SAIS Europe | Pre-Term
Pre-Term at SAIS Europe is designed to give students the opportunity to settle into life in Bologna, learn some Italian, and fulfill a program requirement, thereby leaving more space for other courses during the fall and spring terms.
In Summer 2023, we will offer a pre-term statistics course starting with a two-week virtual section at the beginning of August. All students will then transfer to campus and begin live classes on Thursday, August 17. Registration will be available online from May 30 through June 20. Matriculated students will receive detailed information regarding the online registration process toward mid-May, when they have been granted access to the JHU systems.
Below is the list of courses we plan to offer in Pre-Term 2023. Further additions may be announced prior to the registration period.
MAGR and MEPP student also take courses during this period, and will be registered automatically for their required courses. MEPP students who wish to take Survival Italian may register for that course when registration opens on May 30.
Pre-Term courses offered at SAIS Europe:
Some non-native English speakers may need to further develop their English language skills in preparation for graduate coursework. If the Admissions Committee felt that you need to improve your English skills before the start of the academic year, it was so indicated in your admitted student portal.
In summer 2023, SAIS is offering a four-week online English reading and writing course in the month of July. Details will be available before preterm registration opens toward the end of May. In addition, a listening and speaking course will be offered on campus (two hours per day) in Bologna during preterm from around mid-August to mid-Septmber.
During Welcome Week, all non-native English speaking students will take a Diagnostic English Proficiency exam. Students who do not pass this exam will be required to take a further English class during the Fall term.
This is the best way to begin learning Italian and get the most out of your year(s) in Italy. The course consists of approximately 100 hours between classroom instruction and individual tutorials. Depending on prior language background and aptitude, students may be placed in an intermediate level course in the fall semester and may consequently qualify to take the Italian Proficiency exam at the end of the academic year. Because of the number of classroom hours per day (4-5), plus homework, Intensive Italian cannot be taken alongside any other pre-term course. Given the very intensive nature of this course, it is best suited for in-class learning.
This beginner-level course is designed to help students interact in Italian during everyday life in Bologna. It consists of approximately 50 hours of classroom sessions and individual tutorials. This course can be taken alongside Statistics by the non-MAGR students. Depending on the enrollment numbers, we plan to offer a number of different sections.
This course is designed to introduce students to the basic statistical tools required to conduct and evaluate empirical research in economics and the social sciences. The course fulfills the data analytics requirement for the MAIR degree and enables those students to take an additional elective course during the program. Topics covered include elementary probability theory, sampling, estimation, hypothesis testing, correlation, regression, big data and Machine Learning. Special attention will be given to the application of these statistical tools to the analysis of real phenomena. Students who attend Statistics in Pre-Term will have the opportunity to participate in a workshop on STATA in the fall or spring, as scheduling permits. In 2023, this course will be offered in a hybrid fashion over a 6-week period. The first two weeks will be held virtually and the last four weeks will be held on campus in Bologna.