Travel report
Universidad de Chile, Facultad de Economia y Negocios (FEN)
Santiago de Chile, Chile
Spring semester 2014 (Chilean fall semester 2014)
242004
1. Preparing for the exchange
I started preparing for the exchange about 3 months before the start of the semester. Universidad
de Chile required us to send some documents few months before the exchange to obtain the
Chilean student card etc. They also required us to preliminary choose all the courses already in
December and to sign up for the university’s buddy-program. It may be that Universidad de Chile
recommends exchange students to apply for a student visa, but still, it says in the university’s rules
that exchange students can study at FEN while having a tourist visa. I myself did not apply for a
student visa because it costs approximately 400 Euros in total and it has to be applied
approximately 1 month before your trip and you have to send in some papers to the Chilean
embassy in Helsinki. The biggest difference between student visa and tourist visa is that with
student visa you can stay longer in the country (6-12months) and with a tourist visa the maximum
stay is 90 days. One can get tourist visa simply by entering the country and it can be renewed as
many times you like simply by exiting Chile and entering again. One can for example have a nice
weekend trip to Mendoza, which is in Argentina located 300 kilometers from Santiago, to renew
the tourist visa. The only plusses of having a student visa are that only students which tourist visa
can get discounts from public transport in Santiago and that some internships are offered only for
students with student visa. But still, due to slow Chilean bureaucracy it usually takes 3-4 months to
get your student discount card for the public transport, which does not help you much if you are
staying in Chile only for 4 or 5 months. Also the internships offered for students with student visa
last semester were not paid internships. As a summary of the visa question, I would totally
recommend just to enter Chile and to get a tourist visa because you will save 400 Euros and lots of
time because you don’t have to send any documents to the Chilean embassy.
One more thing to care about before your exchange is the vaccinations especially if you are
planning to travel to other countries in South America. I myself took hepatitis A+B, yellow fewer
and typhoid fewer vaccinations. I started worrying about the vaccinations about 1 month before
my arrival, which was absolutely too late because for example hepatitis A+B vaccination needs a
boost dose after 1 month and without that boost dose the effect is not complete and it was a bit
difficult to reserve vaccination times while having such a tight schedule. More information about
the vaccinations can be found from site www.rokote.fi.
Travelling to Chile from Helsinki can be quite expensive, cheapest return tickets are around 1200€
if booked at the right time and cheapest one way tickets are around 800€. I would recommend to
start searching for flights about 3 months before the planned travel date. The way to save some
money in flights is to fly somewhere else than Chile in South America. Flights to Santiago are in
general more expensive than flights to Buenos Aires, Lima or La Paz, for example. And why would
not you travel a bit before or after your exchange? Also one good tip is to search flights from
Madrid to those cities because the prices are significantly lower from Madrid (and sometimes
from Paris) than from Helsinki, because there is lots of traffic between Spain and South America.
One can find a one way ticket from Madrid for around 500€ and cheapest one way flights from
Helsinki to Madrid are less than 100€. I myself flew to Lima, Peru about 1 month before the start
of my exchange semester and travelled in Peru and Bolivia and then made my way down to
Santiago. I arrived in Santiago in the same morning as the semester started and I would totally
recommend arriving there at least 1 or 2 weeks before. Almost all the universities start at the
same time and therefore most of the exchange students and Chilean students are searching for a
place to stay at the same time, so it will be hard to find anything good close to the university if you
arrive only few days before the start of the semester.
I did not have any major problems when preparing for the exchange but I heard from fellow
students that it was relatively easy to find help for problems by just emailing the study coordinator
Kaia Range. Only problems that occurred to me were that, when I had to preliminary take my
courses, the web portal was only in Spanish and it was hard to find almost any information about
the university in English.
The reception at the school was quite good in general. We received a welcome email about the
orientation day with schedules and everything about one week before. On the first day there was
a welcoming event in one of the auditoriums where the director of international department and
the study coordinator informed us about the most important things to know about the practices in
the university and about life in Santiago in general. After that we had an orientation to Chilean
student life, we were divided to groups of 10 mixed with Chilean first year students and the tutors
took us around the campus and after that they took us to the city. The idea of the orientation was
to be like a mild version of The Walrus Day, but in my opinion it just did not work and was badly
organized. Just to add that all the first year students in the groups were 17-18 years old as most of
us exchange students were around 22-25.
