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School staff was great. They were very attentive my inquires.

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I have increased my language ability immensely and gained skills and experience that will be invaluable throughout my entire life.

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Wonderful school! Conveniently located in a heart of Sucre, with friendly teachers and stuff, my experience in Academia LatinoAmericana was one of the most rewarding experiences to learn the culture and language of Bolivia. Their teachers weren’t just teaching Spanish: we visited many museums, palace, cemetery to learn their history and culture; we discussed politics and various social issues in Bolivia; we learned the taste of local food by visiting local stores and attending cooking classes. We attended many concerts, spent weekends visiting near-by towns, and most of all we enjoy talking together. Because of their willingness to support the students the whole school was very comfortable place to hang out. If you are going there during the summer break, the weather is so nice; always warm and sunny, and the air is so clean. I truly enjoyed all of my four weeks stay in Academia. I strongly recommend this school to all of you!.

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I tried to get some classes there it was not good :(

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If you are a gap year student with little or no Spanish... then this school is perfect for you. The school is more concerned with making as much money as possible from the students, than actually teaching them. At least half of the teachers, either can't be bothered or unqualified to teach Spanish. Be extremely careful to check for national holidays during your course time, as the school will still take the money for those hours even though it will be closed for the day.

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I was made to feel like all they wanted out of me was my money.

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First off, Sucre is my favorite place so far in Bolivia and Peru, and is very much worthy of staying in for weeks or longer for Spanish classes. But... The Academia´s branch in Sucre leaves a lot to be desired. The teachers were all right, but that´s about all I can say. The administration was pretty cold. The director, who is apparently fairly new, also runs the travel agency downstairs, and is far more interested in selling you tours than in your Spanish classes. We were never even introduced to him formally, ever. Weird guy. Overall, the place seemed to be run on a shoestring, not with any real organization. Their after-school activities hardly ever actually happened, no matter how much they advertise them on their webpage. And the facilities were always freezing. My main problems stemmed from the fact that I was attempting to get university credit for my studies. I had to have the credit, but also really wanted to know some language to show for the effort, so I thought this was a great way to do it. Wrong. I originally enrolled for the Spn 211/212 classes through Academia Latinoamericana, and for six credits through a university in the US (this is a necessary step, since the Academia is not accredited as university in the US, obviously). I was to fulfill three credits worth, Spn 211, in Sucre in three weeks, travel for three weeks in between, then finish the last three credits worth, Spn 212, in the Academia´s branch in Cusco, Peru. When I arrived in Sucre, I was put into a regular "intensive" course, because the administration of the Academia in Sucre had apparently not been informed that I needed credit. I tried to ask if this was okay, but the communication with the Academia staff was difficult due to my lack of Spanish, and I was told that everything would be okay. I tried to ask the US university staff, but got a response only from someone who didn´t know what to do, and was told again that everything would be fine and that the person who did know what to do would contact me, which he did not. So I figured that everything would be fine, took my classes at the Academia, wrote my quizzes and cultural diary for the US university, and lived with my homestay family. On my last day at the Academia, I asked the Academia secretary to forward my official evaluation to the US university, and she was surprised that I needed credit and said I had not been in the correct class. My husband helped me explain that I had done what I thought was correct, that we had paid significantly more to get the credits, and that it is absolutely necessary that I get the credits for future work. The secretary said she would call the US university and contact other Academia staff to see what happened, and get back to us right away. After a week of being out of email contact while traveling, we came back to nothing from the Academia or from the US university about what was going on, so I emailed everyone I had email addresses for, which got things moving... Still, it ended up being a beast, because I ended up doing twice as many tests in Cusco to make up for the ones I missed in Sucre, and everyone in the academic coordination offices of the Academia and the US university thought I was a troublemaker. On top of all that, the credit program in general is not very well done. The general setup is that as a for-credit student, you are put in the same classes with people who are in the non-credit "intensive" program. That´s fine and great, but you´re paying a -lot- more for the privilege of the same classes and no extra learning, just tests and evaluations. Plus, of course, you have to arrange with a school in the US to get the credits through, pay them even more, and I at least had to do even more tests and evaluations through them - via the internet, which is not super speedy in South America. When I got to Cusco, not only was I taking tests (lots of them), but my three week, three credit class required a five page research paper (not on what you did that summer - actually on some topic that you need to research, and it is required to be about Peru) and a twenty minute presentation. As part of the credit requirements, you´re supposed to get cultural experience by being out and about in the town you´re studying in, but having to write up a paper and prepare a presentation took two of the three weeks in the afternoons. It was frustrating to be doing junk on a computer while in a place that has so much stuff to see, three months of all free time wouldn´t be enough. Overall, if I were to do it again, I would get the credits I needed through some online class in the US, then come down and just -learn- at a school like the Academia. Trying to get credits here is way too much of a pain. I´d also have a look around at what else was offered by other language schools, although since I haven´t done that already, I can´t say how the Academia compares.