A Mixed Review Past Review
By A student (Spanish, Wellesley College) - abroad from 07/27/2014 to 12/13/2014 with
Middlebury Schools Abroad: Middlebury in Santiago
Of course, I learned a bunch of academic stuff. But I think the "life lessons" I learned were much more worthwhile. For example, I'm a blonde/blue-eyed/white girl from Minnesota. I'd never left the U.S. before this trip. I'd never had the experience of being The Other. I'd never been constantly stared at/made to feel like I didn't belong. Although that experience was hard, I think it was important to begin to learn to understand what it means to be The Other.
Review Photos
Personal Information
| How much international exposure did you have prior to this program? | None |
Review Your Program
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* Overall educational experience
Academic rigor, intensity, resources, etc. |
The university can be difficult if you make it difficult for yourself. Since Wellesley does pass/fail for study abroad courses, it can be pretty easy to let yourself slide in academics... |
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* Host Country Program Administration
On-site administration of your program |
Jeff is the absolute best. He is insanely busy, but always has time to talk/listen and (occasionally) take care of us. Also, shout-out to Juan, who is wonderful. |
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* Housing:
How satisfied were you with your living arrangements? |
My host family was awesome. My host mom as an amazing cook and took excellent care of me. |
| * Food: |
I love and miss Chilean food! Fresh avocados, fresh bread (you will eat A LOT of bread), real butter. I also loved the Chilean custom of eating a huge lunch (instead of a big dinner, like we tend to do in the U.S.). |
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* Social & Cultural Integration:
How integrated did you feel with the local culture? |
Warning all blondes considering study abroad in Chile: You will be catcalled/stared at constantly. If that doesn't bug you, great. If you think it will, maybe consider going to a different place. I think that looking "foreign" was kind of my downfall. Chileans knew instantly that I wasn't a native-Spanish speaker and a lot of the students at my university didn't seem to have the patience to get to know me. Overall, I felt pretty separated from Chilean culture/social life--partly because I didn't feel very accepted. |
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* Health Care:
How well were health issues addressed during the program? |
I didn't' have a health issue while I was there, so I can't say. But I did go to the pharmacy for some allergy medication, which was easy. I think I needed a hepatitis vaccine or something like that. |
| * Safety: |
Although a lot of the crime in Santiago isn't violent, petty theft and house robberies are the crime of choice... And both happened to me while I was there. Toward the end of the semester, the small-but-constant fear of these things got really hard to deal with for me.You have to be pretty careful and constantly alert. |
| If you could do it all over again would you choose the same program? |
Yes
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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) |
So I think I averaged around $200 a week on rent/food/the metro/extra expenses. However, Wellesley made this very easy for me. Because being in Chile was cheaper than being at Wellesley, I got a refund with my financial aid, which covered all of this. The only thing I really paid out-of-pocket was my plane ticket. |
| Not including program expenses, about how much money did you spend on food and other expenses each week? | Food was included in my rent, which was $380.000 pesos a month. I didn't go out too much, but spent a lot of money on the Metro (like $20/week). |
| Do you have any general money-saving tips for future study abroad participants? | I think it's always cheaper to choose to have your family make your meals for you. Your rent is more expensive, but buying lunch every day really adds up. |
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 |
We took the Middlebury Language Pledge, promising to only speak in Spanish while we were in Chile. |
| How would you rate your language skills at the beginning of the program? | Intermediate |
| 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? | 300 level seminar |
| How many hours per day did you use the language? | |
| Do you have any tips/advice on the best ways to practice the language for future study abroad participants? | Don't be shy. SPEAK SPEAK SPEAK! I was afraid of making mistakes, and didn't spend much of my time speaking to native speakers. By the end of the semester, I had improved my language skills in every aspect (listening, reading, writing--no doubt a result of doing LOTS of homework) except speaking. |
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? | Being blonde in Chile is hard. |
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: |
Family, Community, and Education |
| Course Department: | Education |
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| Instruction Language: | Spanish |
