Council Travel USA, part of CIEE Reviews

I am very satisfied with my experience teaching abroad through CIEE. The program helped with everything from the TEFL course, obtaining a visa, employment, airport pick up, housing for the first couple weeks, Chilean ID, health insurance - basically all of the bureaucracy and logistical stuff that does not come naturally to me and really stresses me out!

I have never taken an online course and I was hesitant about it at first but CIEE does a really good job of covering everything you might need to feel confident in your first English teaching experience. The tutor was very responsive and supportive, and the course provides you with access to many helpful and up to date resources.

They were even super understanding and helpful when I had issues with my TEFL course and obtaining my visa.

They do an extraordinary job of helping find us wonderful staff and being very supportive to both the camp and the counselors.

CIEE has been amazing!! From the very beginning and throughout my entire experience living and working in Chile, I having recieved so much support from CIEE. Being in a new country and navigating the cultural and language differences can be challenging, however, CIEE and their travel advisors have been such a delight to work with. I know that any of my questions or concerns will be happily answered. I have been well prepared for my travels abroad and have ample resources through my advisor and fellow participants in this adventure! Definitely recommend this company!

I am an LC with CIEE, they are amazing to volunteer with. They have such amazing support. I love the support they have provided me. I would highly recommend CIEE

Terrible. Just a nightmare. Cancelled my program for no reason. Very rude and ignorant people. Especially Anna Galendukova. Must be fired. I encourage you NEVER deal with these people.

I believe in international education, but I would not recommend the CIEE high school summer abroad program. I had a very negative experience with the CIEE 2017 high school summer abroad program in Spain regarding their treatment of my child and several other students. I was dismayed by the condescending and unhelpful communication from high school support team staff based in Portland, ME. For those considering this program, please ask hard questions that go beyond the glossy webpage, rosy reviews, and the lure of scholarship opportunities. Ask for full names and complete contact information for local staff. Test out the 24/7 emergency number during evening hours to find out if you are connected to a live person or an automated message. Ask for names and contact info of other participants and their parents in case of emergency. Ask if your child will be sharing a room with another exchange student. Ask if they will be sharing a place with many exchange students. There are many different study abroad opportunities for high school students.

I've been working at CIEE for the past 2 years and am impressed on a daily basis by my colleagues' excellence in supporting student learning, growth and safety.

Anna Kalendukova is a very rude, terrible person. She has a little man syndrome. Cancelled my program and insurance because I didn t want to work for free as a slave and decided to find another job! What did I pay you thousands of dollars for??? Never deal with this sham organization.

This company must be closed down! They re nice to you in the beginning because they want your money. But when they snatch your hard earned dollars they become rude and nasty. They put me in a very terrible situation when they canceled my program just on the 5th day because I was humiliated at my trashy job and couldn t take it anymore. Stay away from them!

This program is a GREAT way to work/travel abroad! I just got back from 6 month working as a language assistant in Madrid, Spain and couldn't speak higher of my experience. CIEE helped with all the paperwork (which was AMAZING, especially for the documents in Spanish), orientation to living in a new country, and just overall making the transition really easy. 10/10 would recommend! Already dreaming of my next trip... :)

It s just a group of crooks. They take your money and then cancel your program. Disgusting company.

CIEE is a great program. For those who are wanting to go teach abroad or even study abroad, this is the program to go through. I knew I really wanted to go teach abroad somewhere in South America and I was lucky enough to stumble upon the CIEE teach in Chile program. They have been so helpful and have provided so much in country support, that you really feel like you're not completely alone in a foreign country. There is always someone there when you need them and they are always there to help and provide you with assistance. They always answer any of your questions to the best of their ability. CIEE really has provided me with a wonderful experience so far!

