Babylonix and ISN Amsterdam invites you to the “Exchange party” @ Club Home. This is gonna be a great chance for both Dutch and international students to get to know each other. Don’t miss it. Pre-sale tickets available soon.

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Hello peeps!

This is Nico and I’m finished with my exchange period at Brighton University, I had the best time of my life! I’ll tell you more about it in another post, but seriously, I totally recommend everybody to go on exchange, lots of things happens, you learn in many many different ways!

As you know (if you are HES student) right after exchange you gotta do an internship. So what I am doing now which I should’ve done waaaay before, is starting to apply to lots of companies and see if someone takes me! So far I realised about a couple of things that you should take under consideration when looking for an internship but that as well will come in another post, so keep checking the site now and then. Anyways, if you know of an internship in finance or marketing, let me know!

Alright, keep in touch!

laterz

Nico

If you have Twitter, follow me at> http://twitter.com/chenico

Also follow iStudyatHES at> http://twitter.com/istudyathes

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Hey peeps!

I, Nicolas Griffioen, 3rd year IBMS student currently on exchange in Brighton UK just won the contest “Host with the most orignal” by Adidas and MTV Europe. This contest was held through the adidas Facebook page. What I had to do was watch the adidas Orignal commercial and then answer a super easy multiple choice question (I think it was which football players appears in the commercial, and it was obvious that it was Beckham) and finally I had to write in 60 words why I consider myself original. I dont quite remember what I wrote since I just put the first thing it came to my mind but something like: “I’m half argentinean, half dutch, I love to houseparty and have the best international friends” and something else…

And YES! I won. I’m the most original person in Europe according to adidas and MTV!! hahahahaha. The prize includes invitation to 60 of my friends, 1 pair of sneakers and 1 t-shirt for EVERYBODY!! yeah, crazy! Free drinks, I can choose the music I want, official MTV DJ and some celebrity might show up.

This is for sure the best year of my life so far! Going on exchange rocks!

See yaaa!

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Interview with Frances at the University of Macau

Do you wanna know how it is like to go on exchange? or are you planning on going on exchange but still haven’t decided where you gonna rank for. Sure you can check out the official university website or google the countries info but for real life experience you got to check out this interview with Frances IBMS student who is currently doing her exchange program at the University of Macau.

Are you satisfied with the level of your school?

The level of the classes at the University of Macau is lower than the classes at the HES. However, if you are not only interested in your school results but in travelling and a relaxing semester as well, I would advice you do your exchange semester in Macau. Unlike the HES the university organizes many guest lectures and other trainings and activities that could be beneficial for you and your aspirations too.

Are you taking any interesting courses and how many hours a week do attend classes?

The University of Macau offers many different courses, which diver per semester. I you want you can take classes from other faculties as well, as long as they are related to your major in Amsterdam. The courses are very interesting and teached by lecturers from all over the world (Chinese, Taiwanese, Korean, Philippinos, Australians, Germans, Colombian, etc).

As you pick your own courses you can adjust your courses to fit your preferred schedule. Most courses have 2 sessions so you can choose the time that suits you best. I have four 1½-hour on Monday and Thursday and a 3-hour course on Tuesday and Wednesday. I decided (like most of the exchange students) to only pick courses after 12:30h so you can party or do other things during the nights.

The University of Macau has the 80% attendance rule and most teachers do take attendance, I guess you can miss all classes six times during the semester, but the lecturers are a bit milder when it comes to exchange students as we miss classes due to travelling sometimes, but this does not mean you don not have to show up most of the time.

A selection of the courses you can choose are: Chinese, Chinese Culture, Chinese courses Economy, Corporate strategies, Accounting, Real Estate Management, Advertising and Communication Management, Brand Management, Auditing, Economic Policy and planning, International Organizations, Human Resources Management, Financial Markets and Institutions, Portfolio Management, Business Ethics, and many many many more.

what about the university itself? How is the location? Do they use a lot of technical stuff?

The campus of the University of Macau is great! It has everything you could need during your exchange. There is a big library with many resources; you can find materials of about everything you can think of in it. There are 4 restaurants in the campus, one of them serving Western food like sandwiches, salads, etc. The others are much cheaper and offer Chinese food.

Next to the university is a sport complex in which you can do many sports for free during 08:00h and 17:00h, you can join one of the sport clubs too for a semester. And the best thing is that there is a very nice sauna in the sport complex. About 5 minutes by bus from the university is a place where you can go swimming, during several hours during the day, free for UMAC students.