| Comments: | This course was fairly simple. We read texts for every class (although honestly, I slacked off a bit when I realized that 1) no one else was reading them 2) it wasn't necessary to read them). We also had 4 "talleres" (basically question sets corresponding to the texts). Two of them were in groups, two were individual. Besides the talleres, we had one final group project. (I would recommend making friends at the beginning of classes. It's awkward to not know anybody in the middle (or end!) of the year and have to ask a stranger to be in their group.) I wasn't the biggest fan of the course because I found the work unchallenging. I stopped reading the texts because they all said the same thing.The professor lectured for the whole hour on things that could be said in five minutes (she was also unavailable outside of class time). On the bright side, with more than a 5.0 grade and 70% attendance, you didn't have to take the final exam. |
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| Course Name/Rating: |
History and Politics of Chilean Education |
| Course Department: | Education |
| Instructor: | |
| Instruction Language: | Spanish |
| Comments: | This course reminded me of all the things I appreciate about classes/professors at Wellesley: challenging coursework, clear-cut and high expectations (we never once strayed from the syllabus! Not only that, a syllabus actually existed!), an accessible professor. My only complaint is that it met once a week for three hours. Three hours is a long time to listen to a history lecture. But I loved this course! It was fascinating to learn about the history/current politics of the Chilean education system and be able to compare them with the U.S. system. We had a lot of work. LOTS of weekly readings, a weekly written reflection of the class, one in-class test, two essays, and a semester-long group project that ended up being three essays and three presentations. There was also an obligatory oral final exam, but the professor was really nice about it with me--she did her doctorate in France, so she sympathized with "knowing the information but not always being able to put it in words." Definitely recommend this one! :) |
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| Course Name/Rating: |
Eduation and Society |
| Course Department: | Education |
| Instructor: | |
| Instruction Language: | Spanish |
| Comments: | I was really excited about this course because the topic fascinates me. I've taken sociology before, but never educational sociology specifically. On paper, this course looks great. We read the classics (Bourdieu, Bernstein, etc.) and were supposed to have two tests, two group talleres, and a final group project. The first half of the semester went ok. We did the first test and the first taller according to schedule. The rest of the semester was really disorganized. The professor was super nice and funny in class, but he was either 1) really really busy 2) really really lazy. All he did was show up (always a half hour late) for class. He didn't grade the tests or the talleres--the T.A. did, and she was disorganized, too. My group got our taller grade in December... it was due in September. Our professor was late in sending the second taller. We waited a whole week... And another... It got so late that he decided to "kill" the final project and use the grade from the 2nd taller in its place. Which would have been fine... if he had ever decided to send us the new taller. I was done with the class a week before I knew it--I was waiting for the new taller, then received a two-sentence email saying that he had canceled it, too. [I think the reason for all of this is that he didn't want to write the talleres, and the TA didn't want to grade them.] So the class ended up being two tests and one taller. As the professor doesn't take attendance, it is 100% possible to pass the course without going to a single class--the taller and tests were based on the texts, which we rarely discussed in class anyway. The readings were super interesting, though! I would recommend the course, just with a different professor. |
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Diversity and Inclusion in Education |
| Course Department: | Education |
| Instructor: | |
| Instruction Language: | Spanish |
| Comments: | I have mixed feelings about this class. Compared with some of my other courses, it was pretty well-organized (at least at the beginning). The professor was really nice--she always offered extra explanations and paraphrased difficult information. She wrote down all of the notes on the board, which was a really good visual learning aid for me. She got sick halfway through the semester, and I think that's why it was a little more disorganized than the first half. We had readings for most classes (not necessary to do, as her classroom notes were the tests) and did 3 groups talleres (in general, there is A LOT of group work in Chile). We had three tests, one final test, and a pretty big final project. The last test/final exam/final project is where things got frustrating. All of them were on (or due on) the same day. It was a lot. She gave us no study guide for (and didn't even say anything about) the final test and final exam. We were blinding trying to memorize months' worth of notes while also trying to finish the final project. The night before all of this was due, the professor sent out an email saying that we would take a vote to see if we could change the date of the exam for the next week. We all emailed our votes... and she didn't email back for five hours. (In the meantime, we didn't know whether to keep cramming our not.) For me, the worst part was when we turned in the huge final project. The TAs looked to make sure we had completed it, then gave us a perfect score. Basically, we could have written down anything and it wouldn't have mattered. Positives: The professor is really nice. I feel like I learned a lot of useful information. |
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