ESADE Business School Barcelona, Spain Travel Report, Spring 2014
Student 288505
Aalto University School of Business
June 9th 2014
1. Introduction
In this travel report I will share my experiences on my exchange student life in Barcelona in Spring 2014. I will also cover the most important facts and tips about ESADE Business School, which has been ranked the 3rd best business school in Europe by Financial Times (more information: http://www.esade.edu/web/eng ). I hope that this report will encourage you to make the best decision of your student life and apply for an exchange program. For me the exchange semester was one of the greatest experiences by far.
2. Preparing for the Exchange
Before the exchange semester I found a lot of information on aalto.into.fi webpages and I participated in an info event for exchange students. The International Student Service of Aalto was also very helpful with all my questions. In other words I had to do a bit of work to get the basic information but fortunately it was easily available. I can also highly recommend reading travel reports from other students to find beneficial tips about your future exchange destination.
Submitting Documents About three months before my departure ESADE sent me a welcome letter, an information package and a list of all the documents required to be submitted. In my case, ESADE sent the welcome letter relatively late so don’t worry if you have to wait for it a bit. One benefit of doing your exchange in Europe is that you are not going to need a visa but I recommend you to send all your documents on time because you can’t register for the courses otherwise. From the welcome letter you can find all the important dates and information considering you exchange studies. The required documents consist of your CV, a signed transcript of records, a copy of your passport, an ESADE learning agreement, proof of health insurance and an information sheet with your own picture. In addition, I needed to upload my picture on ESADEs intranet page about one month prior to my exchange semester. I also recommend you to pay
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attention when applying for the student and living support from KELA, taking insurance covering whole semester and applying for the scholarship. I applied for the scholarship already on May 2013 even tough I did my exchange in Spring 2014 so be careful with the final dates. After the exchange I needed to send the signed Learning Agreement, Erasmus Letter of Confirmation and Travel Report to the International Student Service of Aalto.
Accommodation
I recommend reserving some time when looking for apartments. I started to look for an apartment with another student before I came to Barcelona. I joined a number of Facebook groups such as ESADE exchange group where people informed about available accommodations. If you want to move in with other exchange students, ESADE exchange Facebook group is also a good place to find possible roommates. I booked my apartment from aluni.net, which was recommended to me by a friend. Aluni is an organization that arranges housing for students in Barcelona and Madrid. I was very content with their services and everything was arranged very easily. Only thing to complain about were the pictures online that didn’t tell the whole truth. The apartment was much older and in pretty bad condition compared to the pictures. Luckily, I was prepared for it and it didn’t bother me much. In other words, be careful when booking from Internet and never pay anything advance. You can never know what kind of shape the apartment really is and the pictures always beautify the real condition. Another option is to arrive in Barcelona about one week before the school starts to look for housing. Considering the location of housing I suggest to take into account the FGC commuter train stations in Eixample and Gracia neighborhoods. ESADE’s campus is quite far away in a smaller town called Sant Cugat del Válles and people use the FGC train to go there. The trip from the center of Barcelona to ESADE takes about 45 minutes (train 30 min, walking or by bus 15 min) and I can promise you that you don’t want to make it longer by moving far away from the train stations. In addition, most exchange students live in these areas. An important notion: do NOT consider living in Sant
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Cugat. It’s far from the center of Barcelona and I didn’t know any exchange students who would have lived there. My apartment was located in the center right next to La Rambla and I was very happy with the location. However, it is very touristic place to live so if you want to see more local life you might want to consider moving further away from the center. With a rent of 400€-‐600€/ month you should be able to get a nice apartment.
Course Registration
Because course registration works on a first come, first served basis, I suggest to mark the date and time in advance. Though, I heard that many exchange students changed their courses later on. Only the few most popular courses were full. You can take courses in English or in Spanish. Personally, I only took courses in English, which reduced the number of available courses a bit. Most of the courses focused on managing and marketing and the number of available courses were very limited. ECTS for the courses vary from 2 to 5 credits and many of the courses overlap. In other words, it took some time to select the courses considering that I needed 30 ECTS and wanted to have courses only on few days of the week to avoid the long trip to school. Eventually, I took courses for 31 credits and I had them 4 days in a week.
