Please sign in to post.

Study abroad in Madrid or Seville?

I am planning on studying abroad for a year in Spain starting in August of 2016 until May of 2017. I want to spend the year in Spain, but cannot decide between Madrid or Seville. I can either spend the full year in one of the cities, or spend one semester in each.

I love to explore places and continuously be finding new things, but I am also really interested in being able to make connections with locals and people I am around. I am a Spanish major and Art History minor, and love culture and food. I like both big cities and smaller, more quaint cities. I want to be able to travel easily to other places in Europe and around Spain. I can't decide if I want to be in a bigger city for the year and if Seville will be too small, or if four months in each place is long enough to connect and feel as if I know the cities. Any thoughts?

Posted by
3551 posts

I have visited both cities and they are very diff. If u can perhaps u could split your time. Both cities are wonderful but unique. Either way u cannot go wrong. Such a nice opportunity for u.
Wow, and a choice, too.

Posted by
15043 posts

Study what? And in what type of school?First you need to look into the program(s) you would like to attend in either city. If you want to stay over 3 months you need a student visa and you are not going to get a year long visa if you enroll in a one month long language course.

Posted by
23177 posts

I would recommend Madrid. Our son spent a semester (6 mos) in Madrid at the Univ of Madrid. Madrid would provide far more options - especially transportation - for what you are interested in doing. Who's study abroad program are you enrolled in. One extra feature the school provided was called paring. They set up meeting with other local students who were interested in improving their English. One could only speak English and the other only Spanish. He got very good. Only funny look we got when we visited was the ordering of coffee in his tea instead of milk. Quickly corrected. Even I knew that.

Posted by
5362 posts

Sevilla - no question. My husband studied there for a semester and had the best time of his life. I have also been to both cities. Sevilla - better food, better atmosphere, better student life, better everything.

Posted by
2767 posts

Both are great, your first move should be to examine the two programs and if one is better than the other for your needs, go with it. If they are tied, here are my thoughts.

Madrid - bigger, central location, more transit to other places. Fabulous art - great for an art history person! Lots of activity, nightlife, etc. The con would be that it doesn't have a ton of personality, it kind of feels like many other cities.

Seville - tons of personality, home of flamenco, a very different feel from Madrid. Very "Spanish", very unique, very beautiful. There would be more of a sense of a distinct local culture. The con is that it's smaller. It's by no means a small town, but to go elsewhere in Europe you will often have flights that stop in Madrid, or take the train to Madrid first (2.5 hours). Good train connections to a lot of Andalucia, though.

I'd go Seville, but I love that area of Spain. For your needs, maybe splitting your time would be a good compromise.

Posted by
11294 posts

First, remember that this is a travel forum, not an expat forum. The experience of visiting a place for a few days is VERY different from the experience of living in a place for months.

Second, I don't think you can make a "wrong" choice. It's all good. And while Madrid is indeed much bigger, Seville is hardly some tiny village.

Third, how you feel about the city will only be part of the experience. There's also who you meet, who your professors are, what course you take, etc. And that can't be predicted in advance so easily. If a college experience were only about location, no one would go to some of the small colleges in small towns in the US not near any "attractions" (I won't mention names to avoid offending) - and no one would enjoy the experience. Yet they do go and do enjoy it.

One big difference will be transportation. Madrid, being both the capital and in the geographic center of the country, has great transit links (by bus, train, or air) to the whole country. Seville won't have as many options, and for some places you may have to go through Madrid. If you want to see where you can go nonstop from Seville's airport, here's the Wikipedia listing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seville_Airport#Airlines_and_destinations. I see that Ryanair has flights to a variety of places outside Spain; just be sure when using them, you read and understand ALL their rules FULLY, or you will pay a lot extra.

I'd go for one semester in each, particularly since the experience of each will be different, and since you don't know how you'll feel about each one until you're there.

Think of it in reverse. If a Spaniard said "I can spend two college semesters in New York, two in Denver, or one in each," and didn't give you any other details, what would you advise? Of course, I'm not making exact equivalences in cities, but you get the idea.

Posted by
23177 posts

Who or why would you pick New York over Denver?

Posted by
169 posts

I will agree with others that this is not the right forum for this. Beyond that, surely your university and other students can probably give you a better perspective. However, since you are asking for advice, you might want to consider Barcelona.

Here are two links
http://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings-articles/qs-best-student-cities/barcelona

http://www.goabroad.com/articles/study-abroad/should-i-study-abroad-in-barcelona-or-madrid

Posted by
56 posts

I'm sure whichever one you pick will be awesome! Our daughter is studying this semester at the University of Seville. She LOVES the area and has been going nonstop since she arrived, which has only been two weeks! She has already gone to Portugal and to a flatmates grandparent's almond farm for a weekend. Good Luck with your decision! I'm just happy that I get to go visit in 4 weeks!!