DON'T CHOOSE EF August 15, 2021

Academic rigor, intensity, resources, etc.

DON'T CHOOSE EF! I strongly recommend against any kind of language-learning or gap year program with EF. I do so based on my own experience with the organization. I signed up and paid in advance for the Academic Year Language Program in Spanish with EF in Costa Rica for 16 September 2019 to 22 May 2020. My family paid an additional fee for an "Intensive" feature, which was to add language instructional hours to the basic program. I took their placement test well in advance of traveling, and informed EF staff of my level of learning to that point and my language objectives. The program I experienced and the international EF management were deficient in the following ways: - The in-country curriculum simply didn't provide the extra instructional hours and features promised for the "Intensive" program (for which I paid a premium). - The program wasn't primarily learning-oriented, nor organized for instruction as much as for providing a tropical vacation and social activities for the students. - The program couldn't provide the necessary instruction to sustain my learning advancement as guaranteed. (By November, I was in the top instructional bracket the campus offered - by myself! - and the program had no one to provide adequate instruction at that level, let alone beyond.) - The program was not a true language-immersion experience as advertised. English was the common language used by EF to communicate with students on administrative and organizational matters, by the students socially, and throughout the tourism-focused town which hosted the EF campus. - The EF Costa Rica staff didn't respond to my complaints with any improvements. (When I responded to a survey request with my frank assessment, my inputs were routed directly back to the unresponsive in-country administrator, who then scolded me for my remarks.) - The program activities were poorly organized and communicated, with some activities in my curriculum occurring at conflicting times and with times and locations of which I learned only accidentally. - EF only made any response to these issues when I contacted the US office to arrange early termination. - In response, they arranged an "internship" which I determined through trial to have no language-learning benefit and to be a complete waste of time. - After agreeing to early termination of my participation (end of January) with a partial refund of my payment according to their published terms, the organization became unresponsive. - After repeated follow-up exclusively on my family's part, EF finally stated they would make a refund at an amount less than their terms require, and not including the amount for the intensive program they had failed to provide. - They refused to consider an equitable refund or to give reasons for their lower amount, simply stating the offered amount was all we were entitled to, and that they would not provide more. - Subsequently, they continued to delay and to fail to provide their stipulated refund amount. - After many further attempted contacts, they stated they would provide their partial refund only after my family signed a statement agreeing to that amount as the full amount to which we were entitled. - They continued to delay even further after receiving the signed statement. - After we posted a Better Business Bureau complaint about EF, we finally received our arbitrarily deficient refund on October 26, 2020, nine months after I ended my program participation and 15 months after the final installment of our up-front payment for the program. EF was dishonest in its dealings with my family, not only in its representations prior to the program, but in its responses to my complaints during the program, and also in its failure to honor termination terms after the program.

On-site administration of your program

How satisfied were you with your living arrangements?

How integrated did you feel with the local culture?

How well were health issues addressed during the program?

I strongly recommend against any kind of language-learning or gap year program with EF. I do so based on my own experience with the organization. I signed up and paid in advance for the Academic Year Language Program in Spanish with EF in Costa Rica for 16 September 2019 to 22 May 2020. My family paid an additional fee for an "Intensive" feature, which was to add language instructional hours to the basic program. I took their placement test well in advance of traveling, and informed EF staff of my level of learning to that point and my language objectives. The program I experienced and the international EF management were deficient in the following ways: - The in-country curriculum simply didn't provide the extra instructional hours and features promised for the "Intensive" program (for which I paid a premium). - The program wasn't primarily learning-oriented, nor organized for instruction as much as for providing a tropical vacation and social activities for the students. - The program couldn't provide the necessary instruction to sustain my learning advancement as guaranteed. (By November, I was in the top instructional bracket the campus offered - by myself! - and the program had no one to provide adequate instruction at that level, let alone beyond.) - The program was not a true language-immersion experience as advertised. English was the common language used by EF to communicate with students on administrative and organizational matters, by the students socially, and throughout the tourism-focused town which hosted the EF campus. - The EF Costa Rica staff didn't respond to my complaints with any improvements. (When I responded to a survey request with my frank assessment, my inputs were routed directly back to the unresponsive in-country administrator, who then scolded me for my remarks.) - The program activities were poorly organized and communicated, with some activities in my curriculum occurring at conflicting times and with times and locations of which I learned only accidentally. - EF only made any response to these issues when I contacted the US office to arrange early termination. - In response, they arranged an "internship" which I determined through trial to have no language-learning benefit and to be a complete waste of time. - After agreeing to early termination of my participation (end of January) with a partial refund of my payment according to their published terms, the organization became unresponsive. - After repeated follow-up exclusively on my family's part, EF finally stated they would make a refund at an amount less than their terms require, and not including the amount for the intensive program they had failed to provide. - They refused to consider an equitable refund or to give reasons for their lower amount, simply stating the offered amount was all we were entitled to, and that they would not provide more. - Subsequently, they continued to delay and to fail to provide their stipulated refund amount. - After many further attempted contacts, they stated they would provide their partial refund only after my family signed a statement agreeing to that amount as the full amount to which we were entitled. - They continued to delay even further after receiving the signed statement. - After we posted a Better Business Bureau complaint about EF, we finally received our arbitrarily deficient refund on October 26, 2020, nine months after I ended my program participation and 15 months after the final installment of our up-front payment for the program. EF was dishonest in its dealings with my family, not only in its representations prior to the program, but in its responses to my complaints during the program, and also in its failure to honor termination terms after the program.

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

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

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• Host Family

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• International Students
• Host Family

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• Americans
• International Students

• The one on one instruction I received from teachers when they had a lesson plan that was challenging to me.

• Administrative communication, academic rigor

The Academic or Linguist