The university itself is built on top of a hill, it has about 14 floors and different buildings in which classes for different faculties are given. The University of Macau is in Taipa (one of the three islands, Macau is the largest one, Taipa the second) and Macau can be reached by bus/taxi in about 1o minutes. The university offers wireless internet to all students, but there are also two computer rooms which are open 24 hours a day. The university offers good technical facilities for both students and lecturers during classes.

Where do you live? How much do you pay and how did you get it?

Before I went to Macau I was thinking of renting an apartment in Macau with other exchange students, but when I arrived almost all exchange students decided to stay in the dormitory as it is cheap, convenient, and we would rather spend our money on travelling. It takes about 1,5 minutes by foot to go from the dormitory to the campus, there is a bus/taxi stop next to it and the travelling time to Macau is about 15 minutes.

In the dormitory you share a room with one other person (they normally put exchange students together). There is a supermarket a restaurant (only during the day), laundry service which offers like a few kilo’s of laundry a month for free. There are students rooms and internet is available in the whole dormitory. Each floor has a living room with TV, to hang-out.

- Dormitory: 650 euro per semester

- Off-campus apartment: 275 – 375 euro per month

It sounds like a nice place but what about the social life? Daily gambling? lot’s of other exchange or are you mainly hanging out with locals?

Winner winner chicken dinner!! As mentioned above Macau is the Las Vegas of Asia. Imagine yourself in a city with the largest and most expensive hotels and casino’s and a nightlife you cannot compare with Amsterdam. Especially during the first months in Macau you see yourself going to different parties night after night, most of the 5 star hotels have clubs where most exchange students dance the night away. Unfortunately these clubs are a bit more expensive for boys than for girls as all the nice clubs have “ladies nights” in which the girls can order free drinks and the boys obviously have to pay. But I can say that the nightlife in Macau is most certainly worthwhile!! Gambling is being done by most exchange students once in a while but not serious, just for fun as we talk about amounts of 100 Hong Kong Dollar (say 10 euro).

Anyway off course there are other places in Macau besides the casino’s too. There are nice hotels with shopping malls (Venetian), take the ferry to Hong Kong, the Macau tower (with the worlds highest bungee jump from a building), cinema’s, a place to go ice-skating. And you can cross the border with mainland china (you do need a visa for mainland china) and go shopping, bargaining and come back with the cheapest fake products and a 2-hour massage for 4 euro. Or wander around Macau and meet many different people in Senado square. The students that live in the dormitory also gather often during the evenings/nights to play poker, talk and watch movies.

Are there many other exchange students or are you mainly hanging out with locals?

This semester almost 80 exchange students from around 20 different countries are studying at the University of Macau. We spend most of our time with other exchange students, but all exchange students are assigned with a buddy (a Chinese student) from the University of Macau. These buddy’s are supposed to help you dealing with problems you encounter in Macau or at the university, they organize special activities as bonfires, dinners, trips to their home cities in mainland China, etc. So after a few weeks you can see everyone interacting more with the local students.

The university organizes several exchange students activities. After your arrival in Macau the university organizes an introduction week in which you get to know the other exchange students better, in which you get more information about the university and course enrollment, obviously touring around Macau during the day and during the night is a part of the exchange week as well. But the highlight of the introduction week could be dinner on the first night!!! The dinner is called “Typical Chinese Food” you go to a very small Chinese restaurant (it looks like a canteen) and get amazed by the food served that night, such as: cockroaches, snakes, frogs, maggots, pigeons, etcetera. A night you won’t forget!

During the semester the university organizes an international food festival, all exchange students receive a certain amount of money from the university and you have to cook/bake food from your own country. We had Hutspot, Stroopwafels, Appelmoes, Dutch cheese and Gehaktballen. They also organize a country performance, here you can perform something typical Dutch, sing a Dutch song or play Dutch games or anything else. All Chinese students and lecturers at the university are invited to come to these events, try our food and see our dances.

What about the spending? similar to Amsterdam?

Spending in Macau is a bit less than in Amsterdam, food is much cheaper if you want Chinese food everyday you can get a good meal including drinks for about 4 euro. However, if you prefer Western food once in a while you will pay about the same price as in Amsterdam. Parting in Macau is the same price as in Amsterdam, you do not have to pay entrance but beer and cocktails are the same price as in Europe. 0,75cl beer in the supermarket on the other hand is very cheap about 0,80 euro. As most exchange students live in the dormitory, in which you can’t cook you do spend quiet a lot of money on dinners as you do not want to eat instant noodles every night.

Things like travelling are cheap if you go by train/bus if you prefer going by plane or flying longer distances to other countries the costs of tickets are between 150 – 250 euro (Philippines, Thailand, Beijing, Malaysia, and Vietnam). If you book far in advance the prices are a bit cheaper.

