The experience of Luca Maini in the USA
Luca Maini is an ex-student of our Liceo who is now attending the Faculty of Economics, one of the fifty Faculties at The University of Chicago. He lived his first experience in the USA two years ago when he went there for an exchange project with “Intercultura”. Last year, while he was travelling back to Italy, he decided that what he wanted most was to attend the University there.
Luca told us that the first step to be accepted by an American University is to look for and fill in the application form which must be sent in September. Together with the application form, a student must send all the documents which describe his school curriculum and the value of his marks compared to the other students in the class and in the school. You also have to write an essay about yourself. The essay is the most important document.
The lessons at The University of Chicago start in September and the academic year is divided into three terms. The lessons of a period are distributed throughout ten weeks. Luckily there are three pauses: one month at Christmas, one week at Easter and the last one during the summertime. During the first two pauses the students study hard to prepare the exams.
Luca lives in the campus of the University. Inside the campus there are the Faculties, the dormitories and a lot of other structures like cinemas, gyms and so on. The dormitories are divided into “houses” and in each house two students live. All the students must live in the dormitories. Luca shares his “house” with a Ukraine boy. All the campus is covered by a Wi-Fi net and internet is free for everyone. In the campus there are a lot of different canteens: an Italian one, a Chinese one, a vegetarian one… Isn’t that great?
Luca told us that now he is studying Literature, History, Maths, German and another subjects like Physics, Biology and Social Science. He hasn’t started to study economics yet because he must reach a basic level in the other subjects first.
Finally Luca told us that in the USA all the Universities are financed by private citizens and the Faculty of Economics in Chicago is probably the best in the world. Some teachers got the Nobel Prize.
Luca is not only a clever and kind boy, he’s also determined and we’re sure that his experience will be very successful. We wish him good luck and hope we can see him again at the Liceo Ulivi so that he can tell us more about his new demanding but charming world.