A good enough time Past Review

Academic rigor, intensity, resources, etc.

Far too rigorous for a summer program. First session was only 5 weeks but I was required to do a 40 page paper double spaced, and on average each Spanish Language course required between 2 and 3 hours of Spanish homework each night. Far too much work for someone if they were enrolled in language course and any additional course(s). Furthermore, grading is extremely harsh, where a 90 there is equivalent to a 100 in America. Works fine if that system is understood like within the country but when grades are being transferred to the United States, teachers do not account for the fact that this grade will not look impressive in the U.S. One teacher asked us which grading system was better, and we replied that both work well independently but trying to mix them results in a skewed representation of how the student actually performed, unfortunately in the negative direction. Would not recommend if courses will be factored into GPA at the home institution.

On-site administration of your program

Adequate, but the academics were completely unsatisfactory. Workload for summer classes was far too intensive, with up to 3 hours of hw a night for language courses. Furthermore, barely any classes stuck to their course descriptions or the syllabus.

How satisfied were you with your living arrangements?

I had a wonderful location but the housing coordinator Tito was absolutely awful. He was completely inflexible and more concerned about his personal relationships with the families than his professional one which often left the students with the short end of the stick. He did not address cleaning issues of the apartments (mine in particular was incredibly dirty upon arrival and I had to spend hours of my time cleaning it because Tito would not notify the landlords since he did not want to offend them). Very unapproachable and does not stick up for students. No one seemed to have good things to say about him.

How integrated did you feel with the local culture?

Too many Americans, but the surf course it the best cultural experience. Very few of the courses send students out in the area (during classtime) to integrate them into society and show them things from a local's ( the professor) point of view. Their advertisements show students at local market places and engaging... In reality this was not the experience facilitated by the program but rather by the individual students.

How well were health issues addressed during the program?

Attentive

Feels very safe. Small city, nice police officers, lots of good lighting.

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

Very well. Food is cheap and travel is too! Books are a little pricy but luckily many were left over in the apartments!

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

Very often depending on the class

Select all that apply

• Apartment

Select all that apply

• Americans

Select all that apply

• Americans

• location
• other students
• locals

• Grading procedure
• Amount of work
• HOUSING