2. Exchange studies
Starting and ending dates of the terms
The fall semester (there are reversed seasons in the southern hemisphere) starts on 5th of March,
which was the orientation day for us. Classes began on the next day. In FEN they have a policy that
students can add and drop courses during the first 3 weeks of semester and after that courses
can’t be added or dropped and they will show on your transcript of records even though you
would not had completed them. There is a mid-term period around at the middle of the semester,
in fall semester starting in the first week of May and lasting almost two weeks and there are no
classes during that period. In fall the semester the final exams were at the end of the semester on
the first and second week of July, and the semester officially ended 9th of July.
About the courses and the academic level of Universidad de Chile, FEN
Universidad de Chile is ranked to be the best university in economics in South America, while one
full academic year costing around 10,000 USD, and among Chileans it has a reputation as a tough
university to get in and to pass the courses.
For us exchange students, it was recommended to take 3 courses during one semester and the
study coordinator said that 4 courses would be a very heavy work load. Each Chilean 10 credit
course is equal to 6 ECTS and therefore most of the European students had to take 5 courses as a
minimum. I myself took 7 courses including the Spanish course offered by the university which was
3 ECTS. In general the requirement level of my courses was much lower than in Aalto BIZ and the
work load was much lower as well. I studied 5 of my courses in English and one in Spanish plus the
Spanish language course which was of course in Spanish as well. On the other hand, in general the
courses offered in English are said to be much easier than the ones in Spanish, partly because of
the relatively low level of English skills of the Chilean students. Also, it is said that elective courses,
which are not compulsory for all the Chilean students, are easier in general. The courses are
evaluated in a scale from 1 to 7 (7 being the best) and 4 is the minimum to pass. Most of the
exchange students had their GPAs at around 5,5 and it was relatively easy to get good notes
especially in courses which are offered in English. But still courses like ‘Viticultura’ were quite
demanding and some exchange students actually failed that course. One more difference to Aalto
BIZ is that most of the professors require an attendance of at least 80% during the course, which is
also understandable because class sizes are generally much smaller than in Aalto, being around 30
in general. Also other difference is that lots of lectures get cancelled by the professors just days
before.
I think that there were enough courses offered both in English and in Spanish and it was not
difficult to get those 5 courses required by Aalto. To get the 30 ECTS required, it is possible to take
any courses in the undergraduate level, except for sports or arts courses. It is also possible take
those sports and arts courses as extra courses, which I would also recommend in order to meet
more Chilean students. One should still remember the restriction that Aalto does not allow to take
courses in the subject in which you are majoring in.
The name of the program in FEN for business is ‘Ingeneria Comercial’ which is just a name used in
Chile for economics and business studies, even though it may sound like to be equivalent of
industrial management. As said, courses at the faculty of economy and business can be selected
quite freely and one does not have to follow a certain program and there are courses in Spanish
and also in English.
Courses I took during the semester
ENECO332/01
URBAN ECONOMICS
Undergraduate 6ECTS/10 Credits (2x 90min per week)
Lecturer: Teresa Ruiz-Tagle
The course evaluation consisted of 3 reading comprehension tests (2 best were evaluated) about
the topics discussed on the classes, a presentation, mid-term exam and of the final exam. The
course consisted of lectures which were held twice a week 90 minutes each, the course was an
introduction to urban economics and an overview about the topics which are discussed in the field
of studies of economics of urbanization. The goal was to develop understanding of the problems
and challenges of cities and how different policies affect different things in the process of
urbanization. The lecturer was highly qualified (held a Ph.D. from Cambridge) and she made
lections interesting in general and in addition spoke good English. At first I was expecting this
course to be very quantitative as it is an economics course, but actually the content was very
qualitative and the course consisted of reading the material rather than of equations of economic
models. I would say that I learned the most on this course and that it was useful in general and
really helped to understand the problems and challenges of urbanization by using a scientific
method. The requirement level was a bit higher than on other courses I took, but most of the
materials were interesting and all the exams consisted of wide essays about the key topics which
made studying for the exams bit easier.
