Location
  • Greece
    • Athens
Term
Academic Year, Fall, Spring, Summer, Winter
Subject Areas
Anthropology Archaeology Architecture Art History Arts Business Classical Studies Communications Creative Writing Cultural Studies Economics European Studies Gender Studies Global Studies History Humanities International Relations Liberal Arts Literature Media Relations Medieval Studies Museum Studies Peace Studies Philosophy Political Science Public Policy Religious Studies Russian and Eastern European Studies Service Learning Social Sciences Sociology Sustainable Development Theater Theology Women's Studies +25

Program Details

Program Type
Provider
Degree Level
Bachelors
Housing
Apartment Host Family
Language
English

Pricing

Price Details
Tuition: $16,800
Room: $3,900
Board: $1,150

Need-based scholarships available! For more info, please visit our website.

*Full-year students receive a 25% reduction on tuition for the second semester and are permitted to stay in CYA housing, at no extra charge, during the interval between semesters.

*Students from public universities in the United States and Canada will receive an automatic scholarship of $3,000 per semester.
What's Included
Accommodation Activities Classes Some Meals Travel Insurance Wifi
What's Included (Extra)

Entrance fees to sites and museums visited, supplemental hospitalization insurance, International Student ID Card (ISIC), official transcript sent to the home institution.

What's Not Included
Some Activities Airfare Airport Transfers Some Meals SIM cards Visa
Jun 25, 2021
Jul 30, 2021

About Program

CYA has offered study abroad programs in a wide range of academic disciplines for nearly 60 years. With supplemental activities varying from archaeological digs to study-travel and volunteer/internship opportunities, students are able to actively engage with their course material. Students live in apartments in downtown Athens and will be inspired to immerse themselves in the environment and expand their worldview. Athens, a European capital, is rich in history but also a contemporary hub for art, international business and relations, and debate on economic, political, and migration issues.

The CYA curriculum consists of academically rigorous courses taught by expert faculty. Course offerings encompass a range of academic disciplines and are taught in English. Optional language courses are available (Modern & Ancient Greek, Latin). Each semester, classroom lectures are complemented by onsite courses and field study to major historic and contemporary sites around Greece.

Video and Photos

Program Highlights

  • Onsite classes and study-travel incorporated into program.
  • Exciting courses in a range of disciplines.
  • Hands-on volunteer and internship opportunities.
  • Personalized attention from faculty and support staff.
  • Opportunity to learn Modern Greek.

Program Reviews

9.64 Rating
based on 67 reviews
  • 9-10 rating 95.52%
  • 7-8 rating 4.48%
  • 5-6 rating 0%
  • 3-4 rating 0%
  • 1-2 rating 0%
  • Academics 8.3
  • Support 9.3
  • Fun 9.6
  • Housing 8.9
  • Safety 9.4
Showing 65 - 67 of 67 reviews
Default avatar
Katy
10/10
Yes, I recommend this program

Experiencing Greece

When I was looking for study abroad programs, CYA caught my eye because it offers an archaeological drawing program. Being an art major and always having been strongly interested in classics, this class, which is incidentally taught by the top woman in the field, was amazing.
This class was just one of the great things about CYA though. The program is in a great central location in Pagrati, a nice compact neighborhood next to the Panathenaic stadium and walking distance from the Acropolis. This environment, the wonderful tight-knit staff and faculty who are all experts in their fields, and/or just warm, caring people, and the small number of students, makes CYA feel like a small community.
The staff and faculty I feel really wanted us to experience Greece like Greeks. I loved how they took us out to traditional tavernas for dinner and taught us about the traditional food and drink and ate it with us.
The academics had great chances to take very specialized classes in things like archaeology especially, as well as very interesting classes that focused on the current state of Greece as well as its historical origins. My favorite classes used the National Archaeological Museum and Acropolis museums everyday for class lectures. Cant overemphasize the value of first-hand viewing of art for an art history class.
We also went on several group trips around Greece, this was NOTHING like cheesy tourist packages or something, our amazing professors were often so well experienced in the area we were in that they would correct museum placards which were outdated and were overall very enjoyable, even the driving for hours because, Greece is drop-dead beautiful.
Just one more testament to how kind the staff is: I stayed in Greece over the summer with a volunteer program and when I was back in Athens heading home they amazingly let me in to use the laundry for my disgusting clothes and print my plane ticket. You really cannot go wrong with College Year in Athens. I would love to do it again!

