The Bologna Center offers a pre-term in languages and economics for admitted students from the end of August through September. Details on the pre-term program are available in pdf format.

Pre-Term Advanced English (80 hours)
The course prepares students with a sound knowledge of English for academic study at the Bologna Center. It concentrates on writing for academic purposes, vocabulary building, oral presentation and study skills.

Pre-Term Intensive Italian (approximately 100 hours)
This course provides a foundation to help students take advantage of life in Italy and develop a sufficient level of proficiency during the year. Classes may be divided into basic and, depending on demand, low intermediate. No higher level of Italian is offered in the pre-term session. Enrollment is voluntary, but regular class attendance is required. The course is recorded on the transcript with “S” for students who pass the final test; failure will not appear on students’ transcripts.

Pre-Term Survival Italian (approximately 45 hours)
This course is reserved for students enrolled in one of the pre-term economics courses. It introduces students to the basic structures of the Italian language to enable them to take part in Italian daily life. The course is for beginners only. Classes meet for two hours a day. This course does not appear on students’ transcripts.

Pre-Term Microeconomics
The course is the equivalent of the standard one-semester course at SAIS. It gives students with a limited background in economics the opportunity to receive in advance a systematic presentation of microeconomics at an intermediate level. It satisfies the microeconomics requirement at SAIS and also enables students to take classes with a microeconomics prerequisite (for example, International Trade Theory) during the first semester in Bologna. Topics include individual decision-making in situations of scarcity; consumer behavior and demand; labor supply and demand; theory of the firm; production, cost and supply; market structure and resource allocation; factor prices and distribution; and market failure and the role of government. Students should be aware that the intensive course, like the microeconomics course offered during the academic year, requires recent familiarity with basic algebra, functions and graphical analysis.

Pre-Term Macroeconomics
The course is the equivalent of the standard one-semester course at SAIS. This course gives students with a limited background in economics the opportunity to receive in advance a systematic presentation of macroeconomics at an intermediate level. It satisfies the macroeconomics requirement at SAIS and allows students to take more advanced courses having macroeconomics as a prerequisite (for example, International Monetary Theory). Topics include national income accounting and the balance of payments; output determination in an open economy; models of inflation and unemployment; fiscal and monetary policy; exchange rate determination; and international interdependence through trade and investment flows. Micro- and Macroeconomics constitute the foundation for all other economics courses at SAIS.