brígida la wea July 30, 2025
By A student (Anthropology, Wesleyan University) - abroad from 02/24/2025 to 07/15/2025 with
Middlebury Schools Abroad: Middlebury in Santiago
I reached pretty comfortable fluency in Spanish, came to know and love the culture and people of a new city, and had brand new educational and life experiences. It was awesome.
Personal Information
| How much international exposure did you have prior to this program? | 1 month - 6 months |
Review Your Program
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* Overall educational experience
Academic rigor, intensity, resources, etc. |
So much room for individuality of path while providing incredible support resources. Super helpful and friendly staff. The language immersion experience and host family experience were without compare. Its a study abroad experience for students who are serious about practicing their language skills and exploring a new city/region/country/world. |
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* Host Country Program Administration
On-site administration of your program |
Some of the friendliest and most helpful people out there. They worked so hard to make my time easier and more pleasant. |
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* Housing:
How satisfied were you with your living arrangements? |
The program really took into account what we requested and delivered a great experience with lovely families in great locations. |
| * Food: |
I'm picky and not a food person but the program and my host family always made sure that things worked out, and I'm very thankful for that. |
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* Social & Cultural Integration:
How integrated did you feel with the local culture? |
A few drunks didn't believe me that I wasn't Chilean. That felt nice. I also just always felt very welcomed, which helped. If you put effort into learning the culture and dialect its not too hard to feel at home. |
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* Health Care:
How well were health issues addressed during the program? |
My host family, and also the program, made my experience being very sick in my first week and a half in the country as easy as possible, sparing very little to accommodate me. |
| * Safety: |
It really depends on your risk tolerance but I felt totally fine there, even when I went out on a limb a few times and took unnecessary risks. Keep your wits about you, heed the advice of your host family and local friends, don't look oblivious while using your phone on the street, walk with confidence, and you'll be fine |
| 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) |
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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 pledged to only speak Spanish to program staff, local university staff, teachers, classmates, and everyone we interacted with in public life in the country during the program. It was a lot of immersive practice. |
| 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? | Fluent |
| 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 let people convince you to speak in english. If they only speak to you in english its probably just cause they want to practice; you should keep responding in spanish so you can both practice. Actively try to learn the local modismos (idioms), accent, curse words, etc.; its part of the experience in the country and will help you speak more fluently and naturally. It's also just fun. |
Other Program Information
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* Where did you live?
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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? |
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? | That I should've taken an easier course load and had more fun. Two fourth year classes as a sophomore, on top of a second year course, an independent research project, and the Middlebury specific classes, was a bit too much I think. Also, taking more classes in the same major in the same year would've let me spend more time with the same cohort of students and get to know them better than I did. |
