John Cabot University, Via della Lungara, 233, 00165 Rome, Italy My experience going abroad Studying in Rome during the Fall semester of 2016 Sabine van Sprang LAS student Social Sciences major T i l b u r g U n i v e r s i t y 0
Study program: International law Exchange semester: Fall 2016 Academic year: 2016/2017 Host University: John Cabot University (American college), in Rome Country: Italy Am I okay with my report being published online? Yes 1
1. General information about the school John Cabot University is located in Rome and it has two buildings where courses are given, called Tiber campus and Guarini campus, shown on the map below with a. Both buildings are pretty small; there are no big lecture halls as there are at Tilburg University. The classes I took had no more than 20 people in them. The rooms are filled with chairs and from the arm-rest you could open the tabletop. The university itself had a gym located in one of its housing buildings. You need to get a physical from the University doctor (which costs 20 in cash) and then you can use the gym unlimited and for free. They provide classes such as Zumba and yoga, but you can also sport yourself; you can lift weights, use the treadmill and use other equipment available. Above the river is where the center of Rome is located, with the Colosseum and forum Romanum within walking distance of the school, or you can use public transport. The city itself is very big and crowded throughout the year. I myself found it a very beautiful place to walk around, especially along the river. There are also many squares and parks where you can just chill for a while and read a book or look at the people walking by. Trastevere (the area below the river where the University is located) is the best area to hang out during summer nights. There is entertainment on every square and you can smell the food from all the small restaurants and everybody eats outside because of the nice weather. I definitely recommend Capa Toast (club sandwiches), 4:20 (bar with special beers and hamburgers) and Dar Poeta (pizza place). All these places are located in Trastevere and they all are pretty cheap and the food they serve is oh so delicious! I myself don t really like going out, so I can t provide information on that, but I know that my roommates went out a lot, so there are many places to go all throughout Rome. My recommendations for things to do in the city is first of all the typical tourist things, like a hop-on hop-off bus and take some guided tours, because it is nice to look at old buildings, but it is nicer to know what function they had when they were used. Also, go visit the many parks that Rome has to offer, like Villa Borghese, if you want to get away from the crowded streets. Another form of transportation is Scooterino. You can download the app, enter your phone number, and you can be driven from point A to point B on the back of a scooter for only 4. The JCU way of teaching seemed very similar to the Liberal arts and sciences program I follow at Tilburg University. The classes are small, and it consists of a lot of discussing between classmates and with the teacher. The required reading is given to provide examples of the phenomena you are talking about in class. 2
As a study abroad student, you are not required to follow a pre-determent; you can pick courses from any faculty, as long as the board of Tilburg University approves. Most courses are worth 6 ECTS. JCU offers a wide range of courses from psychology, to law, to art history. Most students I met were American students who were either studying abroad for a semester, or studying at JCU for the full 4 years. I believe my classes were around 80% American, 19% Italian, and 1% other. 2. Practical information Most information I am presenting below can also be found on www.johncabot.edu Information before I left JCU puts great value on providing their students with all the information they need before they arrive in Rome. As a student you create an account and are able to download a starter kid pdf with useful addresses, phone numbers and a list of things you need to bring with you. I had send some emails prior to my arrival which were answered within a few days, which was very helpful. Visa procedure and arrival As a European citizen, you don t need to get a visa to be able to study at JCU. You just need to sign a paper during orientation week. If you arrived on Monday of the orientation week at Fiumicino airport, JCU will provide a bus ride to campus where you can get your university ID card made and collect your housing key if applicable. I myself decided to rent a room from a private landlord and I arrived in Rome a week prior to orientation week. This room I rented and already party paid for, however, turned out to be a scam. Fortunately, I was able to contact JCU about my situation and I could stay in one of their rooms for free for the rest of the week until I had found another private room, or I could still rent housing from JCU. I did the latter. I will talk more about housing later on. Orientation/introduction activities An orientation week was organized. This orientation week included free lunch, housing workshops, guided tours throughout Rome, a navigation tour to get familiar with Roman public transport, a campus tour, immigration (if applicable) and more optional tours such as to the book store so you could buy the books you needed for class. Most of these tours were provided by students of JCU. Every student is also assigned a Skipper, however, you only really meet them