John Cabot University?

Question

Anyone with personal experience of attending John Cabot Universtiy? I am interested in pursuing an education there and want to know what other students have thought of it. What are the most impacted majors? any info will be helpful.

**thanks for the amazing response "Sass B"....you really helped ALOT!**

Answer 1

I spent a semester there as part of my American university's study abroad program. For a place to spend a semester abroad, it's fine. But it's not very challenging as far as academics go. My classmates often referred to it as "JC High." When I was there I think the school only offered 5 majors - business, art history, literature, Italian, and history. (IIRC)

It's a very tiny school - the entire university is housed in one building (and 18th century palazzo). About one-third of the students at any given time are Americans from American colleges spending a semester or two abroad. Another third are study abroad students from other countries in Europe and East Asia. The last third of the students are actually full-time permanent, degree seeking students. A lot of them are pretty insufferable - snobby Eurotrash cokeheads, to be blunt. Few of them are there to learn and study - they are there just to party for a few years before getting a nepotist job with their wealthy families.

Other negatives of JCU

- the administration is horrible, extremely rude and unhelpful. This is not fun to deal with when you are in another country - you really need people to depend on and help you out a bit (at least at first) and these folks are no help at all and outright hostile at times towards the foreign students.

- because it's a small school there aren't many courses offered and not many majors. There are no university facilities to speak of - the library is smaller than the one in my elementary school, there's no gym, there are no science labs, there is no dining hall or cafeteria, no health center or even medical referral service, and definitely no dorms or student housing. They have two computer labs, some classrooms, some offices and that's it.

Positives
- The location cannot be beat. JCU is in Trastevere and near pretty much everything in the historic part of Rome. Trastevere itself is a gorgeous neighborhood and far less touristy than other historic parts of Rome. If you get an apartment in Trastevere near the school you really will get to live like an Italian - not just a tourist.

- all the classes are taught in English (except Italian classes) and all the faculty and staff can speak English.

-The academics are pretty easy, but many of the courses are still very enjoyable and you will learn alot. The art history courses are great - you will get to see the things you're learning about in person in Rome and Florence. There's really no better way to learn art history. However if you aren't looking at JCU for study abroad but a full degree, you may not want fun and easy courses. I would definitely look into JCU's accreditation - I don't think it's accepted by a lot of American universities. Basically you could get a four year degree there but it might count for nothing back in America.