My time in Chile has been nothing but enjoyable. The transition from the US to Chile was very easy with the help of CIEE. They prepared us before and after arrival with cultural lessons and information sessions to help as acclimate to the new culture and lifestyle. We have two coordinators, one in the US and one in Chile. Our US coordinator was so helpful leading up to our departure. With weekly email check ins and helping us stay on top of deadlines for visa applications and vaccines, she made the process so easy and smooth. Our coordinator in Chile was extremely helpful when it came time to get Chilean ID cards, phone plans and bank accounts. She is always available for any questions we may have and checks in just to make sure we are doing well. It's definitely nice knowing we have a familiar face to turn to if we have any questions. I m so happy I decided to work with this company, I cannot recomend it enough!

Currently solving tough issues with that org, as they just suddenly want to cancel our contract without any reason. Local coordinators (like a guy called Matt, for example), complains about communication issues, while he never picks up phones when trying to reach him. We had really bad experience with the current host family (they run that like a business hostel!), we had acceptance from another family to take over, but suddenly CIEE decided to quit the contract. We will fight that. My advise: do not trust into CIEE, find another org, there are plenty. And most important: CIEE's company guideline seriously is: "we do not talk to parents" (original quote from a guys called Mat and Keith!!!!!). More reviews and status updates to follow here, so stay tuned! Again, NEVER sign a contract with these guys!

I must say I've thoroughly enjoyed my time in Chile and CIEE has been extremely helpful in all situations. CIEE gives you the assistance needed to help succeed in both your job and daily life. They provide you with a TEFL course if you don't have your certificate and are very supportive throughout the entire visa process (which can be a real pain). When you get down to Chile, there is a week of orientation that is very valuable. You learn about Chilean culture, see some of the city, and go over what it's like to teach at DUOC. However, CIEE is not there to hold your hand through every small step of your process. I appreciated that and know that if I ever did have a problem, CIEE was there to help. Santiago is a wonderful city with tons to do and see. While CIEE doesn't place you in a home/apartment, they do give you the tools you need to find one that fits your lifestyle. Like I previously mentioned, CIEE is never overbearing but do reach out from time to time to ensure all is well and that there aren't any issues. Finally, they provide insuranace which was cruical to me. All in all, I'd suggest CIEE to anyone interested in teaching abroad!

Don t trust the flow of 5 star reviews, they re paid. I discourage anyone dealing with this sham organization. They get you money, then you never hear from them and they gonna cancel your program and visa at anytime without a single reason. STAY AWAY!

I have only had the best experience with CIEE. I have taken multiple courses with them and an currently on the Teach in Madrid Spain experience and couldn't be happier with my time here. CIEE is always there when and if I need them. Everyone is so friendly and willing to help! Thank you so much for everything and I can't wait to renew!

don not consider CIEE! I'm a student at that program, and 2 days before Semester end I have received a call that my contract has been cancelled as to the fact of lack of communications. Seriously???? When trying to reach CIEE or the local agents it's almost impossible to get through...and now they complain about lack of communications? Very disappointed, it leaves me with a lot of troubles now to pack things within 2 days and move out....unbelievable! Never again!!

I love CIEE! They were flexible with me throughout the entire process and incredibly helpful with pre-departure tasks and anxieties. I am conducting research on women's soccer here in Chile and they were great about catering the program to my needs. They communicated and responded within hours or days. I am an organized person and I am not sure if I could have maneuvered all of the logistics without CIEE. Originally I planned to move abroad without a program but maneuvering the job market in a foreign country and a foreign language, getting a visa, not having an emergency contact, getting health insurance, getting travel insurance, all ended up being too much and CIEE swooped in and saved the day!

With that said, I did not find TEFL very interesting. It felt very tedious with a lot of unnecessary busy work. I felt it was overpriced and the gist of the material could be covered in half the hours necessary.

I would improve the hosted during orientation week. I wish we would have been notified of the start of orientation earlier. I wish there were more scholarship opportunities. I wish there were more treacher training in the beginning orientation week. And Lastly I wish there was an option to test out of the TEFL course if we have teaching experience.

I just spoke to the CIEE customer assistance and I have to say - Best experience I've ever had. These processes can be quite overwhelming so it was refreshing to have someone walk me through the process step by step thoroughly and patiently.