What would you improve about this program?
If I had to choose one thing to change it would be the amount of interaction students get with other Greek students. It was pretty exclusively American students that we saw every day. Maybe Greek language could integrate with Greek students? Not that I couldn't have gone out and met Greeks myself, CYA definitely made an effort by promoting local events and such.
4 people found this review helpful.
Default avatar
Jack
9/10
Yes, I recommend this program

My Experience with CYA

I studied abroad with CYA in the spring of 2015. I am of Greek descent, and so I couldn't pass up the opportunity to study in Greece. Going into the semester, I didn't really expect much from the program and I had no strong feelings about CYA one way or another.

However, once I got the Greece and started experiencing life in Athens, I came to quickly appreciate CYA. They made sure that everything from finding your apartment on the first day to finding an internship in Athens was as easy and trouble-free as possible. They have a wonderful woman, Nadia, who connected me and my friends with several different organizations, including recreational sports, hiking, academic groups, and even teaching English to refugees.

Even more, CYA provided us with several wonderful trips through Greece. These trips are super fun (literally driving through beautiful Greece -- trust me, it's stunning), and they're at no extra cost. We went to Delphi, Thessaloniki (Greece's second largest city), Sparta, and a plethora of archaeological sites. I wish I could do it again!

Regarding academics, CYA can really be whatever you want it to be. I managed to get all of my classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so I had a four-day weekend every week. My days with classes were busy, but two of my classes met on-site, and so I would spend my mornings walking archaeological sites and visiting ancient monuments. For one of my classes, we actually held class inside some of the monuments, such as the Parthenon, the Erechtheion, and the Propylaia. 10/10 would do it again.

My only qualm with CYA is how much time you spend with other American students. I didn't end up making too many Greek friends, as most of my time was spent with my classmates. However, I think this was more my fault than anyone else's, as CYA provided ample support for people looking to get involved in the city and community -- I just didn't take advantage of that as I should have.

Over all, I loved CYA and can't recommend it highly enough.

4 people found this review helpful.
Default avatar
Rachael
9/10
Yes, I recommend this program

Summer of a Lifetime!

It is hard to sum up the experience I had with CYA in words.. I can honestly say that the 8+ weeks I spent in Greece have been the best weeks of my life thus far, in part thanks to CYA. I am a science major at my home university, but the two classes I took in Greece that focused on the anthropology of the Mediterranean diet and the archeology of the Bronze Age really opened my eyes to some more of my academic interests and enriched my liberal arts education. The professors at CYA are obviously passionate about what they are teaching, and I think that this attribute really made us students not only want to learn more but to actually care about what we were learning. The structure of the summer programs allowed for personal travel and exploration which were huge parts of my experience as a whole and really instilled within me a desire to continue traveling in the future. While studying abroad through CYA, students lived with other students from the United States. While I was disappointed that I wouldn’t be living with a more international crowd, I think that this arrangement had some “pros” as well. Culture shock is a real thing and to be able to come back home to other American students that were speaking English and experiencing the same emotions was comforting in a experience that was often very overwhelming and uncomfortable. I was in Greece during the summer of 2015 when the economic situation was very interesting and sometimes unsettling, yet I always felt safe being with CYA because they continuously ensured us that everything would be okay and had emergency plans in place if things went awry. I think that that speaks greatly for the structure of the program. I would recommend a program in Greece to anyone that is looking for a experience full of culture, history, and the iconic hospitality that is often associated with the beautiful country.

What would you improve about this program?
- Immersion efforts
- Dining hall food
- Information exchange between home university and CYA
3 people found this review helpful.

Questions & Answers

Hello Nicole, thank you so much for your question! Unfortunately, we are not able to accommodate students with emotional support animals. Our housing is in residential apartments, and the landlords do not allow animals. In addition, animals would not be able to travel with us during our mandatory field trips because they are not allowed on chartered buses and many hotels will not accommodate them.