The Normale weekly orientation courses

2024 Timetable24

What are the weekly orientation courses?

How to access the courses

• Recommendations from schools
• Direct applications

Selection Criteria

Contact

Programmes from previous years

2024 Timetable

- Torino - Centro Congressi Lingotto: from 17 to 21 June
- Camigliatello Silano (CS): from 1 to 5 July
- San Miniato (PI) - Conservatorio Santa Chiara: from 8 to 12 July

What are the weekly orientation courses?

The orientation courses of the Normale are aimed at students in their penultimate year of upper secondary school. Each of the Normale courses involves five/six days of activities and is residential; the selected students reside for the entire duration of the course in the same facilities, which makes for moments of socialization and sharing. Boys and girls from different places in Italy and around the world, with different educational backgrounds, experiences and social conditions, can share their projects, their aspirations and their visions.

The teaching activities include lectures by university lecturers, seminars and workshops on various areas of research and current affairs. At the end of the meetings, the students contribute to the debate, talking to each other and with the speakers.

Discussion with the lecturers and with the course support staff is possible, and desirable, also outside the teaching context: the residential formula is designed to provide the space and time for in-depth analysis of the proposed topics, the request for information on the various university courses and the curiosity and stimuli aroused during the course of the meetings.

The orientation courses include the presence of tutors, who are students of the undergraduate and PhD courses of the Normale, and who in turn share their study experiences with the students, through structured meetings and in moments of free time.

How to access the courses

Applications can be submitted through one of two channels:

1. Recommendations from schools.
2. Direct application for participation by interested students (in this case final year students can also apply) according to the instructions below.

Recommendations from schools
School head teachers will be invited to recommend, by means of an information sheet sent to them by e-mail in March, one or more students in their penultimate year according to the following specifications:

a. four deserving and motivated penultimate year students who are particularly interested in subjects in the scientific area (mathematics, physics, biology, chemistry) and/or humanities (classical literature, Italian studies, history, philosophy, history of art). 
b. two additional students in their penultimate year who particularly distinguish themselves in the humanities or in scientific subjects.

Recommendations can be made exclusively via the website of reference.

Schools that do not receive the information sheet can request it at the orientation course contact e-mail address.

For the recommendations to be valid, among other things the final grades for each study subject reported at the end of the previous school years and at the end of the first period of the 2023/24 school year must be stated. A brief presentation of candidates is also required (discursive and with some multiple choice fields) together with an indication of their motivations for participating in the Orientation Course.

Furthermore, the participation of the candidate with notable results in competitions included in the ministerial programme for the valorization of excellence may be taken into consideration; information may be requested on any school periods spent abroad and, for statistical purposes only and without influence on the assessment, their parents' educational qualifications and profession.

Recommendations can be submitted from Monday 18 March 2024 until midnight on Tuesday 23 April 2024. The list of selected students will be published during May 2024.

Students from every region of Italy will be able to take part in the courses. Students admitted to the courses will be granted free board and lodging. Only in cases of particular and proven need, which will be assessed individually, will a contribution be made to cover travel expenses to reach the course location (which is otherwise borne by the student). For students with disabilities admitted to participate, the Scuola Normale will cover the costs of board and lodging for any support or assistance staff.

Direct applications for participation
Applications for participation may also be submitted directly by students in the penultimate or last year of secondary school. Also in this case, applications can be submitted from Monday 18 March until midnight of Tuesday 23 April 2024 via the website of reference .

To submit applications, students must complete the registration procedure using an access code which will be issued to them upon their sending of an e-mail to the Orientation Course contact address.

Direct applications must essentially include the same data as for recommendations from schools.

Also in this case, students admitted to the courses will be granted free board and lodging. Only in cases of particular and proven need, which will be assessed individually, will a contribution be made to cover travel expenses to reach the course location (which is otherwise borne by the student). For students with disabilities admitted to participate, the Scuola Normale will cover the costs of board and lodging for any support or assistance staff.

The list of those admitted via school recommendations or by direct application will be published on the Normale website by the end of May, and the interested parties will be notified directly by e-mail.  

The Scuola Normale reserves the right to acquire documentation of the academic results of the selected students. 
Places are assigned to students assessed as deserving and suitable based on the data resulting from the application, according to the criteria outlined below. Based on the preferences expressed, the number of students selected for each of the two areas included in the courses (sciences and humanities) may not exceed 60%. Within each area, there may be no more than 60% of students of the same gender.

Selection criteria

Places are assigned to students assessed as deserving and suitable based on the data resulting from the application, according to the criteria outlined below. Based on the preferences expressed, the number of students selected for each of the two areas included in the courses (sciences and humanities) may not exceed 60%. Within each area, there may be no more than 60% of students of the same gender.

a. Final grades obtained in the previous two school years. Consideration will be taken both of the average grade (with the exclusion of conduct, Catholic education and physical education, however named), and of particularly significant results in related subjects:

• average grade: score from 1 (average of 7/10) to 4 (average of 10/10), with the possibility of decimals;
• particularly significant results in related subjects, which indicate interests and abilities oriented towards a specific field of study: up to a maximum increase of 2 points, with the possibility of decimals. 
  The overall score for academic results may in any case not exceed 4 points out of 10. 

b. The student's profile, listing interests and activities, including extracurricular ones, and reasons given by the student for wishing to participate in the courses: 4 points out of 10, with the possibility of decimals.
c. Participation and results obtained in competitions on scientific and/or humanities subjects (olympiads, championships, “certamina” etc.): 2 points out of 10, with the possibility of decimals.

Any other personal information acquired in the application format has purely statistical significance and will not contribute in any way to the attribution of points at the time of selection.

In situations considered equivalent, social inclusion criteria, such as the parents' educational qualifications, may be taken into consideration. Again in equivalent situations, the selection may favour the participation of students proposed by schools from which no candidates were selected in the previous two years, in order to allow for the inclusion of a greater number of schools and locations and a rotation between schools. As a rule, a maximum of two candidates can be selected from the same school.

Applications which, after evaluation based on the stated criteria, present a score difference within 0.5/10 are considered equivalent.

Students recommended for the orientation courses of the Scuola Normale may also be recommended for the courses of the Scuola di Orientamento Universitario (the University Orientation School); in no case, however, can the same candidate be selected to take part in more than one course.

The same criteria will also be used for the selection of students who apply via self-nomination. In this case, students who are attending the fifth year of upper secondary school can also apply.

The person responsible for the selection for the courses organized by the Scuola Normale Superiore is its Director, who may make use of a specific Commission for the preliminary activities.

Contacts

For any requests, clarifications or specific information you can send an e-mail to the contact address of the Orientation Courses (orientamento@sns.it), or call the telephone numbers: 050509670 - 307 - 757, from Monday to Thursday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. (Monday and Thursday also from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m.).

For technical support, in the event of problems entering data in the application form, you can contact: Davide Guglielmo, manager of the IT program for collecting applications, at the contact e-mail address, or at the following telephone number: 347.793.56.28 (from Monday to Friday, from 9 a.m to 12.30 p.m. and from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m.). We recommend that you call with your computer turned on and connected to the website.

Programmes from previous years