for one tour during orientation week. Nevertheless, you can always ask anything to anyone. Everybody at JCU is happy to help you out with any problems you might have. Housing JCU offers 3 different kinds of housing: Gianicolo residence, Viale Trastevere apartments, and external apartments. All prices can be found in the image below and also on the JCU website. The Gianicolo housing is located close to the Guarini campus, that is why it is the most expensive. All rooms provided are pretty much identical to one another and the rules are strict (no alcohol, no overnight visitors, quite hours from 1 till 4 pm etc.). Then there are the Viale Trastevere apartments which are located on Viale Trastevere (the street with the big black arrow on the map above). It is a very long street and the apartment block is located around halfway. Finally, there are external apartments, which are rented by JCU and thus owned by other people. These are located along Viale Trastevere. 3
Single option means that you want a single room, if you don t select this option, you are likely to share your bedroom with 1 or 2 more students. It is possible to rent a room from a private landlord, however, as I mentioned before, I have had a bad experience regarding that, so I wouldn t recommend it. If you decide to rent a room from JCU, you are required to fill in an information sheet in which you fill in general information and which kind of room you prefer. Afterwards, you need to pay 1.000 in advance, and later the rest of the money, depending on which room you got. Towels and a welcome package of food are provided for you during your stay in the JCU housing. Living costs I financed my exchange period with the grand I received from Tilburg University, and money I received from the government for not living with my parents ( 300 a month) and for not using my OV (Dutch public transportation pass) ( 100 a month). I also chipped in money from my savings account when I needed to. My living expenses were more expensive than they would have been in Tilburg, however that is because I went out for dinner a lot and in the Netherlands, I would go home for the weekend, so I wouldn t spend money in the weekend. I also went on some trips to Pompeii and Athens, which I would normally never do. We lived very close to a supermarket, and when you make dinner for yourself every day, living expenses would not be so high, depending on which brands you buy at the grocery store. So apart from the traveling costs, I would say that living on your own in Rome would cost around the same or just a bit more as living in Tilburg. Academic calendar The orientation week is the week before the 1 st of September. In the week of September 1 st, classes start. During my fall semester there were two days off (November 1 st, and Thanksgiving). However, these two days were made up on two Fridays (since most, if not all, students of JCU don t have class on Friday). Midterms are not scheduled in one week, but they are spread over multiple weeks in October, depending on your courses. Final exams are all scheduled in the first week of December (including the first weekend). Students have to move out of their housing before the second Saturday of finals week. 4
Social activities JCU organized a great variety of activities throughout the semester which you could attend when you made a reservation and when you paid for it. Activities included but were not limited to cooking class, a hike trip, weekend trips to different parts of Italy, a visit to the opera and a thanksgiving dinner. There were also many clubs within the university such as the drama club and arts club who organized visits to museums and the like. You also get the possibility to do voluntary work for the community such as serving breakfast to homeless people, or teaching English to non-english speakers. As I said before, the majority of students were exchange students, or at least not locals. However, most Italians were also not from Rome itself. However, if you want to know about the local culture, you can always ask JCU staff members or do some voluntary work. You can also do some activities yourself. I, for example, went to Pompeii and Athens by myself and both trips were awesome! Culture and language Since I am a European student, I did not experience a strong culture shock. I did have to get used to the traffic in Rome. It is a very busy city so there are a lot of cars and most don t follow the rules of the road, especially since there is no real law enforcement. Furthermore, if you are going to study at JCU in Rome, you will experience two cultures, the Italian culture and the American culture. Since I solely lived with American students and I only spoke English at school, I did not get as familiar with the Italian culture as I hoped. It was still a great exchange experience though. I noticed that I got really nationalistic about the Dutch culture and values when I talked with American students. If I were to describe Italian culture, I would have to say that they are very carefree, as the example of law enforcement shows. Italians do whatever they please, whenever they please. Also, most Italians don t speak English (or at least not very well). I noticed that they are more helpful when you speak Italian to them than when you speak English. I did take Italian 101 at Tilburg University when I got accepted into JCU, however I finished that course in May and I went on exchange in August and I didn t practice a lot before I left. I do recommend taking an Italian language course, since it