Join us for a Semester or a Year
Study Abroad in Costa Rica
For second semester, January – May 2024-25, we have seats available in grade 11.
We also have seats available in grade 11 for the 2025-26 school year.
Would you like to have an exciting experience in the lush rainforest of Monteverde for your junior or senior year?
Build confidence, connections, and language during a Study Abroad at the Monteverde Friends School.
- Enjoy an incomparable culturally immersive experience living with a host family and building friendships in a welcoming, tight-knit community.
- Receive a rich bilingual education, with small group Spanish support.
- Participate in hands-on activities and special mini-courses to explore your interests with teachers and students.
We have a limited number of study abroad student spots for January 2025 and the 2025-26 school year for high school juniors and seniors.
To learn more, please fill out this interest form and we’ll be in touch soon!
Each year, we have a few seats available for foreign students from outside Costa Rica in grades 11-12 to spend a semester or a year in our school. The experience enriches both the student who joins us and our school as we exchange and learn about different cultures.
We are a very small school with a primary focus on local students, and on providing a stable educational environment. The following requirements help us select the best candidates for the opportunities we can offer.
Please note: we do not accept short-term (less than a semester) students at any level of the school and do not offer summer programs for June and July. In addition, primary students here with their family for at least a year are only considered if they can start in August. We do not add primary students mid-year.
What’s Required:
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- High school students (grades 10-12) who are both interested and mature enough to join us without their family nearby. Tuition is $8,250 per semester plus some fees mentioned below.
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- Students who would be with us for at least a semester. We have found that students benefit most when they have time to fully integrate into our community. We do not offer shorter stays or summer stays.
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- Students interested in living with a local family for a homestay. This helps some of our school parents earn some money toward their own child’s tuition. The family offers room and board, local knowledge, and practice with Spanish for a cost of $3,500 per semester. They involve the student in the family but are not expected to do extensive parenting.
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- Exchange students who are fluent in both English and Spanish. Some of our courses (e.g. Humanities and Science) are taught in English while Math and Spanish Language Arts are taught in Spanish. We find that most students, even those with a few years of Spanish classes need additional tutoring, which we have available.
If your student is serious about studying with us, please fill out this short form. We’ll be in touch to answer questions and to see whether it makes sense for you to proceed with a full application.
If it looks possible, the next step is to submit an application. You can find instructions and the form for “out-of-area” students at our How-To-Apply page. We do our best to respond quickly, especially for those intereded in the second semester of the current year. The process may be a little slower for next year applicans, as we also assess which of our current students are continuing. 
“Within weeks of being here, I felt at home. I immediately felt welcome by my host family and friends at school. I fell in love with the rainforest and had the best memories exploring nature. What was at first going to be a few months, turned into the best year of my life!” — Florence – 2023-24 Study Abroad Student
We hope you will join us for an experience of a lifetime!
Fill out the Short Interest Form today to get more information!
