A great Icelandic experience if you make it that way! Past Review

Academic rigor, intensity, resources, etc.

The program's academic courses are a joke in comparison to the standard of rigor and quality in a Middlebury education. The hardest aspect of the classes is sitting through them because they would often take up an unreasonable amount of time in a day, especially considering how superficial they were. The program is very meaningful if you make it that way, though. What I learned was what I taught myself, which was a lot, traveling throughout Iceland and spending two weeks in Greenland. How else could one possibly go abroad in Iceland and spend this much time there for the price of tuition? A great educational experience if you make it that way, but don't rely on the classes to learn.

On-site administration of your program

Ok. Academic directors are very nice and reasonable people, though I don't understand how they thought many of the classes they organized were at all meaningful. I think they should have made more of an effort to make the experience more experiential and less classroom-based. Why else go abroad, if you are going to have us sit full days in classrooms with lecturers that don't even know why we are there? I think they should have spent more of our tuition money on traveling/adventures in Iceland.

How satisfied were you with your living arrangements?

Housing is mostly in hostels, which are reasonably comfortable. Be prepared to move around a lot, though.

Food is what you make for yourself (or the group). Icelandic dinning is very expensive, so be prepared to make what you can most of the time given hostel kitchen supplies and facilities.

How integrated did you feel with the local culture?

Homestay experience was great. I just wish the academic director made more of an effort to allow us to be more mobile during our independent study component. Not being allowed to drive is a major drawback.

How well were health issues addressed during the program?

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

During the beginning of the program they didn't given quite enough money for Icelandic priced food, but that was easily made up for with the stipend we received in the independent study, which was very generous and payed for more than enough.

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• Hostel

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• Americans

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• Americans

• Organized homestay
• Opportunity to live independently
• Opportunity to ski in Isafjordur

• less time in classes, and more time with real Icelandic experiences through adventure
• The program needs more of a focus, more depth and less breadth, to be meaningful. "Climate change" as a field of study is unreasonably broad. That could be approached with literally any academic discipline.

The Avid Adventurer