Dear Student:

We invite you to join a select group of American undergraduates who will spend a semester or a year studying at the Central European University in Budapest, Hungary.

Central European University is a US-style graduate level institution in the social sciences and humanities. Its total enrollment of about 1000 students is divided into master's programs (60%) and doctoral programs (40%). Students come from over 70 countries, faculty from more than 30--and the mix of nationalities is increasing every year. In addition to students from Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, CEU welcomes students from Western Europe and North America, including undergraduates on the CEU/Bard program who help enrich the international environment.

Such an international profile is unusual in the sense that this relatively small community offers a richly dense international cross-section and creates special dynamics in the classroom. Very few other universities can claim to have a student and a faculty body within which there is no particular national predominance.

The CEU/Bard program attracts students from a diverse set of institutions in North America. Since 2001, students from over 30 colleges and universities have participated in the program. Among the institutions represented are Adelphi, Bard, Columbia, Cornell, Duke, Harvard, Illinois Wesleyan, Oberlin, Princeton, Rutgers, Scripps and Swarthmore. Credit and transcripts are issued by Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. Financial aid is structured so as to make the program accessible to students from state as well as private schools.

To enable undergraduate students to participate in graduate level courses, this program follows selective admissions criteria and provides careful academic advising. Students who have participated in the program over the past four years have enjoyed tremendous success. The program has helped pave the way for them to pursue careers in international affairs and to attend leading graduate schools, including CEU.

The following pages will give you a more complete idea of the CEU/Bard program. Additional information is available through our website, ceu.bard.edu, while CEU's profile and selection of courses can be obtained through www.ceu.hu.

We hope that you will consider studying in the CEU/Bard program, and we look forward to welcoming you to CEU.

Yours sincerely,

Leon Botstein
President of Bard College

Yehuda Elkana
President and Rector of Central European University