On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog

(Aka it’s never too late for some culture)

I just sent an email to some friends of mine to summarize all my plans for 2012/2013, I am publishing them right here in order to help some of you that may have my same ideas about it. Tell me your opinion if you want.

I want to highlight here my plans for the summer 2012 / fall 2012 / spring 2013 I made.

 - Summer 2012 (Jun-Aug)

 To start I have been admitted and I will participate to the summer school program of  Harvard University in Cambridge, MA. The course works like this: you can attend two classes, for 4 credits each, or three classes, for 8 credits in total (like the two classes, but just two of these three are worth credits).

 It’s easy to participate, they give you credits, a certification and transcripts. These transcripts will be asked by Harvard if in a future you will apply to ANY other Harvard school. At least in Harvard this is considered serious business. 

 click here for the summer school

 Price: 5400 USD, let’s convert them to 6000 with all the hassle. My opinion: a lot, but may be a start to understand a bit how it works there. It’s still two courses in two months, and it’s Harvard with their real professor. Don’t take their accomodation, it’s 4800 USD for a SHARED room with no toilet.

 - Fall 2012 (Sep-Dec)

 From September to December I want to participate to the Business Certificate Post-baccalaureate in Columbia University, NY. My goal is to attend this post graduate course, and on the Columbia site they have these course other than this:  

• Biotechnology Certificate Program
• Business Certificate Program
• Classics Certificate Program
• Ecology, Evolution, and Environmental Biology Certificate Program
• Psychology Certificate Program
• Quantitative Studies for Finance Certificate Program
• Executive Education in Strategic Communications

You can click on that if you are interested. During the summer they offer 

• Critical Issues in International Relations Certificate Program
• Human Rights Certificate Program
• United Nations Studies

Which are not bad in a UN optic. 

 The way they works it’s easy. You can attend 4 course for a Certificate in 6 months, or 8 courses for an advanced certificate in 12 months. It’s your choice, they give you a list of courses and you choose what you prefer. Piece of cake. 

 For this it’s 8494 USD for 6 months, 16992 USD for one year. Imma take 6 months. My opinion: worth it, it’s Columbia and it’s heavy on the curriculum. If you say goodbye after 6 months you still have the certificate, even if you applied for the one year solution. Cool story bro.

 - Spring 2013 (Jan - May)

 The final monster, Harvard Special Student Status. It’s hard, and you are respected for this, as there are a lot of people that want to enter Harvard without a GRE, WHICH YOU DON’T NEED FOR THIS STATUS. If you did all of the course I said before, you must be good, you just need 3 more recommendations and the job is yours. They enroll you in the University like a Graduate Freshman (I have no idea if it’s the correct greek definition) and you attend the university like everyone else, a Master or a Phd student. In this case shit gets serious as they assume you know all their Phd know, so it’s tough but extremely important.

 For one more reason it’s important: after this six months, which can be extended for one year, you can take these exams and then if you want take the GRE that you need while there. If you have a good GRE, not even superawesome, you can apply for the course you are doing for the regular status without losing the credits for the exams you did while in the special status. It means that if you passed all the exams of the first semester or the first year, and you are admitted into the Master or Phd course, you start with the regular status from the second year. Easy, uh?

 Link here for the programs

 Check them and choose, the prices are 9394 USD for 6 months and 20334 for one year. My opinion? If you are admitted, then go. Straight, quickly. It’s a very important occasion and you can also have their Placement services, the Alumni network, you know tons of people and you can rely on the campus presentation of many companies that fights to have Harvard students.

 So, what do you think?

 

(I still don’t know how much do this courses count, but if you have the money or your parents blessed you with some help, why don’t you try?)

(Aka Technically it’s Cambridge)

 Ok today I will let you know some updates about the decisions I took for my future. You know that all interns are looking for something to do after this experience and although they know this life won’t last forever they will always try to continue having fun without really working (and forever interning). Anyway like most of them I was in the condition of looking forward for this summer and find something to do, in order not to “waste” (according to my parents) time lying on a beach in Italy.

Do you remember the post about the university I refused about one month ago (Should I Stay or Should I Go)? Well after that decision I didn’t come back again with another decision until a couple of days ago, while I was discussing with some friends here and with the big boss at home: see I still haven’t decided yet if I will be attending NYU master here in New York, and every day tons of new possibilities rise up from the work opportunities sea. Among all those, I decided to choose something that could satisfy me and my parents at the same time: a summer school.

I though this could have been a transition experience to definitely prepare me for the world of US universities, which is not too bad and I bet I will be fine, as in every place I have been in my life (I am even a funny and friendly person, ask anyone). I chose Harvard University. I know what you are thinking; this guy is a douchebag, another rich intern pretending to be poor, a “son of dad” and communist kind of stuff like that. Well I can ensure you that this was a decision I took thinking hard to it, not doing it just to spend a couple of months. I know the tuition is really expensive, even for one month, but I think that this is an investment that in a long term scope could bring you back awesome results. I mean, it’s just a summer school, obviously, I don’t pretend it would be considered such as a Phd or a Master, but in Italy I think it would have a pretty nice appearance on my desk, and would be considered by the people that would choose if hire me or not.

Because sometimes I forget but my ultimate goal is to be hired. And I am still undecided too if this would happen here in the US or in Italy, my loved land. You see I see New York as a little land of opportunities, not the whole United States because I am not naïf not to know that it’s not beautiful everywhere here such as everywhere in the world; I can see how you could be rewarded if you put efforts in what you do, I can see how this city and the people could give you a chance if you deserve one. I trust this city, and maybe I will regret all my trust but I still believe in this world.

I know that someday I will be back in Italy, but not know; there no chances to do something you love and slightly more chances to be employed in a dead end job you hate. I will come back in Italy to see my family and my friends when I’ll be a new man, shaped by this experiences my parents are permitting me to do (and I thank them). Coming back to the Harvard Summer School, I found it very organized, available and reliable (yes you pay even for that and the name most of all) and yes, it’s always Harvard. You have to know that it’s very, very difficult to attend these schools and participate to these programs in the US because of the GMAT, the GRE, the TOEFL, the essays and all the requirements they have. Not because you are not good enough, because in Italy we still are idiots that don’t think that teaching to kids in English would be a massive asset for them in a future. I had to learn English on my own; do you think it was easy? Do you think I have the same chances of somebody that studied his whole life in English to pass a GMAT or a GRE? I don’t think so.

Harvard Summer School would be a start, and then I’ll see what I will do next. I even applied for an internship (even if I would like to start working) at CERN in Geneva, who knows that they may need a scientist?