Home CET ProgramsVietnamLiving in Vietnam

Living in Vietnam

Ho Chi Minh City
Campus
Vietnamese Roommates
Housing and Meals
Activities and Trips

Ho Chi Minh City
Students spend a majority of each term in Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon), Vietnam's largest and most market-oriented city. Life in Ho Chi Minh City is colorful and vibrant, with high-energy street scenes juxtaposed with several hundred years of tradition. An organized study trip to north and central Vietnam is also included in the program, in which students travel to Hanoi in the north and to cities of historical and cultural interest in the central region, including Hue, Danang and Hoi An.

Campus
CET's partner is Hong Bang University, accredited by the Vietnamese Ministry of Education. Students study Vietnamese at the Saigon Center for Vietnamese Language Studies (VLS), Hong Bang's affiliate. Centrally located in the heart of the city, VLS offers excellent classrooms, and employs some of the best-trained Vietnamese language teachers in Vietnam.

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Vietnamese Roommates
CET students live with Vietnamese roommates in a student guesthouse. Past CET students agree that living with a local roommate is one of the highlights of studying abroad, as it allows them to experience local student life and to build important social connections. Vietnamese roommates are selected from a number of prestigious institutions for this unique exchange opportunity. Vietnamese students are asked to participate in CET activities in order to create as many opportunities for informal interaction as possible. To read essays by former roommates, click here.

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Housing and Meals
Students should expect simple but comfortable conditions in the guesthouse. Rooms typically include simple furnishings, air-conditioning, private telephones, small refrigerators, and ample space. A cafeteria in the guesthouse serves selected meals, which may be available to students. There is no WiFi available at the guesthouse, but internet cafes are inexpensive and plentiful. There are also computers at the CET center which are available.

 Most students commonly eat with fellow students and roommates at the downtown area's many diverse restaurants, cafes and stalls, which have delicious food at low cost. Students also occasionally have group meals in Ho Chi Minh City and on study trips. CET recommends that you budget $6-8 per day for food, though you may adjust this based on your personal habits.

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Activities and Trips
All Vietnam Immersion students are encouraged to participate in exciting excursions to places of interest in and around Ho Chi Minh City. CET arranges activities for students each week, including visits to cultural and historical sites, performances, museums and art galleries. Special dinners, excursions, and other events involve Vietnamese roommates and provide CET students with more opportunities to share time with their Vietnamese peers.

In Ho Chi Minh City, students will have the opportunity to tour the Cu Chi tunnels, ride through the Mekong Delta, visit the Reunification Palace, and tour the town of Tay Ninh, headquarters of one of Vietnam's most interesting indigenous religions, Caodaism. Other options will include visiting Giac Lam Pagoda, dating from 1744, or touring the Ho Chi Minh museum, housed in the old customs house.

During the fall and spring students travel on a seven-day study trip through north and central Vietnam. In Hanoi students visit the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum, other sites in the capital. In the central region, students explore the history and architecture of Hue and Hoi An, investigate archeological vestiges of the ancient Cham civilization in My Son and Danang, and visit such sites as the DMZ (former de-militarized zone), Bach Na National Park (a former French hill Station), or the Phong Nha cave complex. Students are presented with a broad introduction to issues of contemporary Vietnam, thus enhancing their course work in Ho Chi Minh City. All expenses on this trip are covered in program fees.
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