will make your life so much easier when you for example can t find an item in the grocery store. Personal development I am very glad that I went on exchange. I have learned so much in class and out. The scam at the beginning of my exchange sucked, but it taught me very valuable lessons. I am also glad that I was the only Dutch person who studied at JCU (at least I didn t meet another Dutch student). This forced me to talk to people with opinions that differed from mine. Normally if I were to be surrounded by other Dutch people, I would have a safety net. An example is that I wanted to celebrate Sinterklaas on my exchange, so I showed my roommates. They were all shocked by the image of Zwarte Piet. I never thought much of it and I always disregarded the discussion of Zwarte Piet, but now I listened to their points of view and I decided to write a paper on Zwarte Piet for one of my courses. My best experience was going to Athens to visit friends who were on exchange in Greece. The city was beautiful and the food delicious. It was also nice to talk Dutch for a while, since in Rome I talked English 24/7. My worst experience would be the scam, but JCU took such good care of me so I was able to put it behind me pretty quickly. 5
3. Academic information Academic level at host university Since JCU is an American university, all classes are taught in English, so you don t have to be able to speak Italian. Nevertheless I would still recommend following Italian 101 at the language center of Tilburg University. It took me a very long time before I finally decided on my courses. I chose my courses based on the master I want to follow after my bachelor, which is Victimology and Criminal Justice at Tilburg University. I know that it is useful to have a background in law and crime for this master, so I chose the following courses: 1) English literature of crime and punishment 2) Legal environment of business 3) Public international law 4) Globalization and crime I believe that the teaching style, content and workload of the courses are on par with Tilburg University, however, it is easier to get high grades at JCU than it is at Tilburg University, and I was very happy with that. The teaching method is very similar to the teaching method used at LAS classes at Tilburg University: small classes, strong focus on group discussions and case studies. The relationship between teachers and students was very informal. Exams Pretty much all my courses had the following grading system: Midterm 30% Final exam 30% Class participation 10% Paper 20% Extra assignment 10% Both the midterm and end term exams are written exams. You are seated in the same classroom as where you would normally take the course and the chairs are spread a bit further apart than usual to avoid cheating. Midterm exams took about 90 minutes and final exams took 2 hours and 30 minutes. Midterm exams contained the content of the first part of the course, and final exams contained the content of the second part of the course. The midterms are graded within a week and your grade will be an American grade so between an F and an A. the way of questioning on exams differed per teacher. Other You must keep the JCU ID card you got at orientation week with you at all times since you need it to enter a JCU building, either by scanning it or showing it to the guard. When you have your card, you can access any building and use all the facilities it has to offer. The library is located in the Guarini building. There is always staff in the library to help you out with any question you may have. It is a rather small library though, with not many computers, but there is quite a lot of space for students to sit and study on their own computers since there are (Dutch) power sockets almost everywhere. 6
Description of courses Course Level Prerequisites Exam ECTS Comments EN 235 English literature of crime and punishment BA None written 6 In class you will discuss a lot of deeper meaning regarding the novel, but the exam is just defining passages from the novels and describing the LAW 219 Legal environment of business PL320 Public international law PL 326 Globalization and crime context. BA None Written 6 You don t really need to buy the book to pass the course, the slides and your notes will do. BA Be a junior (second or third year student) BA at least one 200- level course in Economics, International Affairs or Business Written 6 Read, print and bring all the assigned literature written 6 Read, print and bring all the assigned literature Tips Please go on exchange if you have the chance! It is an amazing experience and you will learn so much, no matter where you go! And don t be afraid to go by yourself. I was all alone but I made more friends than I would have if I would have gone with a friend. You will experience so much more if you travel by yourself. Don t forget to check if your debit and/or credit cards work in foreign countries. My debit card didn t work, but fortunately JCU offered a finance office where you could use their ATM which did work for me. Do bring or buy a converter. My chargers all had a different output than the sockets in my student room so I had to buy one there. And finally, you only need half of the stuff you are planning on packing. Buy toiletries over there, towels are provided and you can always buy clothes or underwear in local stores if you feel like you brought too little. Only bring your essentials. And lastly, take a language class, it will make your life so much easier. Have fun on your exchange! It will be amazing! 7