Located in the capital of Italy, N.U.in Rome hosts students who will learn, socialize and start their college careers in one of Europe’s most iconic cities.
Students study at John Cabot University, or JCU, a small, private American liberal arts university of around 1,800 students nestled right next to Janiculum Hill, only a 10-minute drive from the Colosseum.
Jeremy Bronstein, a first-year business administration major, studied in Rome through the N.U.in program during the fall 2024 semester.
Bronstein applied to Northeastern Early Decision I and received his acceptance letter Dec. 13, 2023. He waited over two months for location selection to begin, vying for a spot on the Rome campus.
After committing to the program in Rome, all 205 N.U.in Rome students began to apply for visas, a process that Bronstein said “was hell.”
For N.U.in Rome, Northeastern offered two different paths for students to obtain visas, Bronstein said. One was a group visa submission, whereby an N.U.in representative submitted students’ applications to the Italian Consulate in Boston. In order to receive a visa in this manner, students had to submit their passports and forms to Northeastern in a timely manner. Otherwise, students could achieve a visa self-sufficiently.
After obtaining his visa, Bronstein, who is originally from Miami, flew to Boston, where he took the group flight to Rome.
“The flight [to Italy] was a lot of fun. Everyone was talking the whole flight,” he said.
Living in Rome was an incredible experience, Bronstein said. He took part in JCU’s intramural volleyball team, which helped him form many friendships with other full-time JCU students.
Students in Rome were given the option to live in either the Gianicolo Residence or Lungara Apartments on the JCU campus. Bronstein said, “Gianicolo was a little smaller, a little bit older,” while “Lungara had bigger apartments.”
The education at JCU was fair, according to Bronstein, but took issue one class: “Everyone failed calculus,” Bronstein said.
Bronstein said the number of students failing calculus was so significant that “Northeastern had to get involved; JCU had to get involved,” and that part of the issue was due to JCU’s “weird” grading system, where students did not know their grades until their final transcript was released.
Bronstein lived about a seven-minute walk from the dining halls. Unlike other N.U.in locations, Rome offered students a dining hall, which took pressure off of students making meals and purchasing groceries. The food outside of the JCU dining hall is world-renowned. Italy is known for its pasta, pizza, and gelato, so grabbing a quick bite between classes is easy and, of course, delicious.
