Raise your strong Spanish language skills to new heights while immersing yourself in the developing Caribbean nation of the Dominican Republic. Along with Spanish language classes, learn about the evolution of society, culture, economics, and politics of Hispaniola and the greater Hispanic Caribbean through liberal arts courses, in Spanish. Courses are taken at CIEE Santiago and our partner school Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra (PUCMM). All courses are complemented with CIEE co-curricular activities and excursions beyond the city to enhance classroom learning and provide intercultural understanding.
Students must enroll in courses that provide a total of 15-18 credits. Full time students may take a maximum of 18 credits at Pontifícia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra (PUCMM), including a required advanced Spanish language course and PUCMM elective courses, as well as CIEE elective courses.
Academic Year: Late July-Mid July
Fall: Late July-Early September
Spring: Late February-Mid July
Refer to the program website for the specific dates, if available.
Founded in 1495 by 30 caballeros from Columbus’ early expeditions, Santiago is a growing, modern city with a population of more than 800,000. Despite its sprawling size, Santiago retains many small-town features. Traditional merchants ride burros loaded with baskets of goods and call out their wares in a musical chant. Street vendors balance large baskets of fruit and vegetables on their heads. People are friendly and crime is scarce. The people of Santiago like to play dominos, listen to merengue and bachata music, and talk about baseball.
Most PUCMM students specialize in a profession such as law, medicine, engineering, architecture, education, or business. Psychology and social communication are the only social science majors. Though PUCCM is the country’s premier private university, it has limited resources compared to most U.S. colleges and universities. U.S. students find striking differences between teaching goals and methods at PUCMM and their home schools. Teaching methods are less formal, employing a mix of tutorials, readings, discussions, reports, and tests, with more emphasis on memorization than analysis. Presentations are often researched and given by individual students or groups, not professors, which requires students to take more initiative for learning.
In order to comply with Penn State’s International Travel Policy, students interested in studying abroad in countries that Penn State has designated as “restricted” for travel, a petition for a waiver must be submitted. Once a petition is complete, and if the student is approved for study on the program in question, the student may be asked to meet with the Director of Education Abroad and the petition will be reviewed by the Penn State International Restricted Travel Committee (IRTC). The necessary petition will be included in the online application process for this program. To see if your program is taking place in a restricted travel country, please visit the Global Programs website.
Students who apply to this program are eligible for the following scholarships and grants:
To be considered, submit the CIEE Scholarships & Grants application within your CIEE program application. Learn more at the Scholarships & Grants section of CIEE's website.
| Term | Year | App Deadline | Decision Date | Start Date | End Date |
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| Spring | 2022 | 09/10/2021 ** | Rolling Admission | TBA | TBA |
| Fall | 2022 | 03/01/2022 | 03/11/2022 | TBA | TBA |
| Academic Year | 2022-2023 | 03/01/2022 | 03/11/2022 | TBA | TBA |
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** Indicates rolling admission application process. Students will be immediately notified of acceptance into this program and be able to complete post-decision materials prior to the term's application deadline. |
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Indicates that deadline has passed |
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