A lot of work, but I loved every minute of it. Please let me go back!!!! Past Review

Academic rigor, intensity, resources, etc.

This program was amazing, the best experience of my life, but it was not a vacation. We worked hard and long, and learned a ton of biology in the process.

On-site administration of your program

The behind-the-scenes administration were very organized and helpful. The responded to emails quickly and kindly, and did whatever they could to help us out when we needed it. The actual professors that we interacted with most of the time were amazing. Not only were they extremely knowledgeable about absolutely everything, but they took really good care of us as human beings and always made sure we were as sane and happy as possible.

How satisfied were you with your living arrangements?

It depended on the station. Most of them were fine, they had comfortable beds, relatively few bugs in the rooms (there are just a lot of bugs everywhere, if that is a deal breaker then turn back now!), and the bathrooms were surprisingly clean most of the time. Some of the stations had more biting insects than I was happy with, but overall no major complaints. We often had a common room too, which was a great place to hang out and get to know people.

We ate so much delicious fruit, it was magical! The general food pattern was: breakfast - gallo pinto (rice and beans), eggs, and fruit; lunch: a main dish, a salad, rice and beans, and fruit; dinner: a meat, a carbohydrate (rice, potatoes, etc.), a bean or bean-ish thing, a salad, and desert. They did a good job of adding enough variation to keep us from getting bored with the food (like the occasional pancakes and pasta), and everything was always yummy. I was worried that we were going to get tired of rice and beans, but I definitely never did! They were also really good about accommodating vegans and vegetarians.

How integrated did you feel with the local culture?

This is a biology program, so the primary focus of the experience is to learn biology. That being said, we did get to interact with locals on a fairly regular basis and in the three weeks spent in San Jose taking the Spanish classes we were completely immersed in the local culture. The homestays there were very special, most of us really liked our host families and they taught us how to function in Costa Rican society.

How well were health issues addressed during the program?

They did not jack around with our health! Any time they were remotely worried about anyone the professors would take them to the hospital almost immediately just to make sure they were all right. That being said, there were a few health issues you just had to live with. People got Traveler's Diarrhea on a pretty regular basis, which was uncomfortable but not unmanageable. There was also the occasional sprained ankle, scorpion bite, wasp sting, etc. that was just part of being outside so much. You have to get a few pretty standard vaccines (Hep A, B, and C, Tetanus, etc.) as well as a few more exotic ones, like Typhoid. I would not recommend getting the rabies shot, you don't need it at all and it is expensive. Malaria is up to you - we didn't need it for the actual program (I didn't get it), but there are some cool beach towns in the Malaria area where some people went for Spring Break.

Our professors knew their stuff, so I always felt very safe with them. That being said, you do spend a fair amount of time in a tropical rainforest, where there are just some natural hazards that you need to learn how to deal with (scorpions, spiders, snakes, etc.) The profs tell you everything you need to know when you get there, both for navigating the jungle and for navigating the cities later in the semester. We didn't have any problems in San Jose or any of the other urban areas, but like any big city, you have to be aware of your surroundings.

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

You spend most of your time at biological stations, where there is no place to spend money. Thus the only time I had to spend any money was when we were in San Jose and during Spring Break, and both of those you could spend a lot or save depending on your preference. We would go out to bars and movies and whatnot a few times a week in San Jose, so that cost us some. You are completely on your own for Spring Break, so make sure to budget for that. It is possible to have a cool spring break experience for reasonably cheap - I think ours was like $300/person for 2 weeks.

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

I didn't speak Spanish coming into this program, so I did everything possible to avoid speaking it when I could. Everyone in our program spoke English, so usually we didn't necessarily need to use Spanish on a daily basis. But when we were in San Jose, no one spoke English so we had to use Spanish all the time. But there were always people we could speak Spanish too if we wanted - the cooks, our professors, etc. - I just chose not too

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• Dorm
• Host Family

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• Americans
• International Students
• Host Family

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• Americans
• International Students

• Getting to be outside all the time
• Amazingly beautiful locations
• Great people, students and professors alike

• All of the due dates/tests happened at the same time

The Avid Adventurer