I recommend this program, but with some reservations. I chose it because it was the only program I could find that visited both Greece and Italy (two places I really wanted to go), and because the prospect of spending most of my time in Cyprus, which I knew very little about, was exciting. For the relatively small amount of money you pay for this program, it really is a great value. We traveled as a group to Rome, Athens, Ephesus, Mykonos, Crete, Santorini, and Patmos. Our apartments in Cyprus and our hotels abroad were very nice, and group travel was pretty well organized. My main caveats concern the classes and communication. I was hoping for a bit more of an academic challenge than I received, and I felt like most of the time my professors didn't really want to be teaching these classes. My program was Early Christianity, and the website made it look like the whole summer would be organized around that theme. However, apart from my Religious Thought class, the program was not at all centered around Early Christianity. Instead, you are grouped together with all of the other Summer in the Mediterranean programs, and this makes it quite difficult to focus on your area of study. The advisors for the program are great, but whenever they took us on excursions throughout Cyprus, they pretty much dropped us off, told us to do whatever we wanted and to call if there was an emergency. If you are fine with planning your own time, this is all well and good. I was expecting a detailed itinerary for each city based on my Early Christianity program. All this being said, I am happy that I did the program. It needs improvement, but I loved my roommates and advisors, and I gained so much experience about how to be on my own when abroad.
