Marta Dell Adami de Tarczal Copenhagen Business School, Denmark Fall 2014

Transcription

1 Marta Dell Adami de Tarczal Copenhagen Business School, Denmark Fall 2014 CBS CBS is one of the best business schools in Europe, welcoming every semester more than 700 International students from all around the world. It is based in the city district of Frederiksberg in Copenhagen and counts around 20,000 students. The buildings are very modern and fairly close to the city center. Being a Business School, it is well known especially for management and Economy related subjects, but offers courses that go beyond traditional business education, combining management subjects with other disciplines and untraditional angles. This offers the students a wide range of diversified lenses to look through when approaching the business world. Studies are organized along the traditional European system with 3 years Bachelor, 2 years Master, 1 year MBA and 3 years Phd following. ACADEMICS Courses offered at CBS are also in Danish, but the wide majority of the classes is taught in English, so there won t be any language problem. One of the issues that has been experienced from many students is that it s not always easy to get the first choice course due to the fact that there are many requests and not everybody s first preference can be respected. Moreover International students do not have access to all the courses offered by the school, but can choose from a list which is clearly placed in the university s website Don t set your expectations too high for what concerns the teaching level at CBS. Given the school s reputation I expected it to be amazing, but I proved myself wrong. The teaching level is, indeed, high, but not much higher than at USI. The classes at CBS are often larger than the ones we are used to and so the lectures are often led in a more frontal manner, more of a teacher s monologue than an evolving discussion. The teaching methods are more theoretically than practically oriented. The lectures are mostly like they are at USI, with the teacher explaining with a Powerpoint support. Most of the subjects involve the intervention of guests and those have always turned out to be very interesting, especially for the fact that CBS, being a big university, has good connections with big realities in

2 the working environment. There aren t as many groupworks as you are used at USI. Of course it depends from the subject you choose, but forget the enormous amount of weekly hours spent in groupwork and the regular presentations. Not happening at CBS. Differently from USI, you will go to class only once a week for every subject you are taking (usually for a 3 to 4 hours period). Less time spent in class and almost no groupwork means by reflex that more hours of individual studying are required. This consists usually in the reading of academic papers. The Danish society is a fairly flat society, so the relationships between faculty, teachers and students are informal and non hierarchical. Most of the teachers want to be referred to with their first names so be prepared for that. The staff working at the international office is very accessible and always as helpful as you can imagine. COURSES Courses at CBS are all of 7.5 Credits. Following you find the ones I took. Applied Business Research 4 hours computer based written exam based on the comment of a statistical analysis to be performed on statistical software a couple of days before the actual exam. This is a very technical and specific course, centered on quantitative methods. You will find it pretty challenging if you haven t followed any statistical course before. The classes are well structured and the teacher explains fairly well. Consider a substantial amount of hours invested in individual study between one class and the following one otherwise you will live a nightmare the weeks before the exam. My personal advice is: don t take the course if not required to (eg: substitute for Marketing Research) or not really interested in the subject. Do not miss the tutorial sessions, they will prove to be very useful. Strategic Brand Management The exam is an oral exam of about 15 minutes that has a starting point a synopsis (5 7 pages) that has to be written by the student applying the models seen in class to a brand of choice and handed in approx. a week before the oral exam. This is a super theoretical course that guides the students through several models used to analyze, grow and manage brands. In class the general ideas about the models will be

3 sketched and briefly applied to practical examples. At home the student will be required to go in depth of the theoretical background. There is a huge quantity of material provided that turns out to be very interesting. The second half of the course is based on the brand approaches, a set of brand management theories developed by the teacher that is therefore more motivated in explaining them than she was with the first part s themes. The teacher was not able to make the class relevant, the lessons being therefore often boring and not worth going. Don t miss the guest lectures though, because they always offered a valid point of view on the subject. Applied Neurocreativity The grade you will receive will be entirely based on an individual paper of approximately 15 pages to be written mixing the theory seen in class with your groupwork outcome. This course was absolutely amazing. It offers an innovative viewpoint that tries to apply theory from neurosciences to a business case. The course starts with theoretical lectures that introduce neuroscientific theories that have to be developed by the students with their own lenses and applied to solve a real, practical company problem. The course is almost totally based on one big group project that will make the student understand how to employ and exploit neuroscience to develop a sound business solution. Take the course if you search for something radically different and you are somehow interested in psychology and consumer behavior. Retail Branding and Innovation The exam is oral, but based on a written group essay of around 15 pages to be written on an argument of your own choice. This was for me one of the best classes ever! The teacher was perfect in making the subject relevant to everyday life and I very much enjoyed the group project in which we were required to go beyond the mere sterile theory and apply it to a practical case or develop it in a new way. Preparing every class in advance by reading academic papers that will then be discussed during the lecture is required. Each class is very interactive, with the teacher requiring the students to give their own insights and express their opinions. Given the fact

