Just wondering if there are any age limits for doing a laurea. I already have an American bachelor's but I want to do a new laurea in Italy, but by the time I'm able I'll probably be over 30...

There is no age limit.

On the other hand, if you already have a "laurea", even though from a foreign university, and it's recognized, you will be automatically set in the top layer for uni taxes, at least in public (state-owned) uniersity. Essentially, while for the first degree you are taxed proportionally to your income, if you decide on a second degree (not a specialization or a PHD of sorts), your studies are consdered as though a "luxuty" and therefore subject to really heavy taxes.

quote:

Originally posted by AliceTwain:
On the other hand, if you already have a "laurea", even though from a foreign university, and it's recognized, you will be automatically set in the top layer for uni taxes, at least in public (state-owned) uniersity. Essentially, while for the first degree you are taxed proportionally to your income, if you decide on a second degree (not a specialization or a PHD of sorts), your studies are consdered as though a "luxuty" and therefore subject to really heavy taxes.

AliceTwain - I think you meal "fees" (or tuition payments) rather than "taxes".

I didn't know that Alice. This is very good info.

quote:

Originally posted by AliceTwain:
your studies are consdered as though a "luxuty" and therefore subject to really heavy taxes.

Do you mean heavy by Italian school fee standards? Basically how high?

From what I understand, American Bachelor degrees aren't considered to be equivilent to the Italian laurea. Laurea is apparently the equivilent of the American Master's degree.

quote:

Originally posted by Ramona:
AliceTwain - I think you meal "fees" (or tuition payments) rather than "taxes".

Nope. Public (state-owned) universities don't have feees, they ahve taxes. Essentially, you don't pay a university fee, you pay a tax to the Ministero della Pubblica Istruzione to get enrolled at the university of your choice each year. Private universities have fees like you mean them.

Nick, sotty but I am not sure. I just know that you get shot right at the top end of the fork as soon as you enroll for your second degree. Noela may be right, but she may also be wriong since her titel could now be compared to "laurea triennale". Essentially, check it out!

In Australia you literally pay back your university fees to the government through your taxes once you finish your degree and are earning over a certain amount. But we still call them fees.

I think the laurea used to be equivalent to a US Master's, but now that they changed the system and the laurea is only a 3-year degree (laurea breve) rather than a 5-7 year degree, it's not.

quote:

Originally posted by AliceTwain:


Nick, sotty but I am not sure. I just know that you get shot right at the top end of the fork as soon as you enroll for your second degree. Noela may be right, but she may also be wriong since her titel could now be compared to "laurea triennale". Essentially, check it out!

It's just the Americans tend to pay so much in tuition that the fee would have to be very high to equal normal US fees.

But Nick it's a bit different in the US because

a) student loans exist
b) if you have a degree from a decent uni in the US you're highly likely to be paid a lot more than €1000 a month!

quote:

Originally posted by Ramona:
But we still call them fees.

Ok, thanks, now I understand. ^_^

Nick, I actually know the stories of a few poor (or maybe just not extremely rich) students from the US who actually moved to Italy to get their degree and moved back to the US where their job would be better paid. I remeber a story about a medical student who got his degree in Milano with a much lower loan that he would have to ask in order to study in the US. I think now he's back in the US.

But the question is from Noela. So she is only going to be shocked by Italian fees if they are higher then she is used to.

My masters at a private school in milano was 9000euro tuition for the year. This was only slightly more than what I had been paying during my undergrad at an instate public uni, so it didnt seem that high to me (although I know to my italian friends it was!). Still, I cant imagine that the fees at an italian public uni would as high as that for a second degree.

Lori

quote:

Originally posted by Nick:
But the question is from Noela. So she is only going to be shocked by Italian fees if they are higher then she is used to.

lol... Considering my American undergrad was something like $25,000/yr... hehe... It all seems cheap to me!

Not that I enjoy paying through the nose.

I thought the laurea breve (3yr) was the equivilant of the American masters because the quality/level of education in Italy is simply "better". I went to high school in France and trust me, my public French high school education was far superior/beyond anything I even saw in American university.

quote:

Originally posted by noela:
[lol... Considering my American undergrad was something like $25,000/yr... hehe... It all seems cheap to me!

quote:

I thought the laurea breve (3yr) was the equivilant of the American masters because the quality/level of education in Italy is simply "better".

From what my Italian friends who went to La Sapienza have told me I somehow doubt that. (many of them never actually talked to a professor one on one during their entire university careers!)

I was an exchange student at a large state university in the US (which cost waaay less than $25K a year - although of course I just paid my piddling Australian uni fees) and I was really impressed by the quality of the education there. The professors were really top notch - many had literally written the texts in the field. At upper levels we had small classes in which you really got to know the profs. And there were lots of clinics and labs which gave the students great real world experience and interaction with the community.

I guess education varies a lot in the US though- if you go to Slippery Rock State U maybe it's not so great.

quote:

At upper levels we had small classes in which you really got to know the profs. And there were lots of clinics and labs which gave the students great real world experience and interaction with the community.

This honestly is one of the perks in the U.S. Some would argue that it's not worth the price tag, but if you consider that at Italian uni's there are very few computer labs and many times if the department has a computer lab, you have to be writing your Thesis in order to use that or even the departments' library! This was the case at La Sapienza, anyways. And the classes are literally huge all throughout. This is why many students in Rome, anyhow, don't bother going to class because there is no interaction with the prof since the class has 300 plus students.

Edited to fix a bad quote which threw the page off.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Annika,

ok, fees change according to the university. They range from 1000 to 4000 euros per year. We are talking public universities here, not private ones.

We now have th e3 + 2 systems. which is essentially your BA - MA level.

We also have masters and PhD, etc.

The level of our university courses used to be very high, in terms of education. As far as teaching a job, which has always been considered a very secondary aim of the Academia, US universities are way better. Our students used to come out of the University with a wider education, but less specialized. Now the quality of most Universities has gone down, exactly because we tried to apply a system to our model which is not at all in line with our tradition.

quote:

Originally posted by Gloria @ Casina di Rosa:
The level of our university courses used to be very high, in terms of education. As far as teaching a job, which has always been considered a very secondary aim of the Academia, US universities are way better. Our students used to come out of the University with a wider education, but less specialized. Now the quality of most Universities has gone down, exactly because we tried to apply a system to our model which is not at all in line with our tradition.

I'd be interested to know what your experience is of studying at a US university (and on what you base this statement). Did you do a degree there? Where? Just wondering where this perspective comes from.

From what I've seen most US students get a very broad "liberal arts" education which is not really practical in a job-training sense. They only specialise and do practical training once at a post graduate level once they have this broad theoretical basis.

I come from an Australian perspective -where university is much more job-preparation focussed than in the US.

I know this is kind of off topic, but still a school question. The "diploma di maturita scientifico" from a "Liceo Scientifico Statale", attended for five years, is comparable to what in the U.S., a high school diploma?
Ann
My Life in Italy - What are 5 things from Italy that you would miss?

yes - liceo is high school and this just means that the person went to a "scientific high school".

Thanks a lot Ramona!
Ann
My Life in Italy - What are 5 things you would miss about Italy?