Abroad101: Study Abroad Reviews

My first time leaving North America September 08, 2025

By (Spanish, Middlebury College) - abroad from 08/26/2024 to 12/20/2024 with

Middlebury Schools Abroad: Middlebury in Yaoundé

What did you gain/learn from your experience abroad? Was it worthwhile?
I learned how to hail taxis, how to make peanut sauce, how to survive malaria, how to salute a traditional chief from the West of Cameroon, and all of it in French.

Personal Information

How much international exposure did you have prior to this program? 1 month - 6 months

Review Your Program

* Overall educational experience

Academic rigor, intensity, resources, etc.

* Host Country Program Administration

On-site administration of your program

* Housing:

How satisfied were you with your living arrangements?

* Food:

* Social & Cultural Integration:

How integrated did you feel with the local culture?

* Health Care:

How well were health issues addressed during the program?

I got malaria. The program prepared for this possibility and so I already had the contact of the program doctor and could very easily call in to get immediate and urgent recommendations for treatment. I was incredibly well cared for by my host family, who delivered my meals to my room, allowing me to remain in bed for almost three complete days.

* Safety:

It's safe if you know how to handle yourself and if you have a support network of people to accompany you in certain parts of town, or to tell you directly where not to go at certain times. You have to get used to a new standard of safety in order to thrive, but so long as you listen to your elders, your host family, the people paid to take care of you, you'll be fine.

If you could do it all over again would you choose the same program? Yes

The program was incredibly well structured, I had the good luck to get a cohort that I ended up getting along well with, the courses were all fascinating, and I never could have had such an experience if it were not with Middlebury, right now in this part of my life

Finances

* 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)

The exchange rate makes this program incredibly, incredibly affordable. A poor American can live as a king in Cameroon because every three of your dollars is equivalent to a meal in a great restaurant.

Not including program expenses, about how much money did you spend on food and other expenses each week? 20
Do you have any general money-saving tips for future study abroad participants? I would recommend coming to the country with several hundred dollars in cash, if not a thousand. It'll save you on ATM fees, and you can store the money in the program director's safe.

Language

* Did your program have a foreign language component? Yes
How much did the program encourage you to use the language?

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

We were very strict about the language pledge, even amongst the students.

How would you rate your language skills at the beginning of the program? Fluent
How would you rate your language skills at the end of the program? Fluent
What was the highest level language course you had completed prior to departure? Advanced
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? Talk to people all the time, make friends with the owners of the snack stands on the corner or the man who makes spaghetti omelettes next to the car wash, Hassan. Chat, chat, chat, and make lots of friends.

Direct Enrollment/Exchange

* Did you study abroad through an exchange program or did you directly enroll in the foreign university? Exchange

Other Program Information

* Where did you live?

Select all that apply

  • Host Family
* Who did you live with?

Select all that apply

  • Host Family
* Who did you take classes with?

Select all that apply

  • Local Students
  • Americans
  • International Students
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?
  • The structured and supported encounter with the other
  • The safety provided by the familial embrace of my host family, my fellow students, and even my professors
  • The immersion in a cultural and social context which has nothing in common with my own and about which everything is new to me
* What could be improved?
  • The medumba course's language aspect could be worked upon
* What do you know now that you wish you knew before going on this program? I wish I knew to bring cash rather than depending on the ATMs, I wish I had brought better gifts to hand out to a very great number of people (something useful yet cheap and portable, like playing cards or some kind of tool? maybe lighters?) (I had brought postcards, which are good but a little too sentimental and mostly useless), I wish I'd have packed more clothes I actually enjoyed rather than just sticking with the recommended program dress code

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 Nearly Native or Trail Blazer
Craving the most authentic experience possible, perhaps you lived with a host family or really got in good with the locals. You may have felt confined by your program requirements and group excursions. Instead, you'd have preferred to plan your own trips, even skipping class to conduct your own 'field work.'

Individual Course Reviews

Course Name/Rating:

Medumba Language and Interculturality
Course Department:
Instructor: Basile Betnga
Instruction Language: French/Medumba
Comments: We had frequent and enriching field trips. The cultural education aspect of the course was unique and perhaps one of the most interesting things I have ever learned in any class. I loved it. The language aspect of the course could use some development in my opinion, since there is not a textbook available.
Credit Transfer Issues:
Course Name/Rating:

Cameroonian Post Colonial Literature

Course Department:
Instructor: Ambroise Kom
Instruction Language: French
Comments: The professor is brilliant. The African intellectual has not been permitted to write their own history, and so they have turned to the novel to tell their history as it actually was, from their eyes. In that regard, this course was very important to my own coming to understand the Cameroonian reality.
Credit Transfer Issues:
Course Name/Rating:

Sociology of Organizations
Course Department: Sociology
Instructor: Claude Abé
Instruction Language: French
Comments: The professor is kind of crazy, and very intense. It was very interesting material, and I'm astonished I got a good grade for the format of the local university being so different.
Credit Transfer Issues:
Course Name/Rating:

Intercultural Theories
Course Department:
Instructor: Christiane Magnido
Instruction Language:
Comments: It was very enriching to be able to conceptualize my own study abroad experience in terms of the various anthropological theories we were presented with in this course. It made the whole messy thing easier to grasp and comprehend. It connected intimately to all of the program activities, such as the tour we did of the west and the coastal regions. The instructor has a very motherly presence, and the way she makes you feel seen as a student is very reassuring when you're so far from home and from the cultural environment you grew up in.
Credit Transfer Issues: