It's better to be safe than sorry!

Today, I would like to answer some questions we are asked frequently. Please take some time to read this post and especially to go through the information available on our website as well as in the Incoming Student Guidebook. They are precious sources of information that can help you answer most of your questions.  

Q: I am having problems with my visa application, what should I do?

A: The first step is to check which documents you need on the website of the Italian embassy of your home country . 

Q: I have checked the documents on the website of the Italian embassy of my home country and it seems that I am missing some documents. 

A: Contact us as soon as possible. We will be happy to help you. 

Q: I have not started my visa application yet, should I worry?

A: Yes. By now, everyone should have at least been in contact with the Italian embassy in their home country. If you have not contacted them already, make sure you do so as soon as possible. 

Q: I am not a citizen of the European Union. What should I do for medical insurance?

A: You need to arrive in Italy with a sound health plan that will cover you in case you need care. Remember that the Italian emergency insurance applies to emergency hospitalization only. For more information see this post  published in May. 

Q: When is the deadline to pay the first tuition instalment?

A: The deadline is on September, 30.  See the Incoming Student Guidebook to learn how you can make the payment. 

Q: I received financial aid from SAIS, how does paying tuition work for me?

A: Financial aid from SAIS goes towards tuition. If you received financial assistance from SAIS the award will be split in two. One half will be credited towards tuition in the first semester and the other half in the second semester. You will be asked to pay the outstanding balance at the beginning of each semester. You can read more on financial aid and tuition here.

Q: I have not registered for a principles of economics course yet, what should I do? 

A: You should find a course now. Remember that when you arrive in Bologna, you will need to have successfully passed courses in principles of micro and macroeconomics or you won't be able to start your studies at SAIS. 

If you feel there are questions that should be addressed, please comment on this post so that everyone can benefit from your queries. You know we welcome your input! 

Next week:

- Your views on the Blog: a summary of your answers to our survey.

- Q&A on concentrations, jobs and more.

Amina Abdiuahab 

This week's grab bag: an updated map, missing DVDs, visas, and our survey

Before we turn to some housekeeping details, I have updated the map showing where the incoming SAIS Bologna students come from.

Currently the class of 2011-12 has passports from 51 countries. Two dozen of the students have dual passports. They have declared 45 countries as nations of first nationality, plus six others as secondary nationalities.

If you click on the placemarks on the map below, you will see the name of the country plus the number of students coming from that country.

This past year we had students from 34 nations (not including dual nationalities). So there will be one third more nationalities this coming year. We have students who have enrolled from four countries that have never been represented at SAIS Bologna: Bahamas, Mongolia, Qatar and Zimbabwe.

With the ebb and flow of enrollment, these figures can change in coming weeks. But at this point we are looking at the greatest number of nationalities at SAIS Bologna since it was founded 56 years ago.


View SAIS Bologna 2011-12 class in a larger map

MATH DVDs


We have tried to make sure that all incoming SAIS Bologna students have the math DVDs that are useful for preparing for the economics courses. Eventually each incoming student should have two sets of DVDs:

- One set entitled "Interactive Pre-Calculus Course" with 4 DVD disks inside covering 52 modules;
- One set entitled "Interactive Basic Calculus for Economists Course" with 3 DVD disks inside covering 34 modules.

If you have one set but not the other, please send an email to admissions@jhubc.it.

Please keep in mind that it takes some time to work through either set of DVDs, so if you have one but not the other, you are not out on a limb yet.

The DVDs reflect the importance of math in learning economics. Students taking the Online Math Tutorial will have a chance to prove their understanding of pre-calculus and calculus. If a student has not passed one or the other of the exams in the Online course, they will have a chance to prove their understanding during pre-term in either Washington or Bologna.

A student who does not pass the tests either during the Online course or in pre-term will have a chance during the first class of microeconomics.

Keep in mind that while each student is encouraged to pass both the pre-calculus and the calculus exams, one is not required to pass them to proceed with economics. But economics sure is easier with a solid foundation in math.

VISAS

Questions about visas have tapered off. We hope that means that everyone is making progress. If not, be sure to contact us.

SURVEY

A total of 77 readers have completed our little survey. Thank you to those who have taken time to do so. Already it has provided us with very useful feedback and ideas on how to improve our work. As promised earlier, we will provide a summary of the feedback, along with some data on readership, in a post later this summer.

If you would like to participate in the survey but do not have the link, please send an email to admissions@jhubc.it, and we'll send it along to you.

OTHER

There must be other things people need to know, but I've run out of issues.

Your thoughts?

Nelson Graves

A DVD apology and other odds & ends

It's Friday -- time to tackle housekeeping matters. I'd rather not start with an apology but am compelled to do so.

DVDs
As everyone knows, SAIS provides each incoming student with DVDs to help them brush up on mathematics. One set has four DVDs with pre-calculus learning modules, while the other has three DVDs with calculus modules. The DVDs complement the SAIS Online Math Tutorial, which is accessed through the Blackboard course website, as John Harrington, dean of Academic Affairs in Washington, explained in an email to all incoming students on May 25.

Some incoming students who applied for admission through Bologna -- all of the non-Americans except a handful -- have received the pre-calculus DVDs but not the calculus cassettes. Yesterday we sent out fresh calculus DVDs to a number of students, and we'll do the same with more on Monday when the Bologna Center reopens (it is closed on Fridays all summer, until mid-August).

A humble bow of apology

If you have received one set and not the other, then you are a victim of the DVD mix-up, which is entirely our fault. If you have not done so already, please send an email to admissions@jhubc.it with "Missing DVDs" in the subject line and your your mailing address in the text, stipulating which DVDs you did not receive, and we'll set things right.

If you have received no DVDs whatsoever, please wait until Tuesday, June 21 to see if they arrive. If they have not arrived by then, please send an email to admissions@jhubc.it explaining.

My apologies for this glitch and my thanks to all of you for your patience and understanding.

VISAS
Students coming to SAIS Bologna this autumn from outside the European Union are busy getting their visas. Requirements vary greatly from one Italian diplomatic mission to another. Some consulates or embassies are very familiar with SAIS, others not.

The letters, which all of the non-U.S. incoming students from outside the EU should have received from us and which are written in Italian, are meant to reassure the diplomatic authorities on a few scores:

• That the student has been admitted to the SAIS Bologna Center, which is recognized by the Italian government;
• That the student will have the emergency medical insurance that is required of foreign students;
• That SAIS Bologna is in close contact with the Foreigners Office of the Bologna police (Questura) and will help the student obtain a permesso di soggiorno if needed;
• That SAIS Bologna has an adequate number of apartments at its disposal and that the student in question will be able to rent one of them;

The letter asks that the authorities consider the letter as a substitute for an apartment rental contract.

In most cases, this letter gives the diplomatic authorities what they need to issue a student visa. If for some reason they read the letter and still balk, please get in touch with us.

If you are a citizen of an EU member state, you do not have to obtain a student visa. (Some might take that for granted, but believe me, it was not that way in my day, when even to cross borders between any two European countries, you had to show your passport.)

SURVEY
We are asking readers of this blog for feedback to help us make it better. Many readers would have received the link to the survey via email. The online survey takes a few minutes to fill out and is anonymous.

If you would like to participate in the survey and have not received the link, please send an email to admissions@jhubc.it, with "Blog Survey" in the subject line, and we'll be happy to send the link to you.

Already 58 people have responded to the survey. There is a critical mass of opinion emerging that will help us shape this blog and tailor it to readers' needs. Thank you for your comments, suggestions and criticism.

By the way, in the summer we will share with readers a summary of the results of the survey along with some readership statistics. Transparency is our watchword.

PRE-TERM
A reminder that the deadline for registering for pre-term in Bologna is July 5. For more information, click here. Pre-term starts on August 29 and runs until September 26.

If you are interested in attending pre-term at SAIS Washington (July 25-August 23), the deadline for registering is Friday, June 24 -- one week from today. For more information, click here.

It is not recommended that students in Bologna pre-term take two economics courses or an economics course and a core course. That would end up being a whopping amount of work. Remember, these are full-term courses squeezed into 4 weeks. However, survival Italian would be an option -- and I would recommend that all students who do not know Italian learn some while they are here. It makes the experience more meaningful.

HOUSING
Some incoming students have asked if they can be in touch with Salvatore, our housing consultant, before he starts showing apartments on August 18. Alas, he is not available. It will be a level playing field from August 18, and he will have enough apartments so that there is no reason to panic. As we've already said, finding an apartment is just about the easiest thing of all thanks to Salvatore's help.

ADMISSIONS PACKET
We've also been asked if we will be sending out paper versions of the admissions letter and other admissions materials that admitted students received. I'm afraid not -- we are trying to go almost entirely digital. (Yes, I'd love for the math DVDs to be online, and for us to have a completely digitalized application system -- dreams that may come true next year.)

If you need a paper version, we will leave it to you to print it out your end. If you need an original copy of your admissions letter or some other document in its original form, drop us a line. But even the most bureaucratic of authorities are moving away from paper, although we realize not all.

Next week we'll show you another award-winning piece of academic work and an exam that was taken by students of a popular core course.

Nelson Graves

P.S. I almost forgot. Yes, there is no quiz this week. The feedback on the survey suggests that the weekly quiz has done its part in building readership loyalty but that it's time to think of other approaches. Of course if someone wants to propose a quiz question, we would be delighted to consider it.

Weekly quiz

It would not be a weekly quiz without some housekeeping first, right?

Incoming students have lots of questions. This is entirely normal. Before writing an email, please make sure that you've read the material on the web page for incoming students. There you will find the answers to many questions. And do not forget the Guidebook for Incoming Students. It tackles myriad matters: visas, health issues, finances, communications, travel and housing among them.

Many of you are experiencing the joy of applying for a visa. Alas, like tuition it is a fact of life. Please do not panic. Each of you who applied through the Bologna Admissions Office should have received a letter, in Italian, that provides Italian diplomatic authorities with some important information. The letter informs the authorities that:

• You have been admitted to SAIS Bologna and gives them the dates of your attendance in 2011-12;
• SAIS Bologna is recognized by the Italian state;
• SAIS Bologna has an ample number of apartments at its disposal, and you will be able to choose from among them;
• If you are a non-EU citizen, SAIS Bologna will make sure you have the emergency medical insurance that is required by law;
• We request that the diplomatic authorities return the letter to you along with your visa so that you can obtain, if necessary, a permesso di soggiorno once in Bologna.

This letter has been written so that the Italian consular authorities have the information they need to issue a visa. Of course different embassies and consulates have different approaches. If you hit a brick wall, get back to us.

Enough of the logistics. On to the quiz -- which this week is for the daring only.

Earlier this week we published a post with a question from the final exam in Prof. Akin's International Monetary Theory class. Click here for the exam question.

What is the answer to the first part of the question, which asks: 

I'll give you a break: unlike during a real exam, you can ask for help on this one. The key is to provide the right answer.

This week the winner gets a SAIS Bologna tee shirt plus a free lunch at Giulio's -- with Prof. Akin.

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For the answer to the quiz question, click here.

You can also see it here:

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Next week:

Tuesday: What a winning paper looks like
Thursday: Getting to the core of international politics
Friday: Weekly quiz

Nelson Graves

Visa & health issues

Below is a post that we published on May 12 before it was wiped from our blog by a mysterious gremlin. We are repeating it today as we know many incoming students have questions about visas and health issues.

Today is the deadline for admitted candidates to accept. We already have a very good idea of next year's class, and it looks to be very bright and very diverse. Later this week we hope to post a map indicating where incoming students come from.

It feels like yesterday that we started receiving applications, and now the process is all but over. The admissions cycle has been fun for us. It has been great to meet you in person or via email. We now look forward to having you as part of the Bologna Center's Class of 2012.

Now some Q&A. (Keep in mind that U.S. citizens should direct any visa questions to the SAIS DC Admissions Office. Others can address questions to SAIS Bologna Admissions.)

Q: I have matriculated as a non-U.S. citizen, but I have not yet received my visa request letter. What should I do? ("Matriculation" means to accept an admissions offer.)
A: If you have matriculated and you are a non-U.S. citizen, you will receive a visa request letter. Please allow us a couple of days after you have submitted the matriculation form.

Q: I have been told I need the original copy of both my letter of admission and the visa request letter.
A: Many Italian embassies and consulates accept the PDF documents we have been sending you via email. However, if that's not the case, please get in touch and provide the mailing address at which you would like to receive the letters. You will receive the letters shortly after your request.

Q: The embassy I applied to has told me that I must provide proof of accommodation.
A: Some Italian embassies or consulates require you to have accommodation before coming to Bologna. If you have been asked to indicate where you will be living whilst in Bologna, please contact us. We will make sure the authorities understand we won't let you live under a bridge.

Q: My embassy asked me to provide a dichiarazione di valore.
A: As a U.S. institution we do not require you to provide a dichiarazione di valore. If Italian authorities have requested it, let us know and we will inform them that we do not need such a document.

Q: I am not a European Union citizen. Do I need health insurance?
A: Yes. All non-EU nationals are required to come to Italy with health insurance. Although you might feel as fit as a fiddle, you will still need health coverage in case you need assistance.

Q: I am not a European Union citizen and I have health insurance. Do I still need to purchase Italian insurance?
A: You are not required to buy the Italian emergency health insurance. However, we strongly recommend you do. This type of insurance is helpful in case of emergencies. While we are sure you will have a good health plan, in case of an emergency you will be required to pay expenses out of your own pocket before being reimbursed by your insurance company. The Italian insurance covers those kinds of  emergency.

Q: So, what is the difference between my health insurance and the Italian one? And why would I need both?
A: Italian health insurance will cover you in case of an emergency and will save you having to spend money if you are hospitalized. Your own insurance should cover all other situations. It is better to be safe than sorry!

Q: How much is Italian health insurance?
A: It costs €98 for the academic year. The emergency health insurance is inexpensive but keep in mind that it only covers emergencies. Therefore, it will not help if you need to go to the dentist or the optician, even if it's an emergency.

Q: I am a European Union citizen. Do I need health insurance?
A: No. However, you will need an international health card which will give you the same rights to assistance as Italians.

Amina Abdiuahab

Connections

Before I tackle some of the questions we are hearing the most from admitted candidates, a word on connecting.

There are many ways to learn about SAIS. The days of the bulky course catalog are just about over -- although if you ask politely, we might be able to find you one. Most everything has gone digital.

SAIS Bologna and SAIS DC have their own websites. Both SAIS and SAIS Admissions have Facebook pages. The main page is called The Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, and the Admissions page is Johns Hopkins SAIS Admissions.

You can also find SAIS on Twitter, Linkedin, iTunes and YouTube.

Current SAIS Bologna students have created a Facebook group for admitted candidates. If you would like to join, go here and make a request. It's a great forum for discussing the issues you consider most important.

There is, of course, this blog. And there is old-fashioned email. If you have a question that is not answered elsewhere, please send an email to me, Amina Abdiuahab or SAIS Bologna Admissions.

On to the questions.

Where can I get information on pre-term?

This will give you the rundown on pre-term in Bologna. Did you know that one can participate in pre-term in Washington and then come to Bologna for pre-term here? For information on the Washington pre-term, which runs from July 25 to August 23, click here.

When should I arrive in Bologna?

If you are participating in pre-term, you have to be here in time for pre-term classes, which start on August 29. Salvatore starts helping students find apartments on August 18. My advice would be to get here between August 18 and 25 so that you can find an apartment and start settling in. It will allow you to focus fully on your studies once pre-term begins. It may be a mini-term, but they pack a lot of teaching and study in to those 4 weeks.

If I'm not participating in pre-term, when should I arrive?

Fall semester classes start on October 3. Would I recommend rolling into Bologna on the evening of October 2? Let's put it this way: it's no secret that Salvatore's stable of apartments will dwindle as students settle in during late August and September. September is a wonderful month to be in Europe -- it's generally sunny and dry. The earlier you come, the more likely it is you will have settled down by the time classes start, ensuring a smooth start to your studies. You catch my drift.

What about housing? How hard is it to find an apartment?

Of all of the challenges you will face as a SAIS student -- and there are a few -- housing in Bologna is for most students one of the easiest. If you take advantage of Salvatore's services, he all but tucks you in once you've arrived here. Get in touch with Salvatore after you arrive, and the rest is normally smooth as silk.

Do I have to take the concentration that I marked as my first choice on my application?

No. You are free to choose your concentration after you start your studies. The one exception is International Development. To do that concentration, you have to be admitted as part of the admissions process.

But if you chose another concentration, you are not bound by that selection. Keep in mind that you will have to satisfy the academic requirements of a concentration (either functional or geographic), plus the requirements for international economics. And don't forget the language proficiency requirement. So you can't wait until the last semester to make a choice.

How difficult is it to get a visa?

Most students get their visas after submitting to a non-lethal dose of bureaucracy. There are exceptions because different countries have different hurdles. The key here is to get on it early. Non-U.S. applicants will receive a letter from the SAIS Bologna Admissions after they matriculate; the letter asks authorities from the student's country to issue a 12-month visa starting August 2011. Students who thereafter have difficult obtaining a 12-month visa should contact our office. For more information, click here.

U.S. candidates coordinate through Erin Cameron in the SAIS DC Admissions Office. For more information, click here.

Tomorrow is Open House in Bologna. We hope to post some video of the event tomorrow evening for those who cannot come. We did a post on the DC Open House last month.

Nelson Graves

Visas

Here are some questions and answers about an important topic for students coming to SAIS Bologna from outside of Italy.


Who needs a visa?
Anyone who is not a citizen of a European Union member state needs a visa to study in Italy. If you are a dual citizen, with one citizenship in a EU member state, you will not need a visa.

If you are a U.S. citizen or permanent resident you can use the SAIS Washington visa service. This service is available until May 31.

If you are not a U.S. citizen or permanent resident and need a visa, we will provide you with a letter that you can present to the Italian embassy or consulate in your home country.

What kind of visa do I need?
You will need a visto per motivi di studio. This is a type-D visa that allows you to stay in Italy for the academic year.

How long should my visa be valid for?
The visa should allow you to stay in Italy for at least the full academic year. In the letter we provide, we ask the authorities to grant you a 12-month visa, leaving you time at the end of the academic year to organize your move to Washington and, in some cases, to work an internship in Europe during the summer between Bologna and Washington. However, whether or not you receive a visa for 12 months depends on your nationality.


Which documents do I need to make the visa request?
The documents can vary from country to country. In most cases you will need to provide a letter of admission, proof that you can support yourself financially, health insurance, passport-size photographs and last but not least: your passport. Please make sure to check the website of the Italian Embassy of your home country to make sure you have the right documents.

When do I receive the Italian visa request letter?
We will send you the visa request letter via email after you matriculate.

What if I am asked to provide proof of accommodation?
Some countries may require you to provide proof of accommodation in Bologna. If that is the case, please contact us as soon as possible.

What if I am not granted the visa?
This is unlikely to happen. But if you have been refused the visa, please contact us.

What if I already have a visa to a Schengen country?
If you currently hold a visa to another Schengen country, you may find getting a visa to Italy difficult. The rule is you cannot have two valid visas at the same time. Thus if you have a visa to a Schengen country valid to, for example, September 2011 you may not be able to get a visa to Italy valid from August 2011. If are in such situation, be sure to contact us as soon as possible.

Can I get a visa if I am not in my home country?
Our experience shows that getting a visa from outside your home country can be complex. Some people have managed to do so, while others have not. The process can take more time. And you face the risk of not obtaining the visa. So it's best to avoid applying from outside your home country if possible. Again, if you have questions on this, please contact us.


What about the second year visa to the U.S.?
We have a consultant come in from Washington every year. He usually comes in late March to advise and help students in getting their visa to the United States. Most students get their visa without travelling back to their home country.

I am sure you will have more questions on visas -- it's a complicated business. If you do, please comment on this post or send us an email and we will respond to your queries.

Amina Abdiuahab 

Trying to answer your main questions

Email is a great thing, right?

My inbox and that of Amina are full of questions from admitted candidates. These are important questions, and we need to be clear in our answers. Email is an easy punching bag, but it's also a good way to gauge what the our readers' main concerns are.

(I'm sure you've asked yourself: How did we exist without email? How about existing without the fax -- as I did in my first job after SAIS.)

This week we will try to answer some of the questions we are receiving most frequently from candidates who have been admitted to SAIS Bologna. The beauty of a blog -- even one as modest as ours -- is to be able to address the concerns of a wide community, something email cannot easily do.

So what are the main concerns? They clearly are financial aid, pre-term, housing and visas.

For many candidates, financial aid is the most pressing issue because they have to make ends meet before matriculating. Feel free to read our earlier post on financial aid. In it you'll see links to a number of useful web pages and documents.

You'll also note I make the point in that post that financing a quality education is in many ways an investment, and a sound one. While to some it may seem a leap of faith, it's an investment in your future that will pay off over time.

A last point on financial aid: as we said in a post earlier this month, at the moment we have distributed in awards all of the money available to us for scholarships for candidates who applied through Bologna Admissions. Later in the spring, when we know which admitted candidates will be attending SAIS, if sufficient money is returned to us we may be able to make additional grants, as we have in the past. But it is not something to count on.

We intend to tackle housing in a post later this week. Salvatore, who has helped students find apartments for more than three decades, will not be available until later this week, so we ask readers to wait a few more days. Amina will take up visa issues tomorrow.

PRE-TERM

First, let me try to clear up a matter that causes some confusion -- the economics requirements.

All students need to have taken introductory courses in both microeconomics and macroeconomics BEFORE starting their course work at SAIS. Many candidates will have satisfied this requirement during their undergraduate studies. For those who have not, SAIS offers an online course. For more information on this, click here. Anyone who has not yet met this requirement will be receiving an email from Amina later this week.

All students also have to pass intermediate micro and macro to graduate. In pre-term, which this year starts on August 29 in Bologna, intensive courses in both intermediate micro and macro are offered. Students who take these courses generally want to accelerate their learning.

I should point out that a pre-term is also offered in Washington, from July 25-August 23, so just ahead of Bologna. For more information on the Washington pre-term, click here. Students headed to SAIS Bologna can participate in both the Washington and the Bologna pre-terms, or in either, but neither is required.

The Bologna pre-term has been expanded this year. It includes, as usual, courses in Italian and, for some non-native English speakers, intensive English. This year, SAIS Bologna is also offering two of the four "core" courses: Theories of International Relations and Comparative National Systems. Registration for pre-term is from May 15 to July 5.

On core courses: to graduate, M.A. candidates must pass written exams in two of four core areas (except students in European Studies, who take three European Studies comprehensive exams). In addition to the two core courses taught during pre-term, there are core offerings during the academic year in America and the World since 1945 and Evolution of the International System. All four of the core courses are taught in both Bologna and Washington.

For more information on SAIS's core requirements, click here.

You'll note in this information sheet that some combinations of courses during pre-term are possible but that other combinations are discouraged. This is because pre-term courses are intensive by nature -- basically a term's work in four weeks -- and some of the combinations would discourage all but the most masochistic of students.

I have not begun to provide all of the information on pre-term. The information sheet is much more detailed. I might add, however, that for many students pre-term is a great way to start off their SAIS experience. It allows one to get a solid academic start. A student becomes more familiar with SAIS and Bologna. One can settle down early and get to know roommates.

And September is a wonderful month to be in Bologna.

Tomorrow: Visas

Nelson Graves

FAQs

We promised when we launched this blog in December (how time flies) that it would not only entertain and advise, but also inform.

We will try to be on the entertainment side of the ledger tomorrow with the weekly quiz. We were full of avuncular advice during the application period.

It's about time we informed.

We're getting a lot of questions from admitted candidates, and some from those on the wait list and those who were not offered admission. FAQs might be the last refuge of scoundrels, but they can be useful.

(Did you know that the term "FAQs" is fairly recent? Like the fax machine, it did not exist when I was the age of most of our blog readers.)

Q: I have been offered aid for 2011-12. Will I receive the same amount in 2012-13?

