IES is without a doubt the BEST program in ROME Past Review

Academic rigor, intensity, resources, etc.

Course workload was entirely appropriate, just enough so that you were informed for classroom discussion and engaged enough with the material to be prepared for tests, but also allowed enough free time to be engaged within the culture of the city of Rome and also allow for traveling on the weekends. Grading was entirely fair and teachers definitely wanted students to succeed. Teaching methods were more traditional than in my classes at my home university,on site classes were lecture based and much more similar to traditional art history survey courses based on memorization. The most beneficial teaching opportunities were the on-site fieldstudies my classes took every week which gave us an opportunity to visit the things we were learning about while we were learning about them it was an entirely enriching experience which made helped me retain what I was learning about better because I could remember what it felt like to physically be in the place or in front of the work of art I was studying.

On-site administration of your program

IES ABroad is without a doubt the best program for English speaking students in Rome. Their faculty and staff is impressive, enthusiastic, and they take their job of getting to know what the students are up to very seriously. They are some of the smartest people I know and each one of them was not only an expert in their field but also had a deep love and passion for their subjects. They worked hard to inspire their students and showed that they we interested in each individual student's success. The utlization of the field study is more than impressive, we were the only students that I spoke to in the city who learned on site almost every week. We went on sites that a lot of the time were closed to the public and were able to have once in a lifetime experiences speaking not only to our professors but also to many of their connections who were also experts and visionaries in their fields. Most of them were Italians but some of them were Italians born in Italy who were well equipped to understand the feeling of being an American in Rome, as well as give us insider tips for living in Italy. Through our language classes we gained incite into several Italian cultural experiences which were rewarding and in the future I would recommend they added more of these experiences. Through that program they also led discussions where they tried to engage us in dialogue about how we were adjusting to our life in Rome, my general opinion of this is that they waited a little to long before beginning this experience. Another aspect was home visits where they came ot our apartments to deal with each of our emotional experiences and also our living conditions and roommate relationships this was another thing that I found important but would have been more effective earlier in the process. The program was a good size and I enjoyed every single time the program got us on a bus a took us to important sites within Italy, these experiences were always well run and my only suggestion would be to offer more of them.

How satisfied were you with your living arrangements?

My apartment was in a good location. It was an overall good situation it was sometimes isolating but my major complaint would be my roommate, who was extremely difficult and mared my experience.

Italy has awesome food, but there is very little variation and it is expensive. My school tuition included food and they gave me a stipend but I soon learned it was not sufficient and it was gone after the first half me semester. It seemed to me like students who stayed in homestays got much more bang for their buck.

How integrated did you feel with the local culture?

At first I had a very difficult time adjusting and I didnt really take advantage of the support staff at my organization. But while I found Rome to be a difficult city to live in I dont have any real complaints about my program. I beieve it is well run adn well staffed by a group of amazing people.

How well were health issues addressed during the program?

I found health issues were poorly addressed whenever anyone was sick they expected them to travel across the city taking several buses and walking a great distance to recieve an excuse from class and medical attention from a specific doctor, but the last thing a sick person needs is to travel across the hot dirty city for over an hour. It seemed ike a bad system to me. AS for safety I think they did a good job informing us of the general issues pertinent to our safety and they also did a good job keeping us updated throught email whenever dangerous situations arose in the city and also throug the text message system when there were emergency situations.

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

Rome is such a tourist city that the majority of Italians spoke to me in English. I gained a fairly adequate use of the language mostly through my experiences at restaurants.

Select all that apply

• Apartment

Select all that apply

• Americans

• Professors
• Center
• Classes

• health services