Travel report. Ivey School of Business. Student

Transcription

1 Travel report Ivey School of Business Student Ivey School of Business is a leading business school in Canada. It is part of University of Western Ontario (UWO) in London, Ontario. London is one of the most southern places in Canada, located in the middle of the great lakes and two hours away from Toronto, Buffalo and Detroit. London itself is a small (circa. 400,000 people) town that lives off of its university students. Canada is an interesting opportunity for an Aalto business school student to include as an option for exchange studies. It is easy for a Finn to travel to Canada, as no visa or any documentation other than an acceptance letter from your university is needed as you travel. The stereotype about Canadians as the friendliest people seems to be true and people are intelligent and speak English (outside of Quebec). At Ivey the school year is compact and there is from one to two weeks break in the middle of the semester, when it is easy to explore Canada or US. The spring semester starts right after the new years and if you are going for the spring semester, remember to be alert with your class selection already during the preceding summer, as the whole year studies are selected through a some kind of draft system during the summer. All courses are in English. It is recommended to put some effort and thought into the selection, as the classes differ widely in work load, popularity, exam structure and quality. The most popular and challenging courses are in the era of Finance, but there are also some interesting possibilities in public speaking, management and marketing. First, however, one should decide what to aim to. It is possible to select courses without any exams and thus get a two week long reading week/spring break and the school year would then also end already at the end of March. The school has a well working online system, ezone, where all the school related things can be managed. From there one can also view descriptions of the classes, make their bids for them, make changes to their selection, view grades and book study rooms at Ivey. My course selection: I went to Ivey with a mindset of learning some key asset management related topics offered at Ivey and presentation skills. I decided that as the school semester is weeks, with a two week break in between, I can easily focus on my studies during that time and travel for the two weeks during spring break and then after the school year is finished at the end of March. I selected the following courses: Value Investing

2 This was my nr. 1 pick and I put most of my points towards getting into this class, as it is the most challenging and popular course at Ivey. The class teaches you the basics about an investing philosophy practiced by some of the world s greatest investors, such as Warren Buffett, Ben Graham, Walter Schloss and the Warren Buffet of Canada Prem Watsa, who has funded the Ben Grahan Institute for Value Investing at Ivey. The class is built around an introduction lectures, four to six valuation cases and a final valuation, where you are expected to find, value and present your investment thesis to the class with your team. The work load is sizable and I do not recommend taking the course if you are not ready to invest time into the class, as then you will be a drag for your team and will not enjoy the class as much as you should. The professor, George Athanassakos is an intelligent Greek-Canadian gentleman with a strong personality. He has a wide network of connections around the field of value investing and he invites various influential investors as speakers to give lectures for the class during the semester. Strategic Hedging The course is thought by a great guy called Lou Bielmann, who runs his own investment portfolio based on value principles. The course is laidback introduction to strategic hedging as a supportive act to running an all stock portfolio. The class lacks structure, but the discussions and topics are very interesting if you are into investing. The topics cover basic hedging instruments and there are two assignments where you are asked to run some basic excel data analysis for historical stock and volatility data sets. On top of these assignments there are readings for each class that one is expected to be familiar with during each class, and a final project where each team has to come up with a strategic hedging plan for a portfolio of stocks and a reasoning for the possible need for any hedging decisions. As said, the course is not very demanding time wise, but the discussions are sometimes interesting, though the topics are somewhat flurry and the discussion might get carried away once in a while. Behavioural Finance The course is fully case based and there is a new case to be prepared for almost each class. During the class the case is then cracked with the students and the topics and learning points from the case are discussed as the case goes. The class covers basic behavioral finance related topics such as uncertainty avoidance, overconfidence, lack of action and many others. The topics are discussed from the case perspective, which alters case by case, from personal to corporate and to financial decision maker. The class has also two projects on top of the cases. The projects are group ones, where you are asked to first analyze and then make up your own behavioral finance related business or product. The discussion in the class is very student driven and the professor, Alessandro Previtero clearly knows his stuff. Entrepreneurial finance The class is thought by a former pro hockey player David Simpson, who is a serial entrepreneur in London area. The class is laid back and it goes through some business cases from the professor s life. There aren t many cases or work that needs to be done, and some students pick the class as it is one of the easier ones, considering the workload. The entrepreneurial cases are very interesting though and Mr. Simpson is very open

