Anonymous wrote:I'd be worried that my kid would refuse to come back.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a freshman? Seems like odd timing. When I was in college, most people studied abroad junior year. Maybe it has to do with how the curriculum is structured in your child’s major?

I loved studying abroad and the city of Madrid and wouldn’t rule it out without strong consideration, especially since the tuition is the same.

"First semester freshman year abroad" is a thing a lot of schools are doing and I think it's to ease their freshman housing problems more than to benefit the students.

Anonymous wrote:Kid received an offer to spend the Fall semester at CWRU in Madrid, before the Spring Semester at CWRU in Cleveland. The offer comes with merit scholarship for 8 semesters. All tuition and room & board pay to CWRU like usual, with the travel expenses to and from Madrid being the extra. Anyone has any experience in this?

TheSpanishDoctor wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'd be worried that my kid would refuse to come back.

A classmate in college mentioned somewhat apologetically that she might look a bit older than the rest of us. It was her second time in undergrad. The first time she went off to Paris for study abroad—single—and came back six years later divorced.

Anonymous wrote:Kid received an offer to spend the Fall semester at CWRU in Madrid, before the Spring Semester at CWRU in Cleveland. The offer comes with merit scholarship for 8 semesters. All tuition and room & board pay to CWRU like usual, with the travel expenses to and from Madrid being the extra. Anyone has any experience in this?

Anonymous wrote:I have a relative who did first semester in Spain with a different school not knowing Spanish and they had a good experience— used it as a base for visiting all over Europe too (low cost airlines mean for $50 you can fly lots of places for the weekend and find a fun hostel)

I actually think it might be good timing for pre-med (if you want a semester abroad) because by junior year it may be difficult to go away and still meet all your requirements?

Anonymous wrote:My son is a first year at CWRU and he did not do his first semester in Madrid, I’m in a group with other first year parents, a few of whom had children participate in this program. This was the first year for the program so while there were some kinks to work out, most of the parents said their children enjoyed the experience. I think there were about 25 CWRU students this past fall.

However, there is one (annoyingly) vocal parent who has done nothing but complain about the program. Her child is premed and she says they are essentially behind a semester with the premed requirements because none is the Madrid classes count toward the premed requirements. I wouldn’t have expected those classes to count towards the premed requirements but who knows what she was told. She also complained about the food and the fact that her daughter didn’t have access to a kitchen to cook her own food.

I do take everything she says with a grain of salt but just wanted to put that out there. All of the other Madrid parents have been lovely.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a freshman? Seems like odd timing. When I was in college, most people studied abroad junior year. Maybe it has to do with how the curriculum is structured in your child’s major?

I loved studying abroad and the city of Madrid and wouldn’t rule it out without strong consideration, especially since the tuition is the same.

"First semester freshman year abroad" is a thing a lot of schools are doing and I think it's to ease their freshman housing problems more than to benefit the students.

Anonymous wrote:I think this is really kid dependent. Yours has plenty of great options, including this offer from CWRU. I wouldn’t automatically rule it out. How does your child feel about the possibility?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a relative who did first semester in Spain with a different school not knowing Spanish and they had a good experience— used it as a base for visiting all over Europe too (low cost airlines mean for $50 you can fly lots of places for the weekend and find a fun hostel)

I actually think it might be good timing for pre-med (if you want a semester abroad) because by junior year it may be difficult to go away and still meet all your requirements?

Actually the opposite for a pre-med bio major. The most important years are freshman and sophomore because those are the years you take the pre-med classes.
You actually get more liberty the final two years.

I would never do this (Madrid) as a pre-med major. People are talking about travel and fun and all that comes along with doing a semester abroad.
Pre-meds that are successful at matriculating to medical school (because statistically the vast majority are not) really have to put their nose to the grindstone out-of-the-gate freshman year. Sure, there are non-traditional students who decided junior year to go to medical school after studying French or modern dance but that is not most kids. If you want to go to medical school, you have to really, really focus on grades from the beginning of college. There is not much grace and your fellow students will be focusing on one thing: grades and medical school. Not finding the best night club and museum in Madrid and catching the next train to Barcelona.

This kids' peers (and eventual competition for getting into medical school from his undergrad class) at CWRU will be putting their noses down to the grindstone. I went to Case. It is a serious pre-med culture.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a relative who did first semester in Spain with a different school not knowing Spanish and they had a good experience— used it as a base for visiting all over Europe too (low cost airlines mean for $50 you can fly lots of places for the weekend and find a fun hostel)

I actually think it might be good timing for pre-med (if you want a semester abroad) because by junior year it may be difficult to go away and still meet all your requirements?

Actually the opposite for a pre-med bio major. The most important years are freshman and sophomore because those are the years you take the pre-med classes.
You actually get more liberty the final two years.

I would never do this (Madrid) as a pre-med major. People are talking about travel and fun and all that comes along with doing a semester abroad.
Pre-meds that are successful at matriculating to medical school (because statistically the vast majority are not) really have to put their nose to the grindstone out-of-the-gate freshman year. Sure, there are non-traditional students who decided junior year to go to medical school after studying French or modern dance but that is not most kids. If you want to go to medical school, you have to really, really focus on grades from the beginning of college. There is not much grace and your fellow students will be focusing on one thing: grades and medical school. Not finding the best night club and museum in Madrid and catching the next train to Barcelona.

This kids' peers (and eventual competition for getting into medical school from his undergrad class) at CWRU will be putting their noses down to the grindstone. I went to Case. It is a serious pre-med culture.