3. The Studies I participated in a two-‐week intensive Spanish course that started on January 13th before the start of the official school. Already during those two weeks ESADE’s exchange student organization CIEE arranged some activities where I got to know most of the other exchange students. I recommend participating in the Spanish course because most of the exchange students get to know each other’s during those two weeks. In addition, the CIEE didn’t organize a lot of events after that. The actual courses started between Feb. 1st and Feb. 17th. The spring term officially ended on May 30th but my final course already finished on May 8th. During April we had a one-‐ week Easter Break.
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Even though ESADE is one of the best business schools in Europe, the courses were relatively easy to accomplish. Most of the courses didn’t even have a final exam and the grade was based on group and individual works. Almost every course required 80% attendance and the courses included many presentations. Although all courses didn’t include that much work, together 7 courses may keep one busy at times.
Description of My Courses Español Intensivo, Group “Intermedio 2” (2 ECTS) Various teachers When I selected this course I needed to take a small exam on the Internet in order to know my right skill level. There were in total of six different levels to choose from. I suggest selecting the level given by the exam and later on you can shift the group if needed. I felt that my level was perhaps a little bit too difficult for me but I decided to stay in that group because I felt that I was learning a lot. There were only about ten people in one group, which made it very interactive. I recommend taking this course because it is a great opportunity to improve your Spanish skills and meet other exchange students. The grading was based on participation, assignments, a presentation as well as a written exam. Change management for service excellence (4 ECTS) Rajaram Govindarajan and Joan Noquera This was one of my favorite courses during my exchange studies. There were only a few people participating in the course and the lectures were very interactive and relaxed. Two different professors divided the course into two parts. Rajaram Govindarajan focused on the changes on service management and Joan Noquera focused more on the leadership of change management. Both professors were great and I enjoyed the course a lot.
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Grading: Prof. Govindarajan´s evaluation: 60% of the grade depended on the two case studies in groups and the remaining 40% will depended on class exercise. Prof. Noquera´s evaluation: 50% of the grade depended on each group’s presentation on the assigned topic, 30% on two compulsory essays and 20% on attendance and participation in class activities. CI: Sales Management (4ECTS) Joan Sibina Due to unpleasant schedule of the classes from 18.00-‐21.00, the course was very boring for me. In addition, a half of the course focused on very basic information of sales management. Every class had some small exercises and small presentations. Maybe the most interesting part of the course was a final group work on a case. It was relatively difficult and also mathematical when we needed to calculate budgets and salaries for sales representatives. Grading: 20% class participation, 30% group presentations and exercises and 50% final case study. EEO: Sustainability, Business and Values (4ECTS) Francesc Lozano This course was definitely the easiest course of the whole semester. At times I felt I was in elementary school again when we watched videos about the beginning of the earth. The professor Francesc Lozano was great and his “background” music for his presentations were very unique. I recommend this course if you are looking for an easy way of earn credits. Grading: 20% class participation and class exercises, 30% group presentations, 50% final presentation and written document.
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Managing Services (4 ECTS) Miguel Ángel Heras Overall the course was quite easy even though there were a few cases that we needed to work on in groups. I liked most of the guest speakers from different companies who spoke about the service management in their companies. The course focused more on the practical side of service management, which I preferred. Grading: Case studies and class exercises 50%, class participation 20% and final exam 30% SE: Public Sector, Business Regulations and Lobbying (4 ECTS) Angel Saz Carranza I think that this course was very useful even though it was sometimes very wearisome when the professor spoke for three hours without interruptions. Luckily, there were some guest speakers that perk up the lessons. In addition, the course included some case exercises that were slightly difficult and one group presentation. At the end of the course we needed to handout an essay and do a final exam. Grading: Case-‐exercises and class participation 10%, group presentation 20%, essay 30%, final exam 30%, peer evaluation 10%. MFGV: Applied Portfolio Management (4 ECTS) Ramon Alfonso At first, I was a little bit skeptical towards this course because I thought it would be very difficult. However, this course turned out to be one of my favorite ones. The professor Ramon Alfonso was wonderful and had amazing stories about investing and the finance world. Maybe, I liked the course so much because it was so practical and
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focused more analyzing markets and indicators rather than calculating. The course included weekly exercises and a final exam. Grading: weekly exercises 40%, a final exam 40% and class participation 20% Spanish art and culture: Understanding Spain through Gaudí, Picasso, Dalí or Miró (5 ECTS) Alex Fernández de Castro Krings If you would choose only one course in ESADE, you should choose this one. Barcelona is full of history, culture and world famous artists and this course focuses on the most important ones. The professor is wonderful and very dedicated to his work. Every week he gave some tips about good restaurants, events or news about what was going on in Barcelona at that moment. In addition, he organized trips to museums and unique restaurants. The course included one group and one individual presentation, two mini-‐tests and two final papers. Grading: mini-‐tests and presentations 50% and final papers 50%
3. The City of Barcelona
The Culture As you might already know Catalonia is an autonomous area in Spain where people mostly speak Catalan and also Spanish. Therefore, Barcelona might not be the best place to go if you want to learn a load of Spanish. However, they will speak Spanish if you open the conversation in Spanish but everything else around the city such as signs and ads are in Catalan. The language isn’t the only difference between Catalans and rest of the Spain. Catalans are very proud of their culture and they don’t want to be mixed with the rest of Spain. As a matter a fact, most Catalans would like to have full independence for Catalonia. Every now and then there are some demonstrations and Catalan flags were
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always hung from almost every balcony in the city. Fortunately, the demonstrations rarely are violent. Another important thing about the Catalan culture is football, of course. They are very proud of their own team: FC Barcelona. Attention: the nickname Barca is for the football club of Barcelona and NOT for the city of Barcelona. They have dozens of magazines just for football. In other words, if you are in Barcelona, remember to go watch at least one football match.