A: There is a pool of aid for students in their second year. Generally the pool is greater in the first year than the second, in part because some special fellowships are available to Bologna Center students. All students in satisfactory academic standing are eligible to apply for aid for the second year. Awards are based mainly on performance during the first semester at the Bologna Center. Need and in some cases fellowship eligibility can also be taken into consideration. Students who perform especially well in Bologna -- whether or not they have received aid in their first year -- can present a strong case for aid in the second year. There is no assurance that a student will receive the same amount of aid the second year -- they can receive more or less. Competition for aid is lively, and we urge students to explore alternative sources for the second year as soon as possible to avoid missing deadlines which can fall one year in advance.

One of the alternative sources of funds for the second year for non-U.S. citizens could be the Fulbright Commission. There is no blanket authorization for the national commissions to accept applications from students who attend the Bologna Center and who are looking for funding for a second year in Washington. Each country applies its own policies. However, a number of commissions in Europe have agreed to accept applications from students for their second year in Washington, and we would encourage those who are interested to try. Please keep us informed of your progress, and if you think that an intervention from us with your local Fulbright Commission might help establish your eligibility (not advance your candidacy), please provide us the name, email and/or telephone number of your contact person, and we will try to help . Also, keep in mind that this applies to funding for a second year in Washington. Fulbright does not offer scholarships to students studying in Bologna.

Q: I received no aid for 2011-12. Can I receive some for 2012-13?

A: Please see the answer to the preceding question. If you perform extremely well in Bologna, you're only doing yourself a favor. Give it a try.

Q: Can I be awarded more financial aid for 2011-12?

A: One of the most difficult aspects of assembling a new class is our inability to fully meet the financial needs of all of the students we would like to welcome. At the moment we have distributed in awards all of the money available to us for scholarships. Later in the spring, when we know which admitted candidates will be attending SAIS, if sufficient money is returned to us we may be able to make additional grants, as we have in the past, but it is not something to count on. We know how difficult the financial challenge is.

Q: Can I defer enrollment?

A: Yes. We ask candidates who wish to defer to write to us, explaining why. You need a good reason to defer. Different people have different reasons for deferring; we will consider each case on its merits. In some cases, it is to work a job that directly enhances your subsequent experience at SAIS. A candidate who defers needs to decide by May 16 to hold down the spot for the following academic year. If you want to defer, let us know as soon as possible.

Q: How do I get a visa to study in Italy?

A: Once you have matriculated (which requires a 385 euro payment), we will send you a letter, in Italian, that allows you to apply for a student visa ("Visto Tipo D" -- in English, Type D visa). You can apply at an Italian embassy or consulate in your home country. From there on, it's pretty straightforward (convicted criminals aside, of course -- just kidding). If you get on this early, you should not lose any sleep. But if you hit a snag, be sure to contact us.

Q: Can I work part-time in Bologna?

A: Italian regulations say full-time students with a visa can work up to 20 hours a week, or 1040 hours a year. There are some jobs in the Bologna Center such as research and teaching assistantships, library employment, the reception. There can be opportunities off campus, especially if you speak some Italian.

Q: When and how do I apply for a job at the Bologna Center?

A: It depends. In general, it's best to wait for jobs to be posted. Some departments send out vacancy announcements over the summer, while others wait until pre-term or the beginning of the academic year to post. In many cases, job openings will be sent to incoming students via email. Research and teaching assistantships are managed by professors themselves, and the processes and timing depend on the individuals. If you are interested in a teaching or research assistantship, have a look at the biographies of professors and consider whether there is someone you would like to work with. Keep in mind that there can be a good deal of competition for these posts.

Q: What if my question is not answered here? Should I dash off an email to the friendly Admissions team?

A: We love email. But could we ask a favor? That you first check out a special page for incoming students. If your answer is not there, try this FAQs page. If you still don't have an answer, please do write or call us.

Q: How do I pronounce "Bologna"?

A: The "g" is soft. If you say "Bo-lon-ya", with the accent on "lon", you're off to a good start.

Ciao.

Tomorrow: Weekly quiz

Nelson Graves