Shopping in markets is off course much cheaper than buying clothes in the Netherlands, bu if you want to go to “normal” stores like Zara, H&M, Giordano, Bossini, Levi’s and Adidas the prices are the same as in Amsterdam. If you cross the border with mainland China to Zhuhai you enter a large mall with many different little shops selling fake products of everything you can imagine for cheap prices.

And the final question, HES or University of Macou?

Evil question!!! … I prefer HES for my regular studies as the level is higher and it will be more beneficial for my future plans. BUT!! I can advice everyone to spend your exchange semester in Macau, the other exchange students are wonderful, it is in the middle of south-east Asia so you can travel a lot, the university level is not that high so you can study a semester a bit more laid-back, the nightlife in Macau is amazing as well as the contrast between East and West. Macau is totally different than China and Hong Kong.

Click here to check info about other exchange locations

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Well you’re reading this so you wanna go global right? if not stop reading and check out other posts!

In case you are doing one of the international studies at HES amsterdam you have to go abroad. If you are a first year student this might seem to be a millennium away from now but before you know it you are on the other side of the planet.

Do you already know where you wanna go? Are you sure about that? You need to have a back up plan….. So why not check out the foreign exchange fair organized by the HvA? What to expect? First of all, you have to check out the exchange section of iStudyathes.com. Other thna that, check out the info mr Knigge from the HvA mailed us today:

Find information at the numerous stalls of the information fair where (non)profit organisations, traineeship organisations, cultural institutes and the Foreign Desks of the HvA will be represented. Go to sessions about studying and traineeship abroad or consult experts and students with experience in educational exchange programmes.

There will also be specialists present; experts on subjects like financing and scholarships, study planning, career advice, making a portfolio, etc.

Wednesdag 1 October 2008 from 12.00 until 16.00 hours.

Building ‘De Leeuwenburg’, Weesperzijde 190 (next to the Amstelstation).

You don’t have to register!

You better know where you are going before you spend half a year in some boring city away from all the excitement, knowledge or whatever you expect from your exchange or internship.

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First impression

The University

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Courses

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Seven HES Amsterdam students of Trade Management Asia (TMA) are currently on exchange in the partner University of Chengdu heavily affected by the earthquake.

Another email has been sent with more latest news. I find particularly remarkable the action of HES Amsterdam in taking care of their students. The official news are: Read the full story

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This is an interview to Lena who is on exchange to La Rochelle, Sup de Co – France. Here you will find some relevant information about what you will face if you go there. Read on!

What are you studying and where?
Lena says:
In La Rochelle, Sup de Co, I am now making a minor in Stock acquisition and Logistics
Are you satisfied with the level of your school over there?
Lena says:
Yes. However, at the beginning – no, since I did not understand a lot and almost no one speaks English
Everything in French, right?
Lena says:
There is an English minor for Marketing, but mine and Finance ones are in French
What about the lessons? Do they use a lot of tech resources like ppt, audio, video, etc?
Lena says:
Every class is a PowerPoint that is later on the internet. Strange thing is that we do not have books – we have to write all the lectures. We have a lot of books on the local intranet, but there is no use in them since no teacher refers to any. But at the beginning we also had French classes with audio and video, yes
You never got bored? Read the full story

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Finally the ranking list was published last Friday. Pretty good timing from the school, they said that it would be there at midst of march and it was! a point for the school there!

211 students are going on exchange in the next period 2008-2009.

The most popular places were:

China took the pole position, USA, Canada and UK performed really good but a lot of people are going to learn spanish next year since Spain, Mexico and at least other 15 students are going to spanish speaking countries! Buena suerte!

The international office sent another email offering the left-overs places since not many people applied… not really smart for those who didn’t, since they won’t have the same wide option we had…

If you wanna know who you are going with, go to your HES email, open a new message, click on “to” and the search windows appears. Type in “alias” the student number of those who are going to the same place you go, press search and you’ll see his/her name! So start making friends now…

So, now the question again, why that place? Good education? Nice weather? Easy language? and happy with the place you’ve got? first option? second? fifth? wanna change?

PS: the ranking list it’s on the exam page, in the box of “mock exams and info”

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Here we have experiences from students that are or have been on exchange. You can find out what are the pros and cons of certain places, tips and many other things that only students can tell to each other and of course those things are not written in the totally no-updated exchange syllabus.

If you look for info of a particular place, send an email to info@istudyathes.com and I’ll get you someone who was there.

Meanwhile you can read these post that will help you make a decision.

• Student critieria about exchange
• Exchange at Mcgill – Canada
• Exchange at La Rochelle – France

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