I'm Counting Down the Days Until I Can Go Back! Past Review

Academic rigor, intensity, resources, etc.

Extremely involved and enthusiastic administrators, excellent professors, rigorous coursework that still left me tons of time for travel and fun. I learned a lot.

On-site administration of your program

Extremely involved and enthusiastic administrators who concerned themselves every day with making sure that every students was having the best study abroad experience possible.

How satisfied were you with your living arrangements?

I lived in a dorm with many other native Italian students. Being surrounded by young people and getting to live in my own space was invaluable to my experience.

It's Italy, you know the food is always incredible everywhere you go.

How integrated did you feel with the local culture?

The Milanese people were extremely friendly and welcoming. You won't find as many English speakers as you would in somewhere like Rome or Florence, but for someone like me who was really trying to immerse myself in the Italian language it was perfect. And even students who didn't know a word of Italian upon arrival were thankful for it, as it is still possible to get by on English while learning Italian along the way.

How well were health issues addressed during the program?

I had an experience in which I needed an asthma inhaler as I ran out much faster than I had anticipated (practically everyone in Milan smokes so walking down the sidewalk without inhaling smoke at least once was pretty impossible). When I informed faculty of my situation, the set me up an appointment at a local health clinic, and sent me there with a student interpreter to help with the language barrier, where my breathing was assessed and I received a new prescription. Italy did not have the inhalers I used back home but an equivalent was quickly found, and my Italian inhaler actually works even better than my American ones! The inhaler was extremely easy to pick up and was much less expensive than it would have been in the U.S. The whole experience was very easy.

I never felt unsafe for the duration of the program. The subways are always full of people from dawn to dusk. However, as a woman I tried not to travel alone at night just as a general precaution, which I would have done in any city. Milan is an extremely safe city. I was told that most of its crimes are petty crimes, not violent ones. I was told to be careful of pickpocketers at the start of the program but I remained aware of my purse at all times and never had an issue with that. I do not drink or go clubbing, so I cannot comment on the safety of the light-night club scene, however.

I adored my program and the friends I made in it. I loved all of my classes and I had many opportunities to travel throughout Italy and the rest of Europe on breaks and weekends.

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

I lived in a dorm that had a cafeteria so I did not spend a whole lot of money on food, but Milan is a fairly expensive city, especially since the euro is doing so well right now, so I imagine if I had had to spend money on 3 meals a day I might have given a worse rating. I did not hear of any major complaints, however. Grocery shopping isn't too expensive, mainly restaurants and sandwich shops can be more expensive. I did burn through more money than I would have liked but not enough that it was not manageable.

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

Milan does not have as many English speakers as somewhere like Rome or Florence does, so it forces you to immerse yourself in the language a lot more. The program also starts with a 3-week long Italian language intensive course (at whatever level you test into before the semester) before you start any of your other academic courses.

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• Dorm

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• Local Students
• Americans
• International Students

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• Americans

• The food
• The beautiful city
• Learning the Italian language

• The type of students they select
• The transparency of what will actually be taught in the courses
• Information about where to find certain items (toiletries, household items, shops, etc)

The Academic or Linguist