Academic Year Study Abroad Programs in Rabat, Morocco

One of the best parts of my study abroad experience was my homestay. They made sure I had everything I needed and were committed to helping me learn Arabic. They would help me with my homework and provide me with different opportunities to practice my language skills at home.

My experience studying with IES Abroad in Rabat was truly life changing! The small and tightly-knit community that formed here amongst students, program staff, and faculty, as well as our loving and hospitable host families, contributed to a warm, inclusive, and welcoming environment. IES staff went above and beyond to ensure my classmates and I felt supported and safe, and enjoyed our experiences in Morocco. Navigating culture shock and language barriers became much more doable and fulfilling with the preparation IES gave us. Our classes were rigorous yet enjoyable, with many opportunities for students to expand their knowledge in fields of interest to them. Additionally, weekly cultural activities and field trips ensured that we saw many perspectives of life in our host country, while also becoming immersed in Moroccan culture. Without a doubt, I would recommend IES Rabat to any students looking for an immersive and exciting study abroad experience different from a typical exchange semester.

One of the best part of IES Abroad's program in Rabat, Morocco is how immersed you become in Morocco and its culture, even to the point where waiters will tell you in Darija that you're "100% Moroccan" by the end of your program! The courses in Modern Standard Arabic and Moroccan Arabic (Darija) induce an almost exponential growth in your language abilities, while our elective courses taught in French help you with the lingua franca of this linguistically diverse country. Then, the weekly cultural activities show you the diverse identities in Morocco such as the indigenous Amazigh nations and the Sahraoui peoples through food, dress, art, and music. Our field trips take you all over the country, and even to our Spanish neighbor to show you the expansive culture and influences of the Maghreb. Finally, I also had the amazing opportunity to intern with the Moroccan Fulbright Commission during my time in Morocco, where I got to develop my interests in international education and gain some priceless professional development and experience. Overall, I found myself fully entrenched in Morocco, especially while living with my loving host family for the entire year, and now I can confidently call Rabat my home away from home.

As an Arabic and French speaker, I firmly believe the significance and indispensability of cultural exchange. Being a Chinese provides me a different lens in observing from an “outsider’s” view toward the Islamic world fused with heterogeneity and diversity, either in terms of languages or cultures of social domains. My main objective is to uproot Eurocentric and essentialist viewpoint toward the Third World, Morocco in particular. Both language courses and area studies courses have equipped me with manifold lenses of experiencing and contemplating. Even general history courses of Africa and Morocco taught in French could be intriguing in its wide scope and focused attitude toward the inter-cultural and intra-cultural reflections. Doubtlessly, a year in Morocco has offered me a unique and wonderful time frames in shaping myself in perceiving the Islamicate arena at large. Languages are merely tools for their insights but worthwhile upholding the multilingual perspectives in delving deeper into the Arabs!

The only words to describe the experience was life changing. Incredible staff, interesting course topics, and an even better host family. Adjusting is a little challenging but so so worth it. As a woman I often felt safer in Rabat than in the US. I got very close to my host family, and the other students in the program become your extended family, too. One of the fondest memories of my life.

My time at IES Rabat was a quality experience, getting to live with a host family and enjoy the immersion into the culture. There was something highly rewarding about implementing my Arabic learning in a true environment. Though Rabat is at times not the most lively city, it was a good introductory city that was not very overwhelming, even given the cultural differences.

This past summer, I traveled with IES Abroad to Morocco for a seven-week intensive language program. Overall, the experience was terrific and I would highly recommend it. The biggest strength of this program is its cultural and linguistic immersion, with classes taught solely in the focus language and an important homestay and cultural activity component. Before departure, the information provided seemed a bit sparse, but upon arrival it became clear that things like homestay address were inherently difficult to provide - due to the simple reason that many of the program's homestays had no codified address. Upon arrival, the staff was very helpful with cultural integration and navigating the new locale. Academically, the language-intensive program was very beneficial. The Modern Standard professors were excellent at teaching Arabic to English-speaking learners. The homestay structure was incredibly useful for learning the language as well. Overall, I would highly recommend this program.

I loved this program, first and foremost because I absolutely loved my host family--they were so kind and welcoming, and they made this program for me. My host mother cooked delicious meals for us (my American roommate and me) and treated us like her own children. I loved hanging out with my little host brothers and meeting their friends. My host family brought us on outings to the beach and the medina (the old city) and the market, and we had movie nights together and ate dinner together every night. They included us in their holiday celebrations during Eid al-Fitr, which was an amazing experience. Living in Rabat turned out to be a wonderful experience, even if it's not the first typical destination you'd think of in Morocco--maybe that was why it was so great, it's not overrun by tourists. It's a fascinating mix of cultures--beautiful French architecture and restaurants leftover from the colonial era, and the medina and markets and Moroccan food--on the picturesque Atlantic coast. The city itself is a UNESCO World Heritage Site! AMIDEAST is the reason I was able to have this amazing experience, and they do a fantastic job at running this program. Doha, the program manager, has been doing this forever, and she is like a kindly aunt that everyone just loves. AMIDEAST staff are very flexible and available to listen & help with the slightest problem you might have--like planning a trip or finding cold medicine. They bring the students on several excursions to different Moroccan cities like Fes, Meknes, Tangier, Chefchaouen, and Marrakech; those trips are a lot of fun. AMIDEAST also offers great courses--a good variety of political science, Middle Eastern culture, history, women's studies, etc.--and their Arabic classes are fantastic. I loved my Arabic professor and my language skills improved an incredible amount during my semester in Morocco. All in all, a fantastic experience!

I spent the year with Amideast and couldn't be happier with my experience. The staff is incredibly helpful and knowledgeable with anything from helping you plan an awesome trip to the Sahara with your friends to finding you a doctor. I've studied abroad a few times and no one compares to Amideast when it comes to promoting cultural immersion and awareness. In addition to leading awesome cultural excursions and dialogues with Moroccan students, they also really encourage you to get out and explore Morocco on your own, something I didn't find to be true for many of Rabat's other programs. The courses were interesting, the professors were the top of their field in the region, and the class sizes were small. I improved a ton linguistically in both French and Arabic while there. Couldn't have had a better experience with Amideast and would highly recommend them!

IES Abroad Rabat, Morocco provided one of the best semesters of my college experience. One of the great things about this program was the placement with two host families – one during orientation and one for the rest of the semester. The organization chose great families and homes for us to live with. My first family had the smallest home I’d ever seen, but they were kind and so very loving; my second family had the most beautiful home I’d ever seen but the family was less talkative. It was nice to have the chance to experience two different local families. IES places you about a 30-minute walk from their school. This walk to/from school was always very exciting, as you get to experience the old medina streets full of merchants and neighboring families, and the busy Rabat streets full of taxis and buses. IES also provided amazing organized excursions and field trips. I was able to camp in the Sahara Desert, spent a night with an Amazigh family in the Middle Atlas Mountains, and explore southern Spain. However, one downfall while abroad was when I became very ill from severe food poisoning. IES Rabat directors were very helpful in getting me the help I needed (from doctors and pharmacists) but also providing comfort and support during my recovery. It was one of the scariest moments of my life, but with their help, my study abroad semester was still incredibly amazing. I never learned so much, and I wish I could do it again. The only major downfall of this program was the lack of opportunities to meet local Moroccan students. Unless you opt to take a course at one of the local universities or have contacts of your own, it's very difficult to make local friends outside of your host family.