ENESP150/01
ESPAÑOL PARA NEGOCIOS I
Undergraduate 3ECTS/5 Credits (2x 90min per week)
Lecturer: Alberto Catalan
In December (3 months before) the start of semester all the exchange students received a mail
about that whether we want to take a Spanish course during the semester. On the orientation day
exchange students who wanted to take a Spanish course had to take a Spanish test to divide
students to groups based on the Spanish level. The test was only 3 pages but it took them 3 weeks
to correct the tests and to divide us to groups, which I find absurd as learning Spanish is the main
motivator to even come to Chile for most of the exchange students. I had not studied Spanish
earlier so I had to start from the basic level which was Espanol para negocios 1. The course
consisted of the basics of Spanish and I find that it should had been more demanding. After 2
weeks I did not go to the classes anymore because the level was simply too low, and you easily
learn the basics just by yourself. The lecturer of the course was good in general but I find that he
should had demanded more of us and that he should had handed out more material for self
studying. I find that the course would be useful if you would start studying Spanish from the zero
and had not spoken it never before during travels but for me this course did not give much and
therefore I just wrote the exams and at times went to the classes of more advanced group
(Espanol para negocios 2). The evaluation consisted of two written exams.
ENMKT480/01
MARKETING INTERNACIONAL
Undergraduate 6ECTS/10Credits (2x 90min per week)
Lecturer: Arlette Cifuentes
The goal of the course was to give an overview of international marketing and of the challenges of
intercultural communication. During the course we covered basic theories about marketing and
applied them to the context of international marketing and discussed about cultural differences
and how they affect international marketing. I have only studied one marketing course which was
the basic course in Aalto, and I felt that I had already learned all the things which were covered
during this international marketing course. The theory part was very thin and not so many new
topics were discussed during the course. The course consisted also of 2 classes per week, each 90
minutes, but in reality the professor cancelled about 1/4 of the classes and classes usually lasted
only for 60minutes or less. The lecturer seemed to have lots of knowledge of the field of
international marketing and she told interesting examples from her own career. The lecturer was
also very kind and always ready to help if we had any problems considering the group works for
example and she also spoke very good English which made the classes easier to follow. The
evaluation of the course consisted of mid-term exam, class participation and of the final project
which was a group work of 4 persons. As a summary, I felt that this course was interesting and
useful but also very easy and we could had covered much more topics during the course.
ENNEG317/01
INTERCULTURAL BUSINESS CHALLENGES IN LATIN AMERICA
Undergraduate 6ECTS/10Credits (2x 90min per week)
Lecturer: Diego Mora
The idea of the course was to give an overview of the intercultural business challenges in Latin
America and to learn basics about the business environment in Latin America. The course
consisted of lections by the professor and of lections by guest lecturers. During the course we
covered topics like is it reasonable to speak about Latin America as a unite region and which ones
are key factors that determine whether businesses fail or succeed in Latin America. We also
discussed about individual business environments in different Latin American countries. The
lecturer has his own company which is specialized in consulting in expanding businesses to Latin
America and his real-world examples made classes more interesting. During the course we had to
do a group work in groups of 5 and then we had an individual “final exam”, which was more like a
case work, at the end of the course. There were around 30 students on this course and we spent 6
full classes on the presentations of the group works, which was too much in my opinion. Besides
the group works and the final exam we had to write short essays about the lectures of guest
lecturers. The final exam was a case work about a company which wanted to expand its operations
to Latin America and it was meant to be done at home which made it a lot easier. I would say that
the course was useful but, again, the theory part was very thin and the course was extremely easy
as everyone automatically got best grades of the essays and of the group works which together
consisted of 60% of the evaluation. The professor also cancelled about 1/4 of the classes due to his
business travels and it was at times boring to listen to the presentations of the group works.