To the support person that helped me - hope you get a raise! You were wonderful and made me feel so at ease about the steps of this process. 5 stars across the board.

I am glad to hear from other students, parents and educators that they are disappointed with this" scam" organization and do not recommend the CIEE TO their students, the schools and board of education . I only heard bad things about the CIEE high school abroad program in Europe. Please note you have better schools in Europe ,. If you go to France, we have Alliance francaise and other schools accredited by Europe and the United States. .. do not trust them. my colleagues and the board of education will not recommend this scam!! it is expensive and you do not learn a lot. ONe star is nice!!! save your money you can find better schools in Europe.. parents are powerless and are angry with this organization!! . Save money.. it is a scam!!

I'm deaf.
My opinion about the Camp Summer program, despite the fact that the CIEE will not help not at all. Since I even started working on the camp, but I can not work hard. I want to transfer, CIEE rejects my offers and goes home simply. Very ugly from their side at CIEE!
From my point of view, I was right, CIEE have mistaken this very bad thing, very crazy. I'm no trust in the CIEE will not help anything. My professors from faculty and my friends they told me that they errors from CIEE.
I want to tell your all that I do not recommend CIEE because they have done bad and they're have wrong.

Terrible program. I am a 14 year old girl from Ukraine and my family was supposed to be traveling a lot especially this year, so me and parents decided to send me to USA to study. Plus I could improve my English. The idea is to live with a native English speaking family. Once I arrived to Los Angeles (where my host family is located) I pretty soon learned that my host dad and my host mom, who are native speakers would not want to socialize at all (guess I was an incoming source of money for them) the host grand mother only spoke Spanish. And in a few days I found out that there are 4 more men (who are not part of the family, they are renting a room except one of them was also one of the exchange students) once my parents found out about that they demanded CIEE to change a host family. Later they found out that CIEE was never awear of those additional household members. So it turns out that they didn t even come there to meet a host family or to see in which conditions I would live in. The room I was staying in wasn t even located in the house it reminded me more of a garage or a storage room as it was outside and didn t have a window. The toilet and shower was in the room but it was separated with a piece of material from where I actually was sleeping. Not to mention the cockroaches and other bags that are falling out of shower every day. There was more drama going on between my parents and CIEE. And for this 5 month I was already there I only saw my host dad in the mornings when he was driving me to school, I have seen my host mother only 2-3 times a week. CIEE kept calling me in the middle of a school day. My parents told me not to answer them as they wanted to speak with them directly. CIEE kept to ignore my dads calls and emails and everything they wanted to discuss they discussed it through me. I had to focus on school as it was the final week. And here CIEE are calling me 4 days before I was supposed to go back home (we bought tickets for both ways). So they called me and decided to cancel a program with me as they said of miscommunications. Now I am not able to go to school as my parents are moving from Singapore to Vienna. And international schools are packed and local once won t take me as I do not speak any German at all. One thing what I did not mention that while I was there I had problems with eating disorder(anorexia). I am 1.73cm and my normal weight was 49kg while I was there my weight became 43kg. Overall it was a bad experience and I do not recommend CIEE for you as they can cancel any time they want.

It has been one month since I have moved to Budapest through CIEE Teach Abroad! Teaching abroad has always been a dream of mine, and CIEE helped make it a reality. Katy made the application and hiring process very easy! She sent us our important documents (such as visas, housing info, etc.) early so that we were able to prepare. I had many questions before moving to Budapest, and Katy was very timely with her responses leading up to the departure. She was also there to meet us at the airport when we arrived and helped move us into our temporary accommodation. Having an expert around for the first weekend was extremely helpful! The in-country staff have also been great. They are always there if we need anything and keep us updated on events happening around Budapest. Despite this being the first time that CIEE has run a teach abroad program through Hungary, the overall process has run fairly smoothly. I look forward to the remainder of my year in Budapest!

The Visit in NY with my organization and my local coordinator were great, but that's all what was great about this organization. At least I had a wonderful year with my friends and host family in my little town! Go for another organization if you need support during the year, if you're a very independent person it's ok! Just a little example of that, I asked for some kind of check and the person who I called for support said they'd call me back to double check everything, but they didn't... (that's kind of how they did it all the time).