3 in discussing his experience and gives a great amount of entrepreneurial wisdom to people seeking opportunities as entrepreneurs. Advanced Presentation Skills The class is about presenting, and it pushes the students out of their comfort level, as everyone is asked to present something at least once in each of the five three hour long classes. The professor has planned the classes very well and everyone taking this class can be sure to be more confident and capable presenter after taking a five class long brain washing of his methods of advanced presenting. The only slightly annoying part of the class was the professor s, for a Finnish perspective, open religions personal thoughts. Leadeship a Habit of Mind The class is tought by the same professor as the advanced presentation skills and during the same five double classes, you are supposed to learn both about your own personality traits and about other people s ones. Also the class teaches about leading different people with various personalities and ways of doing things. The teaching methods are very modern and inclusive, everyone is expected to take part in discussions and there are multiple small group discussions and small projects, mostly during the classes. Overall, the school is very practice driven. The school can be best described as a true business school, teaching actual hands on business skills, rather than an academic university. The mostly case based method of teaching takes some time to get used to, but after that the classes are very interesting and the professors and students have mastered the discussion as an important part of the learning experience. I would strongly suggest that if you decide to go to Ivey, be active also during the classes, as many people start to talk also out of the class to you, as they find your ideas interesting and everyone taking part to the discussions kind of get to know each other, even without a formal introduction to each other. It is a need system that works fairly well at Ivey. The grades are mostly formed from a structure of 20-30% contribution, 20-70% cases and a final exam (if the class has one) 20-60%. Free time University of Western Ontario is a big university that offers a full scale of activities also outside of class. There are parties every day and the recreational center offers brand new gym, hockey arena, squash, badminton, basketball and many other sport possibilities. The center also offers student leagues where you can form a team or take part in one for very reasonable price. The rec center itself is included in the school fee, so that is free for Aalto students. The public transportation in London is almost nonexistent compared to the size of the city. There are some buses that go every 10 minutes during the rush hours and at week time. During late evenings and weekend, the buses don t go very often and some not at all. Traveling is not very convenient, though the bus pass is included in the school fee. I would strongly advise to get the housing figured close to the campus and rather between

4 the school and the downtown than outside the radar of downtown and school, as most of the bars are located at Richmond Street and taking two buses to down town might take over an hour to one direction. Traveling During my studies I traveled to Toronto, Niagara Falls, Montreal and especially to US. The VIA rail is the easiest way to get to Toronto or Montréal. I also rented a car for couple trips, as it is very convenient and somewhat cheap for at least 25-year-olds. The costs for an exchange student at Ivey in London are between , depending on your preferences on cooking yourself or eating at the cafeteria, partying preferences and housing choices. The school itself charges international students for bus pass, service charges and rec center charges about CAD 400. One also has to pay for the case books, which are depending on your course selection, between CAD 400 and 600. Housing in London is somewhat affordable, and one should look for outgoing exchange students housing, as they want to offer their rooms for incoming exchange students. Furnished room in a house of 4-6 people can be found from CAD 400 to 650, again depending on your location. I would recommend on taking a room where other tenants are also Ivey students, as they are the most respectable, outgoing and can help you in practical things during your stay. Free time and other information London does not have much to show outside the student life. The student life is active and it is easy to make friends and meet new people. Canadians in London are extremely friendly! As I was really concentrated in my studies, I did not have free time problems. I played squash weekly in school s recreation center and also volley ball and gym some times. As London is situated only two hours from Toronto, I visited there many times, as Value Investing professor arranged us to go to Fairfax annual meeting at the end of the class. I also saw a baseball game of Toronto Blue Jays. Toronto is very American city driven by business people. Renting a car is easy and affordable, especially if you are over 25. I drove to Niagara Falls, Toronto. I also rented a car from Montreal and drove to US, Philadelphia for a week and back. Renting a car in US is not difficult either, as I rented one from Sand Francisco and drove it down to Los Angeles and all the way to Las Vegas, where I flew home from. I visited my girlfriend in Montreal, Quebec, couple of times, and Montreal is a true French city, completely different from the rest of Canada. Easter, I spent in Chicago, which is a city definitely worth a visit. After I had finished my studies, I drove from Montreal all the way to Philadelphia to visit my friend from Finland. I spent a week in a farm after which I drove back to Montreal. In the end of April, we flew from Montreal to San Francisco. Again, we rented a car and started driving Highway 1 to south. We made many stops in little villages and towns along the way, visited red woods, waterfalls and saw breathtaking views along the cost. Our next big stop was

5 Los Angeles, where we mostly spent our time in Hollywood and Beverly Hills, sightseeing vast homes of the richest people of the world. We did not have enough time to visit the famous Universal Studios but we went to Warner Brothers 2hour tour instead. There we saw a lot of ---- Next we were heading to Las Vegas, but when already so close, we could not miss Grand Canyon. We arrived to the canyons to see the sunset at 5.30, and it definitely was worth the driving and early morning. The weather was really cold as we were pretty high. We took a free bus and walked along the rim for couple of hours until we had to start the drive towards Las Vegas and Cirque du Soleil show. In Las Vegas we stayed in Flamingo hotel, a nice old Las Vegas hotel right in the center of the strip. I ended up my exchange in the mighty Las Vegas, where I flew back to Finland. Final comments After all my exchange was pretty much exactly as I envisioned it. One should not plan too much beforehand, but after arriving to the city one should be active in seeking new possibilities to meet people and to do stuff, as the friend groups develop quickly and you can arrange great trips and get togethers with other exchange students and your fellow class mates or friends from common activities. My exchange semester had two very separate stages, as I focused to my studies fully during the 10 weeks it lasted. During the break (two weeks for me) and after the school year, I had plenty of time (6 weeks) to travel around Canada and US, so if one wants to get both, learn new skills at a very respected top class university with driven fellow students, and have time to travel and to see the world, Ivey School of Business in London Ontario is a great option to take into consideration. One should plan classes and housing early ahead, but leave the traveling plans open for further possibilities after landing in Canada. Canada is about at par with Finland, considering price level. People speak English and are extremely helpful and friendly. Be prepared to meet extraordinary people during a stay at Ivey, the students and professors are first class. I truly recommend Ivey.