4 that the subject is very practically oriented, the guest lectures were very interesting and required us to provide real life solutions. OTHER Library CBS owns several buildings in Frederiksberg area and every building has its own library. Libraries are huge and offer many study places, nevertheless, especially in the exam period, it might be very hard to find a seat. To solve this problem CBS has a very practical seat reservation procedure that guarantees you almost always a seat. Library resources in terms of book rental are also well organized, very accessible and offer an almost unlimited number of titles. You can consider not buying the books for the classes (which are indeed very expensive) and take them from the library instead, but you have to think about it on time. There is also the possibility to reserve a various number of small group study rooms all over campus. This will prove to be very practical when needing to do groupwork. Other Bars and canteens are present in almost every campus building. There is always a buffet, a salad bar and a sandwich bar. The food quality is very high for a canteen and less expensive than in a regular bar. Compared to USI, CBS has very few computer rooms, but there is fast wifi reachable everywhere. PRACTICAL INFORMATION Before leaving I decided to apply for an Erasmus at CBS because it is considered one of the best business schools in Europe and I strongly wanted to have a business school experience to enrich my academic adventure with different viewpoints. Moreover I have never been in Scandinavia before so this looked like a good opportunity to explore northern Europe. I gathered information about CBS and the academic environment on the school s website which is very clear and user friendly. CBS international office was also very helpful and responsive whenever I had particular practical questions. As European student, there are no documents needed to apply at CBS (I don t know what the situation is for non Europeans), but be prepared to loose half a day when in Copenhagen to

5 get your residence permit and CPR number (the international office will guide you well through this procedure). Travel I flew to Copenhagen that has direct flights from all over Europe. If you are German consider taking the train from Hamburg thereby avoiding the proverbial airline luggage issues and enjoy a supposed to be romantic journey. There are also buses that reach Copenhagen from Northern Europe and could turn out to be a cheap alternative to flights. Arrival CBS gives you the possibility to be paired with a buddy, namely a CBS student that will take care of you at time of arrival by picking you up from the airport, handing you the keys from your dorm room and giving you all the practical information. I strongly recommend you to sign up for the buddy program because this is a great opportunity to meet local students that are otherwise pretty unreachable in class. It s anyway pretty easy to travel from the airport that is directly connected to the city with underground transportation. I recommend you to get to Copenhagen at least a week in advance. During the first week CBS organizes some academic/organizational welcome meetings that are a good opportunity to mingle with the enormous exchange student community. Moreover a student organization offers in the first weeks some extra activities (Exchange Social Program) meant for students to get together (eg. canal tour, Danish folk dance night and some cool student parties (do that!)). If you arrive two weeks before the beginning of classes, consider taking the Danish language crash course. Housing Finding a place in Copenhagen is a real nightmare. I was lucky and got a dorm room. It was pretty expensive to be an anonymous dorm room (700euros a month to be payed in two installments), but nothing to complain about. Everything in Copenhagen is expensive so the dorm solution is not so bad after all, plus you will have everything taken care of. The application for a dorm room is very stressful (be prepared) but if you won t get one, don t despair because there are several opportunities for private accommodation the international office will help you with.

6 Costs Be prepared for everything to be ridiculously expensive. From a beer, to grocery shopping, from the rent, to restaurant to theatre. It maybe wont be such a big shock if you are Swiss, but if you are Italian or German you will be quite shocked from how much living in Copenhagen will cost you. Public transportation is particularly expensive (more than 3 euros per ticket), but there are monthly tickets and 10 ways tickets that are more convenient. Even though public transportation is well organized, I strongly recommend you to buy a bike. Biking is the number one means of transportation in Copenhagen and you ll have to learn your way around bike traffic. In September, at your arrival in Copenhagen everyone wants a bike so they are pretty expensive in that moment ( euros for a used one), but you ll have no problems selling it at end of your stay. International Office International Office at CBS is very well organized. There will always be people at your disposal to help with any issue that might arise. Everyone is very helpful and easily reachable also by , which will never remain un answered. There are designated spokespeople for undergraduate and graduate students. Be prepared to visit the office often when working on your course schedule, which will turn out to be pretty messy, trust me. Everyone, though, will do his/her best to make it work as you wish. Social activities Given the nature of the classes and the teaching methods it s pretty hard to socialize in class, but you will have many other opportunities to socialize with other students. The student dorms are the first socializing areas where you can meet people that are exactly in your situation, looking for someone to hang out with. The welcoming week offers great occasions to meet new people. Don t set your expectations too high for what concerns meeting and befriending with Danes, they are proverbially cold people and always super busy with other friends or work. Hard to reach in class, but as soon as you scratch the surface they will turn out be awesome people, give them a beer and you ll soon be friends. Your relationship with other international students, on the other hand will grow stronger everyday and in the end you will see the as a second family.

7 Language Official language of Denmark is Danish, some cluster of sounds impossible to understand and even harder to reproduce. Be prepared to struggle when it comes to your first grocery shopping experience in trying to understand what s the flavor of the tea you re buying. Out of that EVERYONE (no exaggeration) speaks English so you will be able to survive more than well. Classes are totally in English and the required level is pretty high (should be Toefl 91 and Ielts 6.5). Students at CBS generally have an English level that is substantially higher than the one they have on average at USI. Final thoughts I totally recommend you this journey even though initially my Danish experience was very tough for a several number of reasons. My biggest advice is the following: DO NOT set your expectations too high. This was one of the main problems I experienced; my expectations regarding the city, the people and the school were impossible to leave up to and this caused me strong distress in the beginning. I quickly adapted my view and I had an amazing experience. Be prepared to a blonde, head to toe black dressed, pretty narrow minded, anti hierarchical society that will nevertheless prove to be rich of interesting sparks. Don t worry about the cold, but about the darkness that will eat daylight sooner than you notice. You will come back personally richer, having added a new perspective to your world view. And there s no stronger sensation. I will be more than happy to tell you more about my Danish experience and give you useful tips for your decision. Feel free to contact me at [email protected].