I’m researching inexpensive (about $500/week total) Russian language programs in Russia for my kid, who will have completed two years of college Russian by mid-July. I’m leaning toward St. Petersburg, because we have a good friend from there who can connect us with her friends who are still there (most have moved out of Russia by now). I’m looking for a program from mid July through late August. So far I’ve found the one at St. Petersburg polytechnic, and one at the Higher School of Economics (HSE). But I’m finding others, too. Unfortunately, no real reviews from US students who’ve studied at any of these. So I have no idea what the quality is.
There are a lot schools in st petersburg for that amount,cheap city and your ward can teach eNglish in return and make money as well.if you need further assistance i am here to help
I don’t know about the programs, but HSE (based in Moscow but with another campus in St.Petersburg) is considered one of the best schools in Russia, so I think their program should be at least decent.
Hmmm, I never thought about her teaching English while she’s there. She’d only be there for about 7 weeks at most, so I don’t really think that it could be arranged in that short a time. And there’s also the issue that working wouldn’t be legal, since she’d be there on a student visa. SO not worth the risk.
Also, it appears that Polytechnic would give her a transcript, so she’d likely be able to get transferable credits.
For future researchers, she got accepted to ASU’s Melikian institute with scholarship, so tuition is now only 500, but we have to pay for room and board. Still waiting to hear from Pitt and another program, but acceptance deadline for ASU came due, so she accepted. We also found a small language school in St. Petersburg that sounded perfect. I’ll post about both programs after she comes back and tells me how they were.
Kid is deliriously happy with Melikian critical language summer institute at ASU. Teacher is amazing, program is very rigorous, dorm is okay. She chose it because it was an 8 week program, low tuition, gave college credit. The other front runner for her was California State Northridge’s program, because it was also very inexpensive, but it was only 5 weeks, and the teacher had terrible reviews.
Thanks! So glad your daughter is happy. I have some background in languages: some of the top language students I’ve ever known – and ones who went the farthest in their language and mastered it quicker – are ones who did intensive, rigorous programs. I’ll keep ASU in mind when recommending programs.
Further update on Melikian Russian. Kid is still very happy with the program, but finds it is not moving as quickly as kid can move. Says only 4 students are able to keep up at the pace the prof wants to teach. The issue is not the prof or the material - the issue is that most of the class is just not able or willing to study for many hours each day memorizing large amounts of vocabulary. Overall, she was happy with the program, and feels it was a good value. Recommends it.