ACADEMICS
Academic credit: Each semester allows about fifteen weeks of instruction and provides one full semester of academic credit. Duke University provides an official Duke transcript of work completed satisfactorily. Students normally receive 4 or 5 course credits (equivalent to 16 to 20 semester hours or 24 to 30 quarter units). The Ancient City course offers two course credits. All other courses offer one course credit.
Final assignment of credit is the responsibility of the student's home college or university. The reporting of courses and grades and the extent of the materials and periods covered in the ICCS curriculum have been entirely acceptable to students' home colleges and universities.
Courses: The curriculum is structured differently from that in many American colleges and universities. Students are expected to take four courses, which is a minimum and normal load; a few students take five courses. A major part of the academic work is a required comprehensive and integrated course called The Ancient City. It is a two-credit course which requires as much class and study time as two semester courses. It covers Roman archaeology and topography, aspects of social and urban history of Rome, and Roman civilization. Frequent site visits and explorations, intensive museum tours and lectures, and wider-ranging trips based on the Professor-in-Charge's area's of expertise outside Rome are included as part of the course. In the recent past, Campania and Sicily have been the focus of extended and focused study. Because The Ancient City course depends on prior knowledge of Roman history, students are expected to prepare themselves by taking a Roman history course or by careful reading on the subject.
Students are required to take at least one course in Latin or Greek as part of their ICCS courseload. Students choose their courses from the following:
Renaissance and Baroque Art History
Elementary Italian
No other level of Italian is available.
The Latin and Greek courses avoid excessive concentration on commonly read works. Students who wish to take an independent study or directed reading may do so, providing it is supervised by a member of the faculty at the student's own college or university. This work will not appear on an ICCS transcript, and no responsibility for it will be taken by the ICCS faculty.
