. My apartment was also less than a mile from more downtown areas of Athens. The actual apartments were fine, although would regularly develop disfunctions that needed to be fixed (e.g. slow wifi, broken shower curtain or window shade). The apartments were a great chance to become close to get to know the other CYA students I was living with.

We cooked on our own for breakfast and lunch, which was fine. Lunches provided for free at the academic center were rarely decent enough to make it worth eating, in my opinion--but I am also vegan, and other people were more happy to go and eat there-- so don't just take my word for it.

How integrated did you feel with the local culture?

This was something the program did not focus on much. Without any Greek students in our program or exchange program with another school, we were left on our own to seek out Greek friends, which can be very hard to do (I'd say that some did successfully, most didn't). But I still did feel that I got a good sense of Greek culture, even without developing much close Greek friendships. Also, doing a homestay may help lot in this area.

How well were health issues addressed during the program?

I only had experience using pharmacies. What would be prescription medication back home is very likely to be over the counter in Greece. I heard mixed things about the doctors in Greece--but I wouldn't feel unsafe health-wise being in Greece.

Athens is actually a very safe city. The prevalence of weapons is very slim in Greece compared to the US. Just be sure to avoid pickpocketing and take precautions as a woman, as you would anywhere.

I honestly don't know because I think a lot of programs & countries are so different and great. But I loved the people I met on the program, the professors, and what I got to see and experience. Plus, it was close to other European countries, so I could travel a lot, and most people spoke English so I could communicate. And those were two things I was looking for in a program.

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

You can definitely live on a student's budget (Athens is one of the cheaper European cities), but it can be hard if you want to go on trips for many of the weekends or go out a lot.

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

I was taking an introductory course, so it's hard to have substantive conversations in Greek, but I was definitely encouraged by the program / my professor to try speaking in Greek. And Greek people definitely appreciated when I did.

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• Apartment

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• Americans

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• Americans

• The academics/professors
• My friends / some of the other CYA students
• The trips--both the CYA-planned ones and the ones I went on independently of CYA

• Creating ways that we can be more easily make Greek friends

The Outright Urbanite