ENNEG323/01
COMO CAMBIAR EL MUNDO: UNA INTRODUCCION EXPERIENCIAL AL
EMPREDIMIENTO SOCIAL (In Spanish)
Undergraduate 6ECTS/10Credits (2x 90min per week)
Lecturer: Felipe Martinez, Isabel Nunez
The idea of this course was to give an overview to start-ups and social entrepreneurship and to its
potential to change the world. In the beginning of the course we spoke about general things about
entrepreneurship and about the things what to consider when starting a new business, then the
professors introduced us to social entrepreneurship and to that what kind of a potential it has to
change the world. The course consisted of one 3-page essay about the ecosystem of startups and
of the final project which was made in groups of 5. In the beginning the weight was on the lections
about entrepreneurship and as the course was coming to end almost all the classes consisted of
representations of the group works and what progress have we made. Generally speaking this
course was very different from any course I have ever taken. We always spent the 15 first minutes
or more, of the 90 minute class to all kind of kindergarten-style games and yoga to free our minds
and to relax. Besides the kindergarten games and yoga, the theory part of the course was
extremely thin and I felt that could have done our group work in one evening if we wanted and all
the groups spent almost 4 months for that. This was absolutely the easiest course I had during my
semester but on the other hand this course was an excellent opportunity to learn Spanish as all
the lectures and materials were in Spanish and the course mostly consisted of discussions and of
working in a group with other people in your group. The professors seemed to be interested about
the concept of the social entrepreneurship and they always helped with the group works if needed
and gave ideas. I just think that they should have demanded much more from us. I would also say
that this course was useful, not only because it was a great opportunity to study in Spanish, but
because of it gave the basics about social entrepreneurship which I find an interesting topic. I think
that the course would have been much better and much more academic if there would have been
more theory behind, while this time the theory part was almost non-existing.
ENNEG324/01
INTERNATIONAL MANAGEMENT
Undergraduate 6ECTS/10Credits (2x 90min per week)
Lecturer: Gerla Van Breugel
The goal of this course was to develop basic understanding of international management and to
learn how to be an effective international manager and to effectively work in international teams
and organizations. The course consisted of 2 lectures per week, 90minutes each. In the beginning
we were discussing what is an international organization and how could we theoretically analyze
national and organizational cultures. Then towards the end of the course we covered topics
related to leadership and personal skills in a context of international organization. The lecturer
was very punctual and did not cancel classes like almost all the other professors and she seemed
very professional. The course consisted of case work about one international organization selected
by the group and it was made in groups of 5, final exam and of smaller essays related to topics we
were covering during the course. I would say that this course was probably the most useful during
my exchange semester and I learned lots of new things during this course. I find that this course
was more demanding though and required more work than my courses on average during my
exchange. It was also very useful to take this course here during my exchange because our class
consisted of many different nationalities and the professor could effectively take an advantage of
that which made the classes interesting and I felt I learned a lot because of that. I would totally
recommend taking this course.
ENNEG423/01
LATIN AMERICA IN WORLD'S AFFAIRS
Undergraduate 6ECTS/10Credits (2x 90min per week)
Lecturer: Walter Sanchez
The focus on this course was to develop understanding on what is the role of Latin America in
world affairs and what have been the main trends in the politics of Latin American countries.
Based on the course description this course seemed like the most interesting course which was
available at FEN but due to bad practices and relatively boring lectures the course did not give that
much as I was expecting. The course consisted of lectures like all the other courses but I find that
the lectures of this course were the most boring ones. The lecturer Walter Sanchez is one of the
most academically qualified professors of FEN and he has also been a professor at University of
Notre Dame in USA but I would say that as a lecturer he was not the best one. There was almost
no discipline in the classes and almost all were just Facebooking during the classes and
presentations as the classes were not that interesting. The course consisted of group work, made
in groups of 5, and of the mid-term and final exam. Both mid-term and the final exam were
multiple choice and since you did not get minuses from wrong answers the expected value was
that everyone is going to pass. The exams were about research papers and articles about
international relations in Latin America and I think that they were well chosen, but I think I learned
everything from those articles and almost nothing in the lectures. I would say that this course
could have been much more interesting and useful than it actually was but it was still useful if you
were motivated enough to read all the articles. Also this course was extremely easy because we
did not get minus points from the multiple choice exams. I would recommend taking this course if
you are interested about international relations and politics and you have the motivation to even
try to listen to the professor and to read the articles.
