AIFS AbroadReviews of aifsabroad.com

Do not go through this program. The internship in Paris cost over $3,000 just for two months in the tiniest studio apartment. You’re not even allowed to have overnight guests for an apartment that you paid for. You’re paying for this entire experience and really don’t make any meaningful connections for work. There were a multitude of complaints regarding interns placements and the lack of professionalism with their boss. I do not believe AIFS truly vets their candidates and this is a cash grab. They expanded their program this year which showed me they are interested in quantity not quality. Multitude of interns had broken appliances that were never replaced or fixed during their stay. You’re not being paid by your host company either. This was a huge waste of time

I decided to go abroad alone to get the full experience. Quickly I realized I joined the wrong program. First, they have no accommodation of rides from the airport to the residential stay. For someone who is young and never been to London I took a taxi which costed $200 roughly out of pocket. Hindsight I should have took the tube but again first time to London alone I didn’t feel comfortable. Second, the residential was in the worst part of London. Very unsafe and high crime. I didn’t feel safe here but alas I was required to make the 40 minute tube ride to class every day which was ironically in the nicest part of town other side of the city. This meant waking up 2 hours before class and hoping I could make the trains correctly on my own. There is no program dinner and not many ways to meet other people beside orientation and plays the program will go to. I spent majority of the program alone because the clique system was very prominent. I do not recommend this program. The accommodations were not good and were too far from campus and in a terrible neighborhood known as White Chapel. I felt very unsafe coming in and out at night there as a young girl. If I knew now what I wish I known then I’d go to another program. My parents were not impressed and shocked that they had us in such a bad place.

This experience was terrible. The employees were very rude and they do not show up on time to activities. I would not recommend.

The location and the people were incredible but my overall experience with Global Experiences was not. Was especially hard to deal with in the pre-departure phase if your not from America. Communication was very poor early on and prep meetings were scheduled at stupid hours of the night. When I arrived in Florence, I stayed in an apartment that flooded and slowly fell apart across the time I stayed there. A literal beam fell from the ceiling at one point, and many rooms were covered in mould. The internship (if you could even call it that), was only 1-2 days a week and the lady would give me 2 minutes of her time then leave me to do Instagram and blog writing all day. She would frequently forget I was coming some days and I waited up to 45 minutes to even get in the building on many occasions. Expressed concerns about internship to the location coordinator, and she said this had happened before with the last intern. Great. There were others too in the program far worse though, doing long hours of menial tasks such as hanging donation clothes all day. One girl even had to travel by train an hour just to get to her internship (at her expense), and they worked her to the bone, not even letting her have one day off for an extended weekend trip. We know from the start it’s unpaid experience but some experiences seem very exploitive. From what I gathered, its very hit or miss with your internship placement, there were a few who absolutely loved it. However, going back, I wouldn’t risk it. Idk if anyone will ever see this because miraculously I never found any bad reviews when I was researching this company, but I would give this experience zero stars if I could.

DO NOT PAY MONEY FOR AIFS ABROAD. If I could give this review less than half a star I would. It was one of the worst academic choices I've ever made. This program was so horrible in every different aspect, including the schooling program, housing accommodation, and traveling were absolutely horrible. There were so many things wrong with this program for me and my fellow students that it would be nearly impossible to write everything in this interview. Just please trust me and save your money by choosing a different program to study under.

If I could give this company a zero, I would. This company is a joke. They wasted 4 months of my time, took my money, asked that I book my flights, and then sent me a note saying "Your trip has been cancelled" because of low enrollment. But the deadline for other programs is a week away and it is impossible to get in now. And I'm out hundreds of dollars each in flight and hotel cancellations. DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY. COMPLETE SCAM. CHOOSE ANY OTHER ALTERNATIVE FOR YOUR COLLEGE STUDY ABROAD GOALS. Edited for the response below. Airfare costs money to cancel. Family vacations rescheduled to accommodate new dates costs money. Hotels take non refundable deposits that are forfeited. Enrollment in reputable programs cost extra money to expedite. The downstream impacts are significant, and the response below indicates cancellation occurs in a vacuum without downstream implications. Nothing could be further from the truth. Stay away unless you’ve got thousands of dollars you’re willing to give up in cancellation fees.

I do not recommend AIFS. Pick another program like CIEE.