I am currently participating in the CIEE Teach in Thailand Program. Coming to Thailand to teach is one of the best decisions I've made! It's an incredible opportunity to get out of your comfort zone, experience an entirely different culture, learn about yourself and the world, and make a positive impact. And you get to do it in such a beautiful country with the friendliest local people!

CIEE makes the process of teaching here so much easier than trying to do it on your own as they provide step by step guides and lists of everything you will need. They're also always willing to help, you just have to send them a quick email. There is an orientation when you arrive in Thailand to help you prepare for your journey as well as an opportunity to makes friends with others who will be teaching throughout the country. I cannot recommend this program enough!

I was mistreated and unpaid at my job and I decided to leave it. These people didn t want to listen to me and just cancelled my program and insurance. Very disappointing.

I am currently teaching in South Korea through CIEE's Teach in Korea program. I absolutely love this program and have been nothing but happy throughout my experience so far. The program staff is extremely helpful with any and all questions! They have been a huge help throughout the entire process. I love the school I am working for and I am so thankful for CIEE for helping me thus far on this journey!

Thus far, I cannot speak highly enough about my experience in Chile. With the help of Katy, Camila and the CIEE team, I feel confident in making Santiago my new home for the next 10 months. Katy and Camila alike were incredibly helpful throughout my very messy visa experience and supported me every step of the way until it was finally approved (the day prior to my departure). Overall, I feel as though CIEE set me up for success in my present career opportunity teaching English at DUOC. DUOC is a wonderful institution filled with a myriad of diverse students, welcoming staff members, and rigorous academic material. In the states, I am a teacher so I feel as though this experience will be very rewarding for me in having experience with teaching ENL students. Additionally, this experience provides you with innumerable contacts, resources, and colleagues that help you every step of the way. I am very grateful for the experience and ecstatic to see the opportunities that lie ahead.

I am a mother of a 15 year old daughter, who was signed with CIEE. I encourage all the parents to think a million times before signing a contract with that program. I can not describe all the stress we and my child has been through while she was in USA. CIEE signed my daughter with a family who wasn t properly checked and later I learned from my daughter that her host family was put their spare rooms for rent. And the conditions for living do not meet the standard that were promised and that we paid for. I will not talk again about how stressful the whole experience was, all i want is to warn you about CIEE and how careless they are, so that your child will come back healthy both physically and mentally.
Please to those of you who are interested to learn about CIEE you can contact our family, we have all the chats with CIEE the conditions in which our daughter was living in, voice recording of how CIEE was talking to us (their clients) we would be glad to share all that information with you, so that you can decide if you really want to sign contract with this program which is a total SCAM.
P.S: Our daughter is 173cm and her weight is 49 kg she came back with an eating disorder and her weight was 42kg. School year wasn t finished as CIEE canceled contract with her due to our daughter not answering the phone (they were calling in the middle of her school day) and when she tried calling back they never replied. And half of the sum CIEE kept for themselves.

I worked with CIEE in teach as a professional in 2019 in Madrid, Spain and was blown away by the program and the support given. I highly recommend any program through this company!

For the Spring Semester of 2019, I taught English in Spain through CIEE and the first thing I want to say is that my experience was excellent! I enjoyed every minute of my first semester and actually reapplied to teach one more year. I was placed in Huelva, which is located in the south of Spain - Andalucia. I will be teaching one more year at the same school in Huelva. The support from CIEE from the very first step until the very last step was top notch! The team in Portland, especially Hilary, was also fast and informative. I wrote many blog posts for CIEE so I worked with her quite often and she was always pleasant and kind. For anyone interested in teaching abroad, I would highly recommend consider working with CIEE. It is a door-opening experience that anyone would enjoy!

LOVE CIEE!! I went through them to teach abroad in Chile, and they are SO helpful with everything. So thankful for their help! Definitely choose CIEE if you are trying to teach or work abroad. Worth every penny!