University of Bologna

Once your application is reviewed+approved by Illinois staff, we will nominate you to the Indiana U. staff, who makes final admissions decisions.

The following items will be sent to Indiana U. on your behalf:

• • official nomination letter

  • official transcript

  • personal essay question responses

  • your essay written in Italian

  • recommendation letter(s)

We will need a copy of your current semester enrollment at Illinois to send these items on.

Program Dates

• • Spring Semester 2021: tba

  • Fall Semester 2021: end of August to mid-December

  • Academic Year 2021-22: end of August to end of June

There is an airport pick-up arranged by BCSP. They will give you more info about this as you move through the application process.

There is also a full week of orientation activities the week prior to the start of class.

Since there is high demand for housing in Bologna (it is a university city and quickly becoming a tourist destination), fall and spring semester BCSP students are strongly encouraged to arrange housing prior to arrival, whether on their own or with the help of the program. Annual students are better able to find their own housing upon arrival.

After admission, students will receive emails from the BCSP staff in Bologna about housing opportunities on a rolling basis, as opportunities become available. The housing offers are through housing providers, such as landlords or agencies and residences (dorm or apartment-style) that handle student rentals. Usually BCSP students have previously lived in these accommodations and had positive experiences.

Students are housed in a hotel nearby the BCSP office during the first week of the program as they finalize their housing arrangements.

Courses: Students will take a combination of courses at the University of Bologna and BCSP center. All instruction are in the Italian language. All courses are taught by Italian professors.

The Resident Director: Dr. Andrea Ricci is the academic advisor on site. He helps students choose and enroll in their courses. He also oversees credit transfer between BCSP and students’ home institutions.

Credit and grade conversion

Transcripts will be sent to Illinois automatically after the end of the program. However, the time for receipt and processing can take a few months. Be patient, and you can track to see when your transcript is received by the Office of the Registrar by when the digital copy is uploaded into your My Study Abroad documents.

Excursions

BCSP organizes dinners, events and excursions to promote interaction between students and provide various opportunities to be immersed in Italian culture. Excursions are an important part of BCSP courses because study in Italy allows students to experience first-hand much of the material that they learn in class. Some notable excursions and activities include learning how to make pasta at a local farmhouse, a trip to the Val d’Orcia in Tuscany, and a Thanksgiving dinner for faculty, staff, students, and friends of the program.

Engagement

Bologna gives you the opportunity to interact with local students and residents, which will help you master the Italian language. The city also provides a wide variety of attractions and activities for you to engage in on a daily basis. In Bologna, you will have the opportunity to get involved in various clubs and sports teams at the university and volunteer opportunities within the community.

Academics

• I had classes Monday through Thursday from 1pm until 7pm everyday.

• I found that my literature class was the most interesting because it was all about crime and mafias in Italian and the perceptions around them.

• You had to be able to speak and read in Italian for all of the courses. The structure was fine, the grading was hard because it was different from the American way, and there were typically only one or two exams the entire semester.

General

• Be very confident in your Italian before you choose this program. I did not speak as well as the other students so I had to work harder to succeed. Most of the students on my program also did not travel or leave Italy very often compared to other study abroad programs.