Very organised agency Very organised agency, offers a lot of opportunities and it is affordable and trustworthy

EF is one of the largest communities in… EF is one of the largest communities in the world but despite that it is very organized pre and post departure allowing children to be better prepared for an unforgettable experience

EF2022/Dublin - There are much better alternatives to Education First Why am I writing this review? We have already decided that we will not travel with EF after our 2022 experience - so why bother writing about our bad experience? The reason is that we keep getting emails, sms and letters suggesting we send our kids with EF in 2023 as we “..we're so satisfied with the experience in 2022”. This is surely not true - after our family have used EF on six occations, based on the 2022 EF-italy experience in Dublin, we don’t want to send our kids with this company in the future. We had originally booked 30 days stay in Cambridge/Oxford for our two daughters (one in each city) for 2020 - but due to CoVid it was cancelled and we got the option to have the same trip the next year at the same cost - something we agreed to. It was again delayed to 2022, at this point the refund was apparently no longer an option. In 2022 EF did not offer 30 day stays in Cambridge or Oxford, and in any case due to the UK CoVid regulations at the time we made the decision, traveling to the UK was complicated. We agreed to send A & B to Dublin/Ireland instead. From the first time we talked to EF we insisted that they should live separate in native families as the only Italian speaker in the household. To hold them to their word we also wrote this on the payment receipt. Here is what happened: - They were allocated in the same bed-room in a school lodging with only Italians. For the first third of the stay there were only Italians with EF in Dublin. - They were not allowed to leave the school-lodging on their own, as they would have if they lived with a family - The online tools that EF are proud to have - does not work or are not active (or more likely the employees don’t know how to use them). At the end of the course it still showed that our daughters had not attended any lessions (suppose to update weekly). Housing details were only available (but wrong) after we waited on the phone line for an hour (see other reviews mentioning the great, ironic song) - Credits bought online for activities was useless and only available online after soliciting 3 days after loading them (money lost, we were never offered a refund) - The activity coordinator listed on their web-site is a great guy, I sent him an email and he confirmed he had left Dublin 9 months before the start of the course and was now working in Malta. Therefore none of the parents requests or questions on the site was answered or followed up on. - Final payment went to an EF bank account in Switzerland, something that did not feel right. - At the start of the course EF had 12 empty positions in Dublin that they were trying to fill (source: linkedin) - Our daughters were unhappy with the language experience but made a lot of Italian friends from Bologna, Napoli, Milano and Cuneo. Something they could have done in any local Italian summer-camp at a lower cost. Negative with respect to the language training, but they now have great friends in Puglia they will visit this year. My suggestion: - Instead of using EF, travel with smaller companies that are not basing their trips on advanced IT solutions that their employees, often hired for the summer, are not able to use (like Sales-Force or the EF app/it solution) - If you want your children to be immersed in the language, consider an English activity camp with native British speakers, short-courses or invite native English speakers to your house for a few weeks. We invited two native English speakers to come and stay with us for two weeks in June 2023. A great language experience for our daughters and we mayl send our daughters to visit them at a later time. Stars: 1 for lodging (not separate as agreed, dirty, one bathroom for 8 students), not with a family as ordered. 1 for pretending to have a great IT/APP system 1 for not having an activity coordinator (but Malta is nice;) 1 for not being ready 2022, but doing all to get our money 5 for the great teachers that try to get things done with insufficient support from EF 1 for knowing that you were not up to par but still doing nothing Update summer 2023: Reduce from two to one star. Adding a few bullets give an average of less than two. I am a registered and confirmed Trustpilot user, therefore EF knows my name, experience and contact information. By not contacting us they indirectly admits to have failed not only us but all the students that were in Dublin June 2022. Please search trust pilot for "EF grande delusione!" for another parents (one star) view of the same course and period written by Rita. To EF: Please don't comment to this post with general answers that is available on all the other reviews. We know your phone number, the song and we can agree that you were not ready in 2022.

In 3 months I truly dominated the language This company helped me learn a new language and nourish my cultural outlook. They are professionals and know what they are doing.

Best Year of my Life I have been so lucky that I got the opportunity to do an exchange year in the school year 22/23 with EF and it has been the absolute best thing I’ve ever done! Ever since I signed up for the program they have guided me through the whole process from making my profile so they could look for a great host family for me to all of the paperwork for my visa and making be feel ready for the departure with webinars, things I could read and on top of that there are some meeting both before, doing and after the exchange where I met a bunch of amazing new friends who where going through the same exiting emotions as me. EF has a really great website for the profile I made where I just needed to write a bunch about myself and this ended with me getting matched with such an amazing host mom and double placement from Austria in Vermont. I had honestly never heard of this state before but it has now turned into my second home. I could not have asked for a better place to be. My host mom is the kindest and one of the most energetic people I know. I had zoomed a bit with her beforehand and I felt at home with her just a few days after I got there. I did not know what to expect when I was told I would have a double placement and we had to share room but I really loved it. We complimented each other well and I am so grateful I have made all these wonderful memories with her, my now sister. We went to a very tiny school with only 70 kids in the high school and which was not what I had expected but I do not care that there was not American football or cheerleading because I got the experience of a very small community coming together. There was even made a special class called Cultural Perspectives for the students because we could help and share some similarities/differences. I am very happy I chose EF and something special about them is that they are both EF in the host country as well as in the host countries. This makes sure that they know exactly what is going on which is very helpful. Through this I have learned more than I can express but a few examples could be my improved English together with how I have grown personally. I am now more outgoing willing to try new things, be spontaneous, be outdoorsy and then I have learned more about myself and my abilities and I have pushed limits.