Type of housing: Apartment/House

Arranged by: Host university

If returning, I would choose: With a family

Why? When all courses are taught in English, and most students speak english, it can be quite hard to learn the native language. Living with a host family would help learning the language.

Personal comments:
The accommodations were nice, but expensive (as all apartments in Rome are). The size wasn't bad (by Roman standards). The apartment was quite noisy despite the fact that it was not on a street. The apartment was in Trastevere, a great place to live.

Describe host city: Students interact with the local community without much university involvement

Activities, Nightlife, Travel: Takes place mostly outside the university/student environment

Personal comments:
There's a shisha bar near S. Maria in Trastevere and a bar nearby with a foosball table that rocks. Both places are receptive to Americans (although the Shisha bar has extremely slow service). Also if you like movies but don't understand Italian the Pasquino theater on Vicolo a piedi shows English language films. The Sunday Morning flea market rocks to get all sorts of good, cheap things.

Course recommendations:
I would say that as an artist... I found the totem pole idea too difficult. Many of the professors have agendas that don't really include integrating the students into exhibitions or finally helping them along after they've graduated. That's probably just a personal critique that I experienced. But it's seriously a point to look at once you've graduated and see where other students from other schools have made successes.

Personal comments:
The academic life for an independent artist such as myself...it's hard to say how to improve upon it. When I recognized how one must keep quiet rather than speak out and be a bit different, I was a bit discouraged. Yes an improvement would be for the teachers to not hide pertinent information from the students. There's absolutely no room for it. My personal experience would have been that they just set me free in Rome to explore and create a body of work that would have had a guaranteed exhibition where more than just the faculty and staff were to be invited. You can have the most beautiful or meaningful painting...but if no one sees it... hmmm.

Language of instruction: English

Main source of funding:
Family

Other sources of funding:
Personal savings

Work opportunities:
I didn't explore any work options

Personal spending habits:
We went out to eat every single time. THe food was just so good we could nt stop. We got cell phones thru the school, and i bleieve they may have been more than here but im not sure. We also went out every single night, and did lots of shopping and traveled more than i would here

Food, Travel, Nightlife, Overall, Housing: was more expensive than at home.

Telephone: was the same price as at home.

I wish I had known...
Even though everyone says it is always warm in Italy, it isn't! Take a jacket, sweaters, etc. Also, Italians wear tight fitting clothes and never wear shorts or flip-flops, so if you don't want to be instantly recognized as a tourist, pack like an italian. Also, pack light, there are plenty of stores to buy stuff here.

In my opinion:
Most people loved it.