3. Free time and other useful information
Cost of living
Most of the exchange students are surprised about how expensive country Chile is, especially
compared to other South American countries. Food is almost as expensive as in Finland and for
example public transport is more expensive than in Helsinki. I would say that in general the price
level in Santiago is about 20% cheaper than in Helsinki. There are still some cheap things in
Santiago, for example housing is a lot cheaper than in Helsinki, for example we paid only 600€ in
total with my flat mate for a brand new 3 room apartment located close to the city center and
there was also a swimming pool on the roof top. Also meat is very cheap, you can buy a kilo of filé
steak with less than 10€ and also ok-tasting wines generally cost less than 3€ per bottle in
supermarket. Also taxis are relatively cheap and approximately a 5km trip costs about 5€. Eating
out is generally about 30% cheaper than in Helsinki. Going out in Santiago is also much cheaper
than in Helsinki and usually you can cover everything with about 20€.
In Universidad de Chile there are no school fees for exchange students from Aalto and I did not
have to buy any books either. Most of the books I needed were online as PDF files and the ones I
needed I could buy from university’s “fotocopia” where the sell paper copies of course books,
which cost like 3€ each.
Chilean student life and free time
The student life in Chile and in FEN differs a lot from student life in Aalto. Most of the Chilean
students live with their parents and the university or student associations don’t organize as many
activities as we do in Aalto. There is no KY in Santiago. Therefore it is a bit more difficult to meet
people and make friends with people from your school. But still there are some events organized
by the local student association, for example there is a pre-party with DJ’s playing and everything
on almost every Friday at the campus. Usually especially exchange students tend to hang out with
people with whom they live with or whom they met during the few student parties of the first
weeks. So, I would recommend paying attention to that where and with whom to live in Santiago.
In Santiago there are lots of opportunities to spend your free time because Santiago has around 7
million people. There are also good sports facilities in the university and it is also free to use the
gym. Santiago is also a good spot to live if you like skiing or surfing, or both. It is only about 1-2
hour drive to the closest skiing resort in the Ands (which are 2000 meters higher than the Alps)
and also about 1-2 hour drive to the Pacific Ocean where you can find pretty good waves. Also
trekking and climbing are popular activities in Chile because of the opportunities provided by the
close by located Ands.
Information about the local area
The city centre of Santiago de Chile feels more like a European than South American city. The
centre is relatively clean and there are lots of new skyscrapers and shopping malls located there.
But still, Chile is the most unequal OECD country and the differences between neighborhoods in
Santiago are huge. In general the more east you go in Santiago the more posh it gets (e.g. Las
Condes and Vitacura neighborhoods). Western and Southern parts of Santiago are in general
poorer and the contrast between different areas is huge. This all has to be taken in account when
deciding where to live as some neighborhoods may be dangerous to live in, especially during the
night and also lots of exchange students from my exchange group got robbed in Santiago.
FEN is located in Providencia which is in the centre of Santiago and Providencia is known as a
middle class neighborhood of Santiago. One useful thing to understand about Santiago is that all
the neighborhoods are more or less like cities themselves, for example in Las Condes there are all
own shopping malls, restaurants, clubs, universities and everything. I would still recommend to
live as close to the university as possible because using the Metro is costs around 1€ per trip and
there are no monthly tickets or anything, and the Metro is usually very crowded especially in the
morning. One more thing that surprises many exchange students is the weather. During winter
Santiago is actually quite cold place to live. During the winter temperatures are usually around 515 degrees, but because of the lack of heating and good insulation, the temperature is usually
more or less the same inside and for example the main building of FEN does not have a door in
one of its entrances which makes it quite cold during the winter. So, take a winter jacket with you!
But even though it gets quite cold during the winter summers in Santiago are very hot, usually
temperatures rise up to 35 degrees during the summer months.