Leisure and Cost of Living Barcelona has a lot to offer: historical sightsees, art galleries, nightlife, architecture, old city, sports, beaches and restaurants. I haven’t yet heard of anyone disliking the city. Barcelona is very international city and you can meet people from all over the world. As an exchange student it is very easy to live there and the best thing is that everyday you can find new places to go and new things to do. It is a very big city but in comparison to other big cities like Madrid, it has its unique atmosphere. There are several different neighborhoods, each of which has its own own unique characteristics. In addition, Barcelona is a city of street art, which gives its own atmosphere. The cost of living in Barcelona is very similar to that of Helsinki. Only difference is the price of food and restaurants that are a little bit cheaper. Taxis are also cheap.
Safety and Pickpocketing As you already might know, Barcelona is famous for pickpocketing. Personally, I didn’t get robbed nor my nearest friends but I noticed few times when somebody was standing suspiciously close to me on the metro. My opinion is that your belongings are safe as long as you stay alert and keep eye on your stuff especially when travelling on metros and walking in busy places. Other than pickpocketing I felt that Barcelona was a pretty safe place to live in. However, I didn’t walk by my self at nights but rather took a taxi back home.
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Travelling Near Barcelona there are many small places that are nice to visit. I did many day-‐trips to the nearest cities as for example to Sitges, which is a beautiful small town 45 minutes from Barcelona. Especially their annual Sitges carnival was a wonderful experience that I can recommend. I also traveled to bigger cities in Spain such as Madrid, Valencia and Seville. Valencia is fairly near to Barcelona and you can get there easily by train. As a matter of fact, speed trains are a very comfortable way of travelling in Spain and much easier than air travelling. However, the prices aren’t that much cheaper. During the Easter Brake we traveled to Portugal where we rented a car together with few other exchange students. First we stayed in Lisbon for few days and then drove to Peniche, which is a small town famous from surfing. From there we continued our trip to Porto where we also stayed few days before we returned back to Lisbon. All in all, I recommend travelling in Spain and seeing other cities than Barcelona even though you are going to need some extra money for that. In addition, almost 80% of exchange students in ESADE come from Northern America and they all want to travel as much as possible in Europe. So it can be relatively easy to find company for your travels. I recommend staying in hostels when travelling to sale a relatively large amount of money. I always stayed in hostels and all of them were very clean, cozy and cheap places to sleep in. However, I recommend reading some of the reviews on the Internet before booking.
4. Final Comments
I cannot think of a thing that I would change from my exchange semester. I highly recommend ESADE and Barcelona for exchange studies. However, if your goal is to study courses from specific areas and you want to learn a lot of Spanish, maybe some other school is better for you. However, in ESADE the professors are very motivated and the whole atmosphere is great. In addition, ESADE as one of the best business schools in
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Europe cannot look bad in your CV especially if you are thinking about working abroad in the future. During my exchange I made some great friends from all around the world and got to learn a lot from different cultures. Exchange studies give you an easy way of seeing the world, makes you more international and gives you the opportunity to live somewhere else for a while. I recommend everyone to use that chance.
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