Hey everyone.

Thanks, Jer, for maintaining such a great site. I've been satisfying my hunger for info. on Spain by regularly reading the board for the past few months. Now I finally have a reason to post.

In about a week I'll be back in school in NJ after a two-year break (to move to San Francisco). I have a year left before I graduate with degrees in journalism and Spanish. I've decided to study in Spain during the summer and am opting out of my university's program, which only offers placement in Salamanca. Great city, I'm sure, but Madrid is where I want to be.

So I'm looking into Complutense or a smaller language school such as Don Quijote. I'm wondering if anyone from an American university has studied at a language school and how the process of transferring credits went. I already read a ton of threads on Complutense and the various language schools, but feel free to offer an opinion if you want.

BTW, I *love* volleyball and although I haven't played in a few years, I was pretty darn good.

Thanks for reading,
T.J.

Hi tj!
I've been looking into study abroad options in Spain as well and my school's options are not what I am interested in. However, at our school, we can do a program with different universities/ study abroad companies and have the transcripts sent to our school, and we will get credit. Now, you have to check it out with your school's study abroad advisers to see if this will work for you. A good website to check out is www.studyabroad.com. It will let you pick the cities you want to study in, the different programs offered, and all the info you ever wanted to know! So check it out! Hope this helps you!! Roxana

hi tj de nj, glad the site has helped you out and you finally decided to join.

also look forward to seeing you at v-ball this summer

well, as far as i know, just coming over on your own and doing a course at a private language school (like DQ, =elemadrid=, etc...), you will not get college credit for that.

if you want credits to transfer and count at your uni. back in nj, you will need to study abroad via a university study abroad program or similiar as mentioned by naci en madrid above.

i must also stress what naci en madrid said about credit transfering...

quote:

Now, you have to check it out with your school's study abroad advisers to see if this will work for you.

i also think you should choose a program offered by a different university (perhaps one that offers summer study at the complutense) and the most important thing to do is to check with your university and make sure the summer program you choose will get you transferable credits that can be used towards your degree at your current nj uni.

you can go about this 2 ways:

1) look into summer programs in madrid offered by other u.s. universities and then take the list to your uni. academic advisors and ask them which ones will have transferable credits.

2) go to the academic advisors first and ask them to giver you a list of summer programs in madrid offered by other u.s. universities that will have transferable credits.

saludos,
jer...

Thanks for the advice! I'm definitely planning on checking with my Spanish and Study Abroad departments (and re-checking, since everyone seems to have a different story in the uni administration). If the university is willing to work with language schools to award credit for classes, I'll probably go that route. I'm trying to create as economical a study-abroad program as possible and it seems designing my own via a language school (then finind my own accomodations and airfare) is by far the cheapest option, but we'll see...

naci en madrid said...

quote:

at our school, we can do a program with different universities/ study abroad companies and have the transcripts sent to our school, and we will get credit.

So by study abroad companies you mean taking classes at language schools like enforex or DQ would count for credit?

Thanks,
T.J.

By the different study abroad companies, I mean Academic Programs International, among other companies listed on www.studyabroad.com which my school accepts the transfer of units for. The programs are all different, but API for example has one fee and provides housing, some meals, laundry, mobile phone, excursions, orientations, cultural activities, airport reception, medical insurance, etc etc for the time that you are there. Different companies offer different services so you should do your research. My study abroad adviser recommended the website to me. Suerte! Roxana

hey tj de nj, i know you want to do the study abroad thing as cheaply as possible they (the u.s. university system) pretty much has you by the "cojones" on this one.

you may have your heart set on taking classes at a private spanish lang. school here to keep costs down but that will not get you college credit, it will only improve your spanish.

for example, if you go to the spain summer programs page of studyabroad.com at http://www.studyabroad.com/simplehtml/summhtml/head/Spain_suh.html and click the "Programs in Central Spain" link for madrid, you will see that most of those who offer programs are either...

1) u.s. universities (nyu, syracuse, b.u., suffolk, william& mary, u of miami, etc...)

2) study abroad organizations, many of which use the above mentioned universites for their academics and program their own cultural activities and excursions.

what do they all have in common? they are more expensive than just organizing a summer abroad on your own (studying at a private spanish lang. school, buying your own airline ticket and finding your own housing, etc...).

so, i think you will need to either...

1) ... set up the summer on your own and not count on college credit.

or

2) ... bite the bullet and do it via a u.s. university or other program that will get you college transferable credit.

saludos,
jer...

Hey,

Thanks for clarifying, Roxana and thanks for your input, jer. I've spent practically the whole weekend looking into programs through American universities, Spanish language schools, study abroad companies, et al. I've got a lot of info. to present to the Spanish department of my school and I'm confident I'll find the perfect program to fit my needs.

I'll fill you in on the program I choose once a decision has been made.

Gracias. Now I'll start jumping into other topics.

-T.J.

glad to help out

saludos,
jer...