Founded in 315 B.C., students in Thessaloniki, Greece, are studying in the birthplace of Aristotle, with easy access to the Mediterranean Sea and a quaint boardwalk lined with restaurants to enjoy.
Anna Beltyukova, a first-year environmental and sustainability science major, participated in N.U.in Greece and studied at the American College of Thessaloniki, or ACT. ACT is an American-accredited institution that uses the American grading system.
When site location for N.U.in was released Feb. 28, 2024, Beltyukova, then a high school senior and Northeastern applicant, was offered admission to Northeastern through N.U.in, and was given the option to attend Northern Ireland, Dublin, Scotland and Greece. Ultimately, she chose Greece because of a friend who attended N.U.in Greece the year prior who had enjoyed their time in the program.
Beltyukova opted to take a group flight with other N.U.in students to Greece. “It brought me a lot of comfort to know that everyone was there, and everyone was kind of going through the same thing,” she said.
Housing for the semester was offered through three local hotels: The Metropolitan, the Queen Olga and Le Palace hotels. The Metropolitan and Queen Olga are closer together, while Le Palace is centered further in the city. Northeastern provided transport to ACT for students going to and from classes.
Breakfast and dinner were provided to students through the hotel but lunch had to be purchased by students. However, during her time in Greece, “people were getting food poisoning from the restaurant they had, and really strange things were found in the food,” Beltyukova said. Beltyukova even warned that at the Queen Olga hotel where she lived, “one of the floors has to be completely, basically evacuated because they found mold.”
As for academics, Beltyukova said the workload and course rigor at ACT were “not very hard.” Beltyukova took business administration courses, along with a culture course that all N.U.in students were required to take.
“I really liked my professors,” Beltyukova said. “They were very passionate about what they were teaching.”
Living in Greece was warm and peaceful, with the average fall temperature being 61 degrees Fahrenheit, and with a nice ocean breeze flowing right off the boardwalk.
“Life there was good. … It was vibrant and there were a lot of things to do,” Beltyukova said.
Thessaloniki is home to 1.5 million residents, with one out of 10 residents being a student. The hotels were located right next to a boardwalk that offered students places to study, like quaint beachside coffee shops.
“I think that if you want to do a study abroad at some point in your college career, I feel like doing N.U.in is a good option because I have a lot of friends who are upperclassmen in college and they have a very hard time which semester to go abroad because they didn’t want to leave their friends,” Beltyukova said.
