Barcelona is the best city to study abroad in, no seriously it's the best Past Review

Academic rigor, intensity, resources, etc.

I took five classes compared to my normal four, but in no means were they unmanageable. The classes were somewhat challenging if you didn't have SOME prerequisite knowledge, and some teachers weren't the best, but it was certainly easier than what I'm used to.

On-site administration of your program

How satisfied were you with your living arrangements?

The apartment belonged to an 83 year old man who didn't take the best care of the place, but he was so enthusiastic about having American kids over that it made up for the general dirtiness of the place.

Spanish food is pretty good as is, but then one has to realize that they're in a city, and any kind of food is available due to the cosmopolitan nature of Barcelona. I had Turkish food every lunch, for example.

How integrated did you feel with the local culture?

Barcelona is pretty welcoming of different cultures as is so I felt like I was very much living in a Barcelona-culture more so than say, a Spanish culture. Barcelona culture consists of staying up way too late and going with the flow and at first it was challenging to be that energetic all the time, but it absolutely grows on you so so much.

How well were health issues addressed during the program?

I personally never went to the doctor, but my friends that did had no issues at all. I got a full bottle of ibuprofen for like 2 dollars once though.

It's very likely you will get pickpocketed at a club or walking down Las Ramblas, but if you're always aware and don't let people know you're not from around there you'll be find. You may get robbed, but no one will hurt you.

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

Barcelona is pretty expensive to be honest. Everything costs the same as it does in the United States plus a little bit more I'd say.

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

I didn't take classes in Castillian Spanish, but they were available. I tried to use it talking to my advisers and I had to talk in Spanish to my host family because they didn't know too much English.

Select all that apply

• Host Family
• Apartment

Select all that apply

• Americans
• Host Family

Select all that apply

• Americans
• International Students

• Barcelona is ALWAYS alive
• As long as you try to speak their language, locals will try to help you out as best as they can
• the on-site staff for my program were knowledgeable and actually pretty cool

• I would have liked a few more opportunities to meet all the students I was studying with, we kinda just fell into class without meeting anyone
• My host family didn't really take care of the place I stayed in
• Maybe we could come into Spain at night so we can sleep off some jet lag before we go through orientation

The Nearly Native or Trail Blazer