Eye-Opening and Incredible Past Review

Academic rigor, intensity, resources, etc.

Most of the courses I took here were fairly easy, but they weren't easy because they weren't rigorous. They were easy because they were interesting, engaging, and worthwhile.In every course I took here, I delved further into Italian culture, the history of the city of Rome, and my major, archaeology. The archaeology program here is superb, and we visited loads of sites. The professors were very well connected and we even got into some sites that were currently being or recently excavated, which was very cool. I was invested in every class, and to a large extent it made me care about the work. I took some tough, upper level archaeology classes that certainly had me do a fair share of work, but it was never overwhelming and always held my interest.

On-site administration of your program

Incredible. They offered plenty of events through the ResGrad program, the administration always took care of my needs when they arose (such as rearranging classes or doing transactions) and they always had plenty of support, including a doctor. The Student Life Office was especially awesome. Everyone on staff was helpful and made me feel at home. If I ever needed to find anything, they'd point me in the right direction and even occasionally called places on my behalf to see if they sold the product I needed.

How satisfied were you with your living arrangements?

The apartments are very nice, in very safe neighborhoods, and are on major bus or tram lines that make it easy to get to school and into the city. Most are fairly close to other study abroad apartments as well, so you can hang out with classmates after school, throw dinner parties, or meet somewhere before you go explore the city. The repair staff were also very helpful if something broke down and needed fixing. They were incredibly prompt (often coming the same day or next day) and very nice.

Every student is on their own for food (no on-campus dining) but this gives you more impetus to go find restaurants, the cheapest pizza and gelato places, and the nearest grocery stores. Food in Rome is fairly cheap (unless you're eating steak and lobster every night...) and easy to get, and all the kitchens are furnished with skillets, pans, and cookware so you can buy food and bring it home to cook. I didn't know how to cook at all before I got here, but as long as you're willing to try to experiment, open to new foods, and attend a ResGrad cooking class or two it's easy enough to pick up on the principles of Italian cooking, which is incredibly simple and easy. You can't go wrong when it comes to food in Rome.

How integrated did you feel with the local culture?

This depends a lot on one's own personal efforts to get out into the culture. AUR does a good job of offering plenty of student clubs and organizations that go out into the culture, and there are plenty of resident students who can show you around the area as well. I joined the running club, and we ran with a bunch of Romans every couple weeks and did races together, so it was a great way to meet Italians. It can be easy to get comfortable at AUR, however. It is it's own space and it can be very easy to settle into school and with fellow English-speakers, which can give you a sense of comfort (a very good thing to have when abroad) but you also need to get out there on your own. AUR can push you in the right direction, but a lot of this resides with the students desire to get out into the community.

How well were health issues addressed during the program?

I never had any health issues, but the AUR doctor is free and good, and all you need to do is sign up for an appointment and they'll get you in. My roommate had a very good experience with the doctor. And, while you'll cross your fingers and hope nothing serious happens, unfortunately bad things happen. Rome is an incredibly safe city (aside from pickpocketers targeting loud Americans), but one girl did have a health concern while she was here. She was taken to the hospital and an AUR staff member was with her the whole time. Italian health care is very good and paid for by the government, and she was out in a few days. The AUR staff member was with her the whole time and she made it out fine.

Rome is very safe. Its advisable to be smart (as you would at home. If you don't make it obvious you're carrying a lot of money at home, why would you do it here? If you don't leave your bag out of your sight on piublic transportation at home, why would you do it here?), but other than pickpocketing incidents resulting from, frankly, stupid behavior, there aren't any issues with crime. Don't go down any dark alleys, have a sense of where you are, know your address so if you get seriously lost you can catch a cab home, and be safe. I had no bad experiences and was by myself quite a few times late at night (guy speaking, here) walking home from the train station or somewhere else in an area I was familiar with and I had no issues whatsoever.

(1 = not very easy/$200+ on food & personal expenses/week, 2.5 = $100/week, 5 = very easily/minimal cost)

it depended from week to week. After I'd been here for awhile it got easier (figuring out where the cheapest sandwhich place was, best coffee, cheapest gelato, etc). It takes awhile to figure some of that out. Make sure you have enough clothes to get you through to the end. I only needed to buy a light jacket for spring, but other than that I was fine. Rome is not the cheapest city (Florence, for example, was much cheaper to go shopping in than Rome) and you WILL spend more money than you probably mean to. It takes a while, but by the time I hit spring break I had a good idea of how much money I'd be spending a week (~100 Euro). Before you hit that rhythm though, it can be hard to stay balanced.

0 = No encouragement, 5 = frequent encouragement to use the language

Again, the impetus is on the student to use it. You'll need to use it to some degree when you go to buy food or order tickets for something, or eat in a restaurant, but it is fairly easy to get by without the language as most Romans know a smattering of English.

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• Apartment

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• Local Students
• Americans

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• Local Students
• Americans
• International Students

• On-Site classes
• Great Professors
• Plenty to do in the city itself

• Nothing

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