Hey Hair, all well here in Madrid, thanks for asking

I have no first-hand info on SLU Madrid, I only know what I have read on this board so I can not give a fair opinion.

quote:

I'm not so sure Madrid is for me. Wouldn't it be difficult to study with all the noise?

Madrid is very big and there are many neighborhoods. Yes, I would say that studying could be difficult if you live on Calle Huertas (one of the bigger party streets in the city) facing the street but there are many reidential neighborhoods in Madrid as well that are mellow and very conducive to studying. There are also many libraries that one can escape to if they find their home atmosphere is messing with their study habbits.

You will find MEGA partying in Sevilla and Granada (Granada has some of the BEST student nigthlife in Spain) as well as most other cities in Spain so the noise is relative.

You seem to want the beach so if that is a deciding factor in where you study then I agree that Madrid is not for you.

Saludos,
jer...

paul and sedusa: i was in the same program that paul was talking about, at the complu but my home university was SDSU. it still runs almost the exact same way that was described, except for some minor changes. i went during the academic 2001-2002 year, and compared to the other schools from other states we (CSU system) had the best deal money wise. in regards to the how difficult the classes are, i would say that they aren't the easiest, but probably could be harder. in comparison to the UC students we had much more on our plates. either way, it was a wonderful experience. we did have to take at least one "real" complu class during the year, and boy was that interesting. :lo: a very, very different way of conducting class. oh, one more thing-as a csu student, i was required to take 15 units each semester, everything transfers like home credit. but, fyi, if you are not at a CSU campus, or at one of the other schools that paul mentioned, there was a couple of girls who went to school on the east coast but somehow went through our program. not sure how it worked, but it is possible.

honning12, I'm sure you enjoyed your program as well as I did. I thought it was a great experience. When I returned, I finished my undergraduate program at SDSU, then went to New Mexico State University for my MBA.

I'm still in touch with quite a few of my fellow students, which after 15 years is pretty good. We had a great director named Lyman who still teaches PoliSci at CSU Dominguez Hills. Does Ricardo Abrantes still teach the "Spanish Paintings in the Prado" class? I have found his name on the Syracuse University in Spain website, but not anywhere else. He was fantastic also.

I'm glad that the CSU program is still reasonably-priced because it enables people from many economic backgrounds to participate. I know that on our program, the students who really apprecitated the experience most were those who came from lower- and lower-middle class backgrounds. They never thought they would EVER be able to do something like attend school in another country for a year.

Two of my brothers studied in Florence through a private university; one studied there in 78-79 and the other in 80-81. They said that at the time, the program wasn't prohibitively expensive and that the participitants represented a fairly broad spectrum of society, as it did in my program. However, they have told me that the program has become so expensive that now only rich students can afford to attend.

I'm glad that the CSU program is still a good deal.

oh my god, abrantes!! i started cracking up when i saw his name! of course he's still there, and is one the wackiest but also one of the smartest teachers i have ever encountered. he would go on our weekend trips and explain the history and architecture, which was absolutely fascinating. it was great, because when he would come back from lunch quite happy :b: and would love talking to the ladies. i didn't take his class, but many of my friends did. they completely enjoyed it. i can't believe you remember him! :jeje:

ps. i completely agree about the price of the program-financial aid paid for the best year of my life (so far )

Ricardo Abrantes was great, a very intelligent and fun-loving guy. If I had to name the one person most instrumental in the development of my appreciation of Spain, its people and its culture, it would be Ricardo.

We threw parties at our piso when we were too poor to go out on the town, and he would come over and be the life of the party, singing and dancing with all the ladies.

He led our field trips too. During our first month, he showed us around Toledo, Salamanca, and Segovia. In the spring we visited Ciudad Rodrigo, La Alberca, and Extremaduran towns like Plasencia.

I had tried to contact him before our trip last March by sending him a message via the Syracuse in Madrid program, but he probably never got it.

If we go to Spain next fall, I'll make a better effort to contact him, this time through the CSU office. Maybe I'll just get a class schedule and crash his class! :jeje:

paul, i tried to hunt down the phone number for the csu office in madrid, but wasn't able to find it. the woman who worked there, Valle, the director's assistant, would for sure contact him for you. she is a wonderful lady. i'll keep up on my quest to locate a number for you.

honning

Hi, I found the following on
http://www.madrid.org/universidades/cuadernillos/cursos_espannol.pdf

I know this is it because I remembered that the last four digits of the phone number was the same as for my grandma (again, I don't know why I remember minute details but forget my voicemail password).

