Hands on Learning w/ KIIS Greece Past Review

Academic rigor, intensity, resources, etc.

We learned a lot about places by going there, seeing museums, what the Greeks thought were important, bus tours, etc. Best learning was hands on. Classroom lectures in the particular courses I took left something to be desired.

On-site administration of your program

Things seemed relatively well organized, you could tell the professors had done the trip before -- one problem though -- they spent too much time lecturing at historical sites, and not enough time letting us explore those sites.

How satisfied were you with your living arrangements?

The hotels we were at were almost always very nice.

We bought our own food mostly, except for hotel breakfast. The food we bought at restaurants was pretty good, and the hotel breakfasts were always passable.

How integrated did you feel with the local culture?

We were tourists, and I was pretty okay with that. We got to talk to Greek people some, but there wasn't a ton of that integrated into the program. I know I'm giving this a low rating, but I'm okay with that. The trip was a good trip for other reasons.

How well were health issues addressed during the program?

I had food poisoning. I was kind of abandoned by a professor on the street after the first couple episodes of vomitting, and told to get a cab back to the hotel. I was helped to the cab by fellow student who found me later. Care improved drastically at the hotel, after first incident feeling sorta abandoned, I did not want for medical care.

Felt very safe, even during a riot taking place a few blocks from the museum we were at -- if anything, the professors were overly concerned with our safety, and unwilling to let us do things even remotely unsafe.

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

The students liked to go out to eat for every meal, which gets expensive fast -- based my rating on doing that. Can be done much more cheaply buying food from convenience stores, eating mostly pita, and avoiding souvenirs. That said, not one person on the trip had the willpower to do that. Can be done cheaply, probably won't be.

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• Americans

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• Americans

• Variety of sites visited

• Professor Lectures
• Time usage on site

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