A good time in Costa Rica Past Review
By A student (University of Minnesota - Morris) - abroad from 02/06/2018 to 06/16/2018 with
IFSA: Heredia - Universidad Nacional
I improved my Spanish a lot I experienced life abroad I learned a ton of cool Environmental Science things that I never would have in the US Very worthwhile
Personal Information
| How much international exposure did you have prior to this program? | 0-2 weeks |
Review Your Program
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* Overall educational experience
Academic rigor, intensity, resources, etc. |
This program has you take classes with the normal Costa Rican students, and you get to choose them, so you can choose the intensity of your classes. So spanish rigor was fantastic since I was taking classes with native speakers, but the classes there were easier than my home university. Plenty of academic help available and professors were very understanding. |
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* Host Country Program Administration
On-site administration of your program |
There's an office a couple blocks from the university campus, that has the on site staff available essentially all the time during business hours. Friendly, very available, very helpful, they treat you like family and just want to make sure you're doing well. The office area also has a hang out area with microwave - it's a good place to eat lunch, hang out, or do homework. It was always nice to have that space available to take a break from being with the Costa Rican students all the time and hang out with the other US students and have the option of speaking in english. |
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* Housing:
How satisfied were you with your living arrangements? |
You have your own room that's your own space I did not get along well with my first host family so I moved, and loved my second one. My second family was very loving and caring, and I really enjoyed coming home for dinner and having 2 hour conversations with my host mom. She also brought me along to social engagements if I wanted to come, and made sure I was comfortable at them. |
| * Food: |
I loved Costa Rican food. I miss it now that I'm back in the US. I never really missed US food because I liked theirs so much. So much fruit - tons of fruits I had never heard of before, delicious and fresh. The food is not spicy at all ever, has a lot of rice and beans, and there were more fatty dishes than I was used to. |
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* Social & Cultural Integration:
How integrated did you feel with the local culture? |
So, I felt really well integrated with the local culture with my (second) host family, but I had a lot of trouble making local friends. Some of the other people in the program really really integrated and had a bunch of local friends, but some were like me and didn't really have friends. But all of the host families were very good at making us feel welcome and part of the family. |
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* Health Care:
How well were health issues addressed during the program? |
I never got health care, but it was available. Over the counter medications are more expensive there. I think that the insurance we had would have covered any doctors visits. My friend went to a gynecologist there and said it was much better than her visits in the US had been. |
| * Safety: |
Felt safer in Heredia than I have in many US cities. Heredia is roughly 100,000 people, but felt more like 200,000 because it had a really nice downtown area that was quite busy. In general, there was always more people around than the US cities I've been to, which made me feel safer because it meant there were always witnesses around - it was never just me and one other person in sight. Cat calling is pretty intense, people shout from cars, across blocks, etc and if you look american then the cat calling will feature that. I'm blond so people were always shouting "Macha" (blondie) at me and cat called me in english. San Jose was a big city, and not much different in how safe I felt from Minneapolis (the big city I'm familiar with). But again, always more people around. |
| If you could do it all over again would you choose the same program? |
Yes
I don't know if I really would. I didn't do a lot of looking around, and chose this one because my home university accepted it easily and it went to a place I wanted. This program takes you on some trips that were really cool and worthwhile, but I think there are programs out there that push Spanish more, and I would have liked that. |
Finances
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* Money: How easily were you able to live on a student's budget?
(1 = not very easy/$200+ on food & personal expenses/week, 2.5 = $100/week, 5 = very easily/minimal cost) |
Food and housing is covered in program cost, so the only required expenses are school ones and depending on where you live, transportation. So, any printing you need to do, and some basic school supplies (but you don't need to buy textbooks, so pretty cheap). Bus rides were 25 cents to $1, so really reasonable to take the bus from home to school and back every day. My main expenditures was eating food in town (pastries, snacks, street food, etc) and travelling. Travelling was real cheap, one night at a hostel is like $15, a meal at a cafe is often $8 max, a bus ticket to your destination (within Costa Rica) is $5-$20 one way. $=USD 2018 |
| Not including program expenses, about how much money did you spend on food and other expenses each week? | $3 bus to and from school, $4 snacks downtown, $15 fun stuff, average $22 a week and if I went on a trip over the weekend then that too |
| Do you have any general money-saving tips for future study abroad participants? | Bring all over the counter medication, pads, tampons, shower supplies, personal hygiene items, etc from your home place. These are all pretty expensive in Costa Rica. |
Language
| * Did your program have a foreign language component? | Yes |
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How much did the program encourage you to use the language?
0 = No encouragement, 5 = frequent encouragement to use the language |
School is in Spanish, so that's great The other US students always talked in English all the time, and the program didn't really encourage us to not to. I wish they had more encouraged us to speak in Spanish with each other. |
| How would you rate your language skills at the beginning of the program? | Advanced |
| How would you rate your language skills at the end of the program? | Advanced |
| What was the highest level language course you had completed prior to departure? | 3000 |
| How many hours per day did you use the language? | 10+ |
| Do you have any tips/advice on the best ways to practice the language for future study abroad participants? | Make the other US students talk with you in Spanish straight from the beginning, so that you all get in the habit of Spanish, not English. Make friends with your host family, talking over dinner was my favorite practice. |
Other Program Information
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* Where did you live?
Select all that apply |
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* Who did you live with?
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* Who did you take classes with?
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| About how many local friends did you make that you will likely keep in touch with? | 0 |
A Look Back
| * What did you like most about the program? |
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| * What could be improved? |
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| * What do you know now that you wish you knew before going on this program? | How easy it is to switch host families. I had a bad time with my first one but didn't change for the longest time because I was scared that it would be worse. I should have switched so much sooner. Bring an umbrella, the rains are no joke there |
Reasons For Studying Abroad
| To help future students find programs attended by like-minded individuals, please choose the profile that most closely represents you. |
The Academic or LinguistYou went abroad with specific academic goals in mind; the program credentials and rigor of your coursework abroad were very important to you. You had a great time abroad, but never lost sight of your studies and (if applicable) were diligent with your foreign language study. Good for you! |
Individual Course Reviews
| Course Name/Rating: |
Bioindicadores de Contaminacion |
| Course Department: | |
| Instructor: | Carola Schulz |
| Instruction Language: | Spanish |
| Comments: | This was my absolute favorite course while I was abroad. Interesting topics, labs were good and very related to the course material, there was a field trip to learn field skills, and Carola is originally from Germany and so is really really understanding of the struggles of not being from Costa Rica and not speaking Spanish as your native language. A really interesting course that would never be able to be offered at my home university. (In english the course title is Bioindicators of Contamination and that's exactly what it was all about) |
| Credit Transfer Issues: | No issues, counted as an elective for my Environmental Science major |
| Course Name/Rating: |
Ecologia y Sostenibilidad de Costa Rica |
| Course Department: | |
| Instructor: | |
| Instruction Language: | Spanish |
| Comments: | This was a course offered specifically by the program, and half the students are the study abroad ones and half are Costa Ricans. The syllabus makes the course sound like it covers a lot of cool topics, and the course just doesn't deliver. It barely covers any information, and it's all to specific to be useful (here are 10 species that live in the rainforest) or very general (brief history of Costa Rica's deforestation). All of the information covered in this course that I found worthwhile was covered better and more in depth by my Geografia de Costa Rica course. |
| Credit Transfer Issues: | No issues. Counted as an elective for my Environmental Science major. |
