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General Description:
The University of Chicago's spring-quarter Pisa Program is an immersion language program, offering students in the College an opportunity to study Italian language intensively at the second-year level in a completely Italian-speaking environment. At the core of this ten-week program is intensive daily language instruction at the Centro Linguistico Interdipartimentale of the University of Pisa. Participants observe a no-English rule, and even the Program-sponsored excursions (to various cities and historical sites in Tuscany) are conducted in Italian. A chief attraction of this program is Pisa itself, a charming Tuscan city, home to an ancient and world-renowned university as well as, of course, the Cathedral's famous tilting campanile. Because of its modest size and the dearth of English speakers (except for, in season, the stream of camera-toting turisti who make their way from the train station to the leaning tower), Pisa is an ideal site for an Italian language program.
Housing:
In keeping with the immersion nature of the Pisa Program, you live with a local family, an arrangement that also includes most meals (and mealtime conversation). The family homestay is an essential pedagogical element of the Program. Ideally (and in most cases), the family provides daily language practice within a welcoming home environment as well as an opportunity for intimate observation of Italian domestic life.
Credits:
As a participant in this program you receive credit for Italian 10300, 20100, 20200, and 20300. These courses, along with units of credit and grades, are placed on your Chicago transcript. Assuming a grade of B+ or higher in Italian 20300, you will be able to continue your study of Italian at the advanced level when you return to Chicago (and are encouraged to do so).
Registration and Tuition:
You remain registered full-time in the College and pay regular College tuition, the Pisa program fee and the non-refundable study abroad administrative fee required of all participants in Chicago's programs abroad. For precise figures, see Study Abroad Program Fees.
Financial Aid:
You retain your financial aid eligibility. However, two expenses, the study abroad administrative fee and the round-trip air transportation to Pisa, are not underwritten by College Financial Aid. On the other hand, since you cannot be expected to work part-time while in Italy, the self-help component of your financial aid package does not include a term-time employment factor.
Eligibility:
The Pisa Program is designed for students who have taken Italian 10100 and 10200 (or 10400 and 10500) in autumn and winter quarters or who demonstrate by examination a comparable competence in Italian. It is open to Chicago students at all levels, including first-year and fourth-year. It is not open to non-Chicago students. Naturally the chief criterion for judging your application will be the quality of your work in Italian as well as your commitment to achieving a high level of competence in Italian. Apart from this you should present a solid academic record in general and demonstrate the kind of maturity that is necessary to participate successfully in a study abroad program.
Application:
Applications are available on the study abroad website. To apply to the Pisa program, a student submits a general study abroad application electronically, then downloads the supplementary application specific to this program and submits it on paper, normally in mid-winter quarter of the previous academic year.
A student accepting an offer of admission is expected to secure his or her place with a $500 non-refundable study abroad administrative fee. (To begin the application process, click on the Study Abroad General Application.)
Further Information:
If you would like to discuss the Pisa Program and the possibility of participating in it, you are invited to contact Jenny Quijano Sax (Harper 216; 834-5424; jquijano@uchicago.edu).
Statements contained on this site are subject to change without notice.
