A review on CISabroad - Summer in Costa Rica

Other Reviews on CISabroad - Summer in Costa Rica

• A-

  CISabroad - Summer in Costa Rica The staff at Veritas is amazing but getting to Costa Rica was a little nerveracking due to lack of information given.

  Reviewed by Erika Rau on August 07, 2012 .

  The people here are great! Food wise I recommend a donut filled with dulce de leche and gallo pinto :)

• A

  CISabroad - Summer in Costa Rica Panaderia

  Reviewed by Alexander Bill on August 12, 2012 .

  Find local bakeries and eat there as much as possible. Many Costa Rican prices are comparable to U.S. prices, except for the bakeries which are very inexpensive. Everything is fresh-made and delicious.

• B

  CISabroad - Summer in Costa Rica Studying in San Jose, Costa Rica

  Reviewed by Bridget Guiza on August 12, 2012 .

  I initially came for an internship but unfortunately the people in charge of setting me up with an internship failed at doing so by placing me in a fair trade business organization. I specifically asked for something in the environmental or geology fields and got business. The only other option for me after of week of wasting my time was to take an environmental science course. Since I had taken all of the environmental science courses offered at Veritas already at my home school, I decided to take one with field trips so I could get the most of my experience in Costa Rica. I find that there is a lack of transparency sometimes in communicating with staff of the program. I did everything I needed to do in advanced or on time so I could be placed in a successful program but despite that I wasn't placed in an internship that would benefit my career. This was very disappointing. I feel like a wasted a whole summer and a lot of money since I now to need to pay extra for switching programs. This experience turned into a vacation and I was expecting to gain work experience in my field.

• A-

  CISabroad - Summer in Costa Rica Good, but Disorganized

  Reviewed by Lisa Chung on August 16, 2012 .

  Ideally, the program includes magnificent excursions with comfortable methods of transportation, a modern university, good academic professors, and decent homestay assignments. The most important thing though is that students are mainly doing this for credits they need for their major or for their college requirements-and that is the area where CIS is shaky. My advisor didn't know the correct time classes were offered during the day, so I was told I was able to take Spanish for Health Professionals, and one or two electives. That's wrong. The time for the health professional classes overlapped with the time for the electives. And one of the electives wasn't even offered at Veritas--although I picked all these classes from a list given to me by CIS. It was very stressful to find that all out on the first day there after I had already gotten those classes preapproved by my university after a long arduous process, realizing I had to pick a new class which didn't even count for credits back home. If the advisors had just called Veritas and asked, all this would have been avoided. Also, filling out all the forms before traveling abroad (although necessary) was very disorganized. My on-site advisor couldn't even find the page online they kept telling us to go to..which only had like half the forms needed. So, if the program could just make just one webpage, or just one email, with links to every single form we need to fill out, with the deadline, that would smooth the process over a lot more, and I guarantee they'll have a lot less late forms. Also, I do NOT recommend this programs for those of you who are spanish majors and need to be fluent to graduate. This program is great for students learning spanish for the first time since high school, or for those who are maybe spanish minors, but at the school, you only speak English outside of class, since everyone else you see speaks English. And you're usually at the school for 6 or more hours a day, so most of the time you're speaking English. Also on the weekend long excursions its all English as well. And Spanish is only spoken in the home, which you won't be in that often because you'll most likely be out exploring the city with your English classmates or speaking English to your host sister who only wants to practice English. I was lucky and got an only Spanish speaking family, but it wouldn't be hard to ask if you could only speak spanish in the home because youre paying a lot of money to learn the language :) All in all, I don't want this review to scare people away from this program--I was able to see nearly the whole country from the excursions-I went bungee jumping, I swam under a waterfall, I went ziplining, I walked up a volcano, went to a five star hotspring resort and rode a waterslide that wouldn't be legal in the states, I learned how to surf and I got to see just about everything the beautiful country had to offer. The school was very modern and high tech due to the "art and design" part of the institution (and also had filtered water fillers).

• A

  CISabroad - Summer in Costa Rica Trip of a Lifetime

  Reviewed by Allison Semple on August 17, 2012 .

  This trip solidified my desire to immerse myself in the spanish language and culture.

• A

  CISabroad - Summer in Costa Rica Dropped in tico land with amazing people.

  Reviewed by Myra Maccombs on August 19, 2012 .

  I had the privilege of landing in Costa Rica with amazing roommates. We quickly became friends exploring the city and local beaches. The school, Veritas, is small but amazing and the classes are right on target with what you want. My spanish class was fantastic, I learned more in my 4 week class than I did in 3 years of high school spanish. My teachers were amazing. I would do it all again. There is so much to see in Costa Rica and so much to do.

• A-

  CISabroad - Summer in Costa Rica Different

  Reviewed by Jasmine Basham on August 28, 2012 .

  It was good experience. The country as beautiful. the touristic places were expensive yet beautiful. The people were helpful and my host mom was very nice and intelligent and passionate about religion and politics like I am