Cultural differences
There are some important cultural differences between Chile and Finland. In Chile almost
everything is very family centered, sometimes people seriously live with their parents until they
are 30 and married and family relations are in general much tighter than in Finland. Also Chilean
values are more conservative and the Catholic Church has an important role in building those
values. Also gender roles are totally different in Chile, which can be seen in many places in
everyday life. For example “macho culture” lives strong and girls tend to be more girly in Chile.
This can be seen in commercials for example when big muscular men are advertising deodorants
for “real men” and Shakira’s face can be found in advertisements from everything between
toothpaste to mobile operators commercials aimed for women.
The Latin time can also be problematic, even though some Chileans tend to call Chile “the
Switzerland of South America” Chileans are not that punctual and for example buses often leave
15 minutes late and lectures start often 10minutes late as well. Also if you are about to see a
Chilean at 8pm don’t expect her/him to show up earlier than 8.30pm. Chileans, like other Latinos,
tend to give strange nicknames to their friends and call people with names based on how they
look; this may annoy some foreigners in the beginning. For example some of my friends were
called “el perro=dog”, “gordo=fat”, “chino=chinese”, “negro=black” or “niño=kid” and it is
considered normal in Chile so don’t lose your temper with Chileans if they are giving you new
nicknames. And also please remember to stop giving these nicknames yourself when you return to
Finland.
Taboos and social problems in Chile
Chilean culture also has some important taboos, which are important to acknowledge. For
example people don’t usually like to speak about the Pinochet era (1973-1990) when Chile was a
dictatorship after a violent military coup of 1973. During the dictatorship around 30,000 people
‘disappeared’, tens of thousands were tortured and locked up for political reasons and hundreds
of thousands fled the country. And by the way Finland took its first ever refugees from Chile in the
1970’s. The vast majority of people are against Pinochet but still there are people who thought
that all what Pinochet did was necessary for the country and some people see him as a savior of
Chile. So in short, the dictatorship era is a bad topic for small talk but possibly can be discussed
with Chileans who you know well.
Also the huge differences in income in Chile are partly a taboo and some people feel awkward
discussing about it. Around 70% of the population earn less than 500€ per month even though the
GDP per capita is around 16.000€ and just to add that the richest 10% own around 90% of all the
wealth in Chile. The huge level of inequality is a huge issue in the Chilean society. The inequality of
education is also a problem in Chile, while the average monthly salary being 450€/~600USD,
universities like Universidad de Chile cost around 10.000USD per academic year and over 80% of
the students in the best universities come from expensive private schools. In 2011 there were lots
of student demonstrations against the inequality of education and the actions of police were
criticized a lot as they used lots of brute force against the students. (One can check youtube for
example) The use of tear gas is not that rare either. Be careful even if you go to a peaceful student
demonstration in Chile because the police are not that gentle as in Finland and for example they
used tear gas also this year to break up student demonstrations.
One more thing to understand when going to Chile is that some Chileans are also very proud to be
Chilean and you often hear that Chile is the best country of South America and so on, which might
sound a bit rare especially to us humble Finns.
Travel opportunities
There is lots of places worth to visit in Chile. In the north there is the desert of San Pedro de
Atacama which is often ranked to be one of the most amazing places to visit in South America.
There are some amazing beaches in the north as well close to Arica and La Serena for example.
Also close to Santiago, there is a coastal town of Valparaiso which is partly protected by UNESCO
and is a must see for many travelers. Next to Valparaiso there is a city Vina del Mar which is also
famous for its beaches and it is located only a 1,5 hour drive from Santiago. Bit more south there is
a good surfing spot called Pichilemu, about 3 hours drive away from Santiago. Close to Santiago
there are some big skiing resorts which are open during the winter. In the south there are more
skiing resorts and lots of trekking/climbing opportunities close to the city of Pucon, for example.
Further in the south there are beautiful national parks and one can also take a flight to Tierra del
Fuego to see the penguins and possibly take an excursion to the Antarctica. There is also a very
nice city of Mendoza just on the other side of the Andes in Argentina and a bus ticket costs around
30€. I would also definitely recommend visiting Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro during your
exchange semester in Chile.
