Study Abroad to Costa Rica was amazing!!! Past Review
By Erin O (Photography, Middle Tennessee State University) for
ISA Study Abroad in San José, Costa Rica
I learned to let go of the stress and live life more carefree and happily. I also built wonderful friendships and learned to enjoy the little things in life. It was relaxing and though my spanish skills didn't improve quite as much as I wanted, I still overcame my fear of speaking the language with others on a regular basis.
Personal Information
| If you took classes at multiple universities, list those universities here: | Veritas |
| How much international exposure did you have prior to this program? | 0-2 weeks |
Review Your Program
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* Overall educational experience
Academic rigor, intensity, resources, etc. |
The coursework was fairly easy and the teachers were absolutely wonderful! I loved the school and the coursework! The class sizes were fairly small and the teachers were really nice and down to earth. |
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* Host Country Program Administration
On-site administration of your program |
My home institute was helpful in giving me information as well as getting my transcripts squared away as soon as they came back. I was actually very impressed by them. |
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* Housing:
How satisfied were you with your living arrangements? |
The proximity to class was amazing and living with a family was helpful for improving my language skills, however my living situation varied greatly from that of the many other american students living in Costa Rica and signed up through the same program. |
| * Food: |
I'm a vegetarian and my family was great at accommadating my meals. I never got sick of eating beans and rice and I loved the fresh fruits for breakfast! |
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* Social & Cultural Integration:
How integrated did you feel with the local culture? |
I loved the field trips to Monteverde, Areanal and Guanacaste that were included with ISA! The hotels were wonderful and the trips were tons of fun. My favorite experience however was going to Puerto Viejo with a group of students from the school and my last weekend we arranged a trip through the school to go to Panama, which was by far the best experience I had! |
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* Health Care:
How well were health issues addressed during the program? |
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| * Safety: |
I felt like there was way more scare then necessary before my departure to Costa Rica. Though I was definitely aware of the dangers I spent the first few weeks more paranoid then necessary that something terrible would happen. |
| 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 |
| Language acquisition improvement? |
I spoke spanish with my family and most everyone in the stores and everywhere I would go on a daily basis. I tried hard to practice with my roommates, but when living with 3 other U.S. students it made it difficult at times. Also, the school had tons of international students from the states and kept most of us in another part of the school so it was so easy to slip back to speaking english with one another instead of spanish. |
| If applicable, to what degree did your living situation aid your language acquisition? |
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Other Program Information
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* Who did you live with?
Select all that apply |
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A Look Back
| * What do you know now that you wish you knew before going on this program? | I definitely encourage anyone to try a study abroad experience! Costa Rica is one of the most beautiful countries I've ever been to and the people and their way of life is simply wonderful! This experience definitely changed my life! |
