IES Barcelona

Barcelona is amazing, the program, though is a bit eh. Because it has no language requirement it attracts a lot of people who just come to Barcelona to party and have no real desire to understand or get to know the culture. One month in someone in one of my classes said she had not met a single spanish person there. A lot of the people in the program come from 4 or 5 schools so a lot of people know eachother beforehand and come together to party and are not really interested in meeting new people. If you are not an independent and friendly person who is able to make friends easily, this program is probably not for you. The classes, I thought were pretty good. Not the most challenging, but a happy balance so you are able to enjoy the city. People did complain about the workload A LOT, which was annoying... I begin to question what type of school they go to. If you want to hang out with a bunch of Americans this program is for you, but if you are truly interested in learning the spanish culture and people it is not. But then again, it really is what you make out of it and if you are just looking at the academic side of things, it is a good program.

I thought that the IES Barcelona program was organized really well, it was just the students that chose to go there that made it difficult. Barcelona, to the average tourist and rich American, is a very huge metropolitan city where a majority of the things there are extremely expensive. To the avid cultural traveler or student who truly wants to learn about Catalunya and its culture, IES Barcelona is everything but that. I lived with a host family, and was totally immersed in the culture. It was when I was forced to hang out with the rest of the IES students that I found I was isolated from everything else. Academic-wise, the classes at the IES Center were not terribly difficult, but many students complained about having to write papers (turns out they should probably go to a real college). I took a class at Universitat de Barcelona and thought the experience in a Spanish university was worth more than what I learned.

- Study abroad is a great experience.
- All should study abroad if possible. However not necessarily this program. The administration didn't handle things very well and the classes were too easy. I loved Barcelona but not this program particularly.

IES Barcelona caters to rich kids who want to get drunk all the time. It is the worst program. I complained about my housing several times and they did nothing (I would have to rate my housing -1,000,000 if possible). In addition, the center's facility were awful, never any working printers or internet. Do not give IES your money!

The program should have had more cultural exposure. If you can live in a dorm (with Spanish students) you get a much fuller experience.