The Admissions Time Line

Whether or not you’ve completed your application, you must be wondering what happens next. You deserve to know a bit about the process.

The deadline for applications to SAIS Bologna from non-U.S. candidates is February 1. (U.S. citizens apply through SAIS DC, and the deadline there was January 7.) By this date we hope we will have received your application and supporting documents. If you think any of your documents will not reach us on time, please let us know in advance. You can contact us via email, telephone or Skype.

After your application is complete, we will ask you to interview with a faculty or staff member. Interviews are expected to take place between the end of February and mid-March. To allow candidates to interview in person, we travel to several European cities. Last year we interviewed in Bologna, London, Paris, Brussels, Vienna, Frankfurt and Istanbul.

The venues are determined by the number of applications we receive from that region, and so we may adjust that list this year. Applicants who are far from the interview sites will be able to interview on the phone.

We will soon be posting detailed information on the interview schedule, and we will be writing a post with interview tips.

After you have had your interview, your dossier will be evaluated by two readers. Readers are normally faculty or senior staff members; students have been involved in the past. We make sure a reader does not know a candidate, ensuring that the person who interviewed you does not also evaluate your dossier.

Admissions decisions will be communicated to candidates by early April. Candidates who are offered admission receive a copy of the admission letter by email. The letter touches on any outstanding requirements such as Economics course work and also on financial aid. Successful candidates then receive an information pack to help them prepare for their year in Bologna.

What happens next could change your life: by mid-May you will need to confirm whether you accept our offer of admission.

Your future will be in your hands.

Tomorrow we'll run our third weekly quiz. Our readers came up with the answers to the first two very quickly, so we will make this one a tad harder. Remember, a free lunch at the Bologna Center for each winner.

Next week we'll tackle these issues:

- Monday, January 10: Language requirements

- Tuesday, January 11: Financial aid

- Wednesday, January 12: GREs and GMATs

- Thursday, January 13: Speakers

- Friday, January 14: Weekly quiz

Amina Abdiuahab