Studying Abroad in Spain
 

I'm a female sophomore in college and am wanting to studying abroad in Spain this coming spring. I was leaning towards either Madrid or Sevilla but I am open to hearing about other cities as well. My minor is Spanish and am really hoping to become fluent in the language after studying abroad, so I don't want to go to cities such as Barcelona that don't speak Spanish. I am also looking for lots of things to do and see during the day as well as a great nightlife, and good transportation so I can travel other parts of Europe as well. If anyone has any comments or personal experiences while in Spain it would be greatly appreciated! And please give details about the cities!

My daughter spent a semester in Madrid. Many US colleges have programs for Spain. They call it attending college, but you really don't. They have institutes and you get credit from a Spanish college, but don't really attend that college. Not sure what you are trying to do exactly.

DD's college expected her to attend the actual colleges and since in the US you take a broad range of classes (unlike Spain where you would only study your major at a specific college) it meant she had to attend two different colleges. Her major was chemical engineering so she went to Universidad Politecnica for that.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technic...sity_of_Madrid

For lit classes, she went to Complutense.

http://www.ucm.es/

You will need a student visa and proof of health insurance that will cover you in Spain. The semester started early Feb. and the finals were around late June.

My suggestion would be to consider a less touristed city. One hears a lot of English in Madrid, and while I'm sure you could learn Spanish fine there or in Sevilla, your chances of fuller immersion are better elsewhere.

Some univsersities do have small campuses of their own abroad. The Catalans also speak a clear and distinct Castilian. As noted above most programs are designed to give the student plenty of time to other things inclduing travel. Thus one consideration would be how easy and cheap it is to travel to other European cities.

Does your college offer multiple Spanish cities? Two others are Salamanca and Santiago, if allowed.

When my daughter studied abroad, she found programs varied quite a bit as to where the students studied, how much interaction there would be with European students, what the language requirements were, etc. Some programs placed students to stay with families, others had students living in apartments or dorms. Also, her college did not allow credits to be transferred to them from all programs, just ones they had pre-approved or had an existing exchange program with. Have you visited your college's study abroad office? They can likely put you in touch with other students who have studied in Spain so you can hear about their experiences.

>>>Some univsersities do have small campuses of their own abroad<<<

Exactly. Their own programs, not a Spanish university. All the students DD met while in Madrid from various US schools never set foot on campus of a Spanish U. Many were attending at a building run by Accent Intl. The classes were taught at a much slower pace than on an actual campus and they never interacted with Spanish students. If you click on Madrid and sponsoring schools, you will see at about a hundred schools listed from Duke to UNC. DD's school arranged housing through them, but required going to the real universities, not Accent. Very few of the schools listed on Accent's page actually have the students on campus. Accent arranges the housing also from homestays to apartments.

>>>As noted above most programs are designed to give the student plenty of time to other things inclduing travel.<<<

If you are attending an actual college, that is not the case. You are on the normal college schedule the same as all their other students and adhere to their breaks.

The cities that my college offers me to travel to are Barcelona, Bilbao, Granada, Madrid, Malaga, Salamanca, Santander, Sevilla, and Valencia. If anyone has any opinions about studying in these cities please let me know!

You don't say what your major is - only that Spanish is a minor. I would look into the schools in question to see what courses they offer that would be of interest - since I would want to be sure I could have all of my course credits count.

My major is Accounting