Good to know
The first thing that comes to my mind is that try to arrive to Santiago early as it makes it a lot
easier to find a reasonable place to stay at a reasonable price. The language is another thing,
based on a survey, only around 5% of Chileans speak English at understandable level, so don’t
expect to get service in English during your stay in Chile. I would recommend trying to study as
much Spanish as possible before your exchange just to make things easier, even taking a taxi can
be extremely difficult without a common language as most of the drivers want you to explain
which land marks are close to the destination and they almost never have GPS. Also, if you want to
get in touch with the locals, Spanish is the key. I would say that your experience and feeling about
Chile gets better and better as you start understanding the language. One more thing which is
good to know is that even though everything might seem a bit unorganized, things just tend to
work out somehow in Chile. Also FEN may seem a bit disorganized in the beginning but you will
get used to it quickly. Just try not to stress if something does not work as it should, because it is
very likely to work out at some point, maybe mañana and if not then, maybe mañana mañana, so
chill out!
4. Final comments
I would recommend my host university to other students who want to learn Spanish during their
exchange. One could also go to Spain, but learning the language is easier in South America
because there is no option; you have to learn. The academic level of the courses I took, in most of
the cases, was not comparable to the academic level of courses in Aalto, which partly was due to
that these courses were offered primarily for exchange students and the English skills of the local
students were not that good. There seemed to be a huge difference in the academic level between
different individual courses and in general courses in Spanish tend to be much more demanding,
even if one would speak fluent Spanish. I only had one course in Spanish and it was a bit special
course because it was the first course taught by the professors and most of the participants were
exchange students. But still, many exchange students from good universities around Europe and
USA failed for example the course about the wine industry in Chile and I heard that the academic
level of courses in Spanish was much higher than the academic level in courses which were taught
in English. To be honest, for example courses Intercultural Business Challenges in Latin America,
International Marketing and Como Cambiar el Mundo were at times ridiculously easy. So in short,
if you are planning to take all of your courses in English and are not so interested about learning
Spanish, I would maybe recommend another place to do your exchange. But I would totally
recommend Universidad de Chile, FEN if your key motivator for exchange is to learn Spanish and
you are planning to take at least some courses in Spanish, it is almost unbelievable how fast you
are going to learn if you just have got the guts to go to your uncomfortable zone and go to the first
classes without understanding almost anything in Spanish.
Also if you are planning to specialize in your career into emerging markets or are planning to live in
Latin America, I would totally recommend Chile and Universidad de Chile. Chile is the most
advanced economy in Latin America and also Finland’s second biggest trade partner in South
America, after Brazil, while South America being world’s second biggest emerging market after
Asia. Universidad de Chile has also done very well in the rankings between South American
universities placing first in economics, and an exchange semester at Universidad de Chile is
certainly going to help you significantly if you are planning to apply for a job in Latin America, for
example or if you are planning to specify to the emerging markets.
Things I would do differently if I was going to the same university for another exchange
I would study as much Spanish as possible already in Finland (I did not study any courses before I
got here), which would make things much easier in the beginning. Then secondly, I would take
more courses in Spanish, it is incredible how fast you are going to learn and it really does not
matter what note you are going to get because all the courses studied during your exchange will
show as passed or failed in your transcript of records in Aalto. Third, I would arrive earlier. It was
bit difficult to find a place to stay for me because I arrived on the same day as the orientation
began; I would recommend arriving at least one week before the orientation. And lastly, pack your
winter jacket with you (no matter are you going to Chile for the spring or fall semester) if not, you
are going to regret it!
What I learned during my exchange
The most important thing I learned is the Spanish language and the understanding of Chilean and
also Latino culture. I also learned new things from my courses, mostly from the ones in
management and economics. Also importantly, I learned that Latin America can provide lots of
opportunities in the future; one just has to take an advantage of those opportunities given. I did
learn about myself that I stress too much about things; things are not that organized in Chile as in
Finland, but still, things tend to work out and a bit more laid back attitude may be good to have at
times!