American Institute for Foreign Study (AIFS)
Prague, Czech Republic
Prague has become the place for aspiring young American writers and artists to gather. In the streets, jazz musicians improvise in the open air. You can find cafés in art-nouveau settings and clubs that stay open until dawn. You can explore the castles and cathedrals of the Habsburg Empire, find out about the lost history of the Jewish ghetto in the Jewish Museum, discover Golden Lane where Kafka’s house has been turned into a bookstore or visit the house where Mozart lived in 1787.
Students interested in international politics, economics or culture will find Prague a stimulating place to live and study. Prague is a city built from a collection of picturesque towns, each of which still retains its special character. On one side of the River Vltava lies the city’s famous castle surrounded by mansions and gardens of the vanished Habsburg nobility. Across the Charles Bridge, with its ornate statues and pedestrian walkway, you can find the narrow winding streets, medieval wine cellars and houses of the Old Town. Nearby, wide boulevards of the New Town draw shoppers and strollers to its central corridor, Wenceslas Square. Outside of Prague, the countryside is full of elegant spa towns, castles with surrounding fields, mountain ranges crossed with ski slopes, hiking trails and rivers that link cities and towns. From Prague you are within easy reach of Vienna, Budapest, Berlin and Munich.
Charles University
The Collegium Carolinum (Latin name of Charles University) is the oldest university in Central Europe, founded in 1348 by Charles IV. Jan Hus, famous for his campaign against church corruption, became the University Rector in 1402 urging that Czech students and professors be given more power within their own university. The University’s student body was a center of Hussite activity for 200 years. After the Catholic victory at the battle of the White Mountain in 1620, the Jesuits took over the University. After the Jesuit order was disbanded in 1773, the premises were used as a seminary, university and library. In 1882, the University was split into Czech and German parts, a concession to growing Czech nationalism. The author Franz Kafka enrolled at Charles University in 1901 for eight semesters of law school.
During the brief lifetime of democratic Czechoslovakia (1918-38), academic life was liberalized, although the basic organization of the University was similar to its structure during the Austro-Hungarian Empire. After the period of Nazi occupation, during which all universities were closed, normal University life began again in 1945. Under the communist regime many changes were instituted. After the Velvet Revolution of 1989, the idea of strict planning according to state ideology was abolished and academic freedom and a high degree of autonomy from the state became the goals of the new era.
Included in AIFS program fee:
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Round trip flight from New York*
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Cultural activities
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3-day London stopover before program
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3-day visits to Vienna, Austria, Kraków, Poland and Moravia, Czech Republic
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Services of a pre-departure Student Advisory Center and an on-site Resident Director
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Public transportation pass
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Computer facilities with Internet access
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Phone card on arrival to call the U.S.
*Supplement applies from 26 U.S. cities
Academics
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Academic year, fall or spring semester; summer
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Open to college freshmen, sophomores, juniors and seniors
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All courses offered in English
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2-week orientation and intensive Czech language preparation for three semester credits at start of semester Czech language study during the semester is optional
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Transcripts issued by Charles University
Housing and meals
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Housing in double rooms with private bath and kitchenette in University residence hall or in an apartment
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Monetary allowance provided for meals at University cafés and cafeteria, local Czech restaurants or for cooking at home
Cultural activities
www.aifsabroad.com
*Source: American Institute for Foreign Study 2005-6 Academic Year/Semester catalog