Vassar-Wesleyan in Madrid offers students the opportunity to advance their education in Spanish universities through a cross-cultural immersion experience. Our distinctive emphasis on courses with Spaniards (“direct enrollment” at Universidad Carlos III and Universidad Complutense in Madrid), on-site learning through program excursions, collaboration with Spanish undergraduate monitores, and home stays in central Madrid accelerates language learning, promotes a deeper understanding of Spanish-language and European cultures, and integrates students into Spanish life.
An educational experience based on total immersion in a foreign environment is as exciting and rewarding as it is challenging.
Our program enables students to explore Spanish university, family, and cultural life from the inside, with generous program subsidies and pointers for cultural activities (theater, music, dance, exhibitions, sports, etc.) and as much or as little structure as students need. Students learn to negotiate the glories and challenges of another culture, becoming more confident over the course of the program about their ability to adapt anywhere. As a result students routinely return from our program having had what they call a transformative experience, with a deeper understanding of themselves and of an endlessly fascinating way of life.
Besides Vassar and Wesleyan students, students from other US universities are welcome to apply. Recent program participants have come from Barnard, Brown, Bucknell, Columbia, and Harvard, among others.
Vassar-Wesleyan Program in Madrid 