PROGRAMAS INTERNACIONALES DE LA CALIFORNIA
STATE UNIVERSITY
...

Informaci�n:
California State University International Programs
400 Golden Shore, suite 300
Long Beach. California 90802-4275. Estados Unidos

Juan Carlos Gallego
California State University International Programs
Universidad Complutense de Madrid
Facultad de Filosof�a. Edificio B
28040 Madrid. Espa�a
Tel�fono: (+34) 91 549 44 86
Fax: (+34) 91 549 44 86


(Isn't the office in Edificio A? It was when I was there. Phone number is the same, though.)

For more information on SLU Madrid try
http://spain.slu.edu/
I studied for a semester at the SLU Madrid campus and I have a mixed review of the program. I attend SLU here in the states and it is wonderful! The Madrid campus is just "different" The Morman couple who run the show is simply bizarre!!! I managed to butt heads with the misses more than once. The students usually fall into one of two categories: upper-middle class white college student (usually from another Jesuit univeresity) or SUPER SUPER rich European or African college student (and yes they will skip a week of class for Fashion Week in Paris or London). Making lifelong friends is no problem to say the least!! The coursework is truly what you make of it. I am majoring in physical therapy, so I was required to take physics. Don't do that, in fact avoid thier science courses like the plauge. I did take a theology course, "Judaism in Spain" and an upper level philosophy course as well and I found both to be challenging and rewarding. Even with these 400 level lectures I still found plenty of time to enjoy the social scene :cheers: You could fill your semester with Spanish dance, art history, flim 101... and pretty much neglect your books all together The facilities are small and leave a lot to be desired, but Fr. Lawerence Biondi, President of SLU, was on a radio program here in STL just weeks ago promoting the improvements being made there. Bottomline, SLU Madrid introduced me to the coolest city in the world. :cheers:

paul, it is now in edificio B. not sure when it moved, but now exchange students can be found taking over both buildings i guess gallego is the new director-thank god, because mine was a lunatic. hopefully Valle still works there, i know she'd help.

honning

We were lucky because our program director was fantastic. I have heard the one before ours was a "borracho" and the one after was a "viejo verde".

originally posted by Rocinante:

quote:

I am an M.A. graduate of St. Louis University and took an M.A. course at the Madrid Campus the summer of 1999.

Hey there, Rocinante. I am a Georgetown MA student interested in taking a grad course with SLU this summer and have a LOT of questions about it. To start, are these classes in Spanish? And, how many credits do they grant? How much are summer courses? I have gotten in touch with them, but have not gotten any materials yet.

I went to SLU in madrid from May 02-Dec 02. And I have to say it is like any school, some good things some bad things. Most have been covered so I won't bore you with them.

But what I can say is I did enjoy it, the class work was difficult when i took a class by the head of the school Chaney, and the other ones were easy, yet still stimulated my mind. The reason it did was because there were so many people from such different countries, rich or not, their opinions made classes interesting.

I loved being mixed in with people from all over and it gave me a different point of view on a lot of things. And it also made me so proud to be an American....hell in my politics class I even defended Clinton!!! YIKES!!

ANyways whatever you do, you'll love it!

Kyle

I was at SLU in 1997 and I also had a horrible experience. Unless you're a member of the majority, which is upper middle class anglo students, you're going to experience discrimination. I'm not surprised that you loved it kmoore. I'm black so I had people calling me the "N" word and monkey quite a few times. I'm won't sugarcoat my experience, discrimination is alive and well in certain places. Not only that I had people trying to fight with me so it reached a point to where I just packed up and left. The administration did absolutely nothing and it was clear that people of color aren't welcome. I tell it like it is.

Hi Puff Daddy (or should I say Puff Diddy )

Welcome to the board amigo

Thanks for your opinion of/feedback on SLU.

Saludos,
jer...

p.d. I edited the quote from Kyle out of yours because his came right before yours so no need to quote him. Hope you don't mind.

Whats up, Jer? I go by either Mr. Combs, Puff, Diddy, PDiddy, or Puff Daddy.

No, I don't mind if you edit my message. This is my first time posting so I'm not familiar with these boards.