Ivey Outgoing Exchange Evaluation
2012-2013 Academic Year
Exchange School: ESADE
Student Name (optional): Carly Ward
Student Email (optional): [email protected]
*If you enter your email address, you are giving permission to future students to contact you
about your exchange experience.*
Travel and Arrival
What happened upon your arrival? Were you met or left to find your own way?
Upon arriving in Barcelona I was actually met by a Spanish friend I had met in Toronto who was
able to pick me up. Otherwise I would have been left to find my own way, and would have
taken a cab to my destination. There are many cabs in Barcelona, and the drivers are really
friendly. However, especially on arriving, if you don’t know or speak any Spanish I would
suggest remembering to bring the written address of where you will be heading to avoid any
confusion.
Visa
What advice do you have for future students in order to obtain their visa?
I was really nervous about running into timing issues with my Visa so I applied as early as
possible, around early November. It turned out to be a very easy process, and I was able to pick
up my Visa two or three weeks later. My advice would be to go and apply early as well just to
avoid running into any issues.
Accommodation
What living accommodation was provided? (Give details, costs, and distance to school)
I lived in the Gracia neighbourhood in Barcelona. It took approximately 50 minutes to get from
my apartment to the ESADE campus in Sant Cugat. I found the distance from home to school to
be reasonable because I only had class three days a week. Also, you will definitely want to stay
in one of the main neighbourhoods in Barcelona (i.e. Eixample, Gracia) because most, if not all,
other students will live there as well. It also means you won’t have to be too concerned about
getting back home (i.e. making a train) when going out, as most clubs are open till 6a.m. and
staying in the city makes access to the airports when traveling a lot easier.
I lived in the bottom floor of a double apartment, where locals were on the top floor. I paid 300
euros a month, however my situation was a little unique because I was able to find this space
through a friend I had in Barcelona. In my original search I was instructed that if you’re living
with other people, 300-450 euros is a reasonable amount to pay for rent per month. If you are
living by yourself, 450-600 euros would be reasonable. Another reason I would suggest not
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living on campus in Sant Cugat, which is a beautiful but relatively quiet and wealthy
neighbourhood, is the cost of living on residence; I found out from others once I was there that
it was around 800 or 850 euros per month. The few people I met who did live on campus
originally left afterwards after finding other housing in Barcelona.
Costs
Compare costs between staying in London, Ontario and the costs in your host country. Some
things consider when answering include: housing, public transit, food per week, books, airfare,
other (travel etc…)
Considering the exchange rate, I found the cost to be more or less the same than in London.
The rent prices, as discussed earlier, were quite reasonable. Also, I would suggest trying to find
someone to sublet your place in London if you have a lease going to the end of the school year
to offset some of the cost. Public transit, which is very convenient and integrated in Barcelona,
was very affordable as you will be able to buy a 2-zone T-Jove card, which is a youth card that
you can use unlimited for three months (i.e. on busses, trains, metro).
Food in many cases I found to be a little cheaper than in London. A baguette from the local
bakery is usually around 1 euro, and an average fruit order (for one person) would be around 3
to 5 euros. Also, when going out to restaurants or paying cab fare in Barcelona there is not an
expectation to pay a tip (a definite difference in culture) which resulted in saving money. There
were no books that I had to pay for at ESADE. The expense that you will probably spend the
most on will be airfare and/or hostel accommodation. This a cost that will depend totally on
how much you want to travel, however I would suggest traveling as much as you can. Shopping
could also be a bigger cost depending on how much you like to shop.
Courses at your Exchange School
What courses did you take?
The courses that I took were:
1) Self Management and Awareness
2) Marketing in Spain
3) Change Management for Service Excellence
4) Spanish Art & Culture
I also took the Spanish Crash Course at the beginning of the semester (although it didn’t count
toward my credits). I took it because I was very interested in learning Spanish, but I would also
suggest taking it to start meeting people as many of the friends I spent time and traveled with I
met during the first couple weeks.
Which courses were most beneficial?
I enjoyed taking Self Management and Spanish Art & Culture the most. For Self Management, I
enjoyed the teaching style of the professor (Joan Noguera Ustrell) and some of the topics that
were discussed in class. Spanish Art & Culture was a great way to learn more about Spanish
history and different cultural elements while traveling and experiencing some different areas in
Spain at the same time.
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Which courses would you not recommend?
I found Marketing in Spain to require a little more work than was really beneficial to the
learning experience. It was also a little frustrating at times as not all group members would be
contributing evenly, and this course was heavily based on group work. Change Management in
Service Excellence did have some interesting areas, I enjoyed the second half of the course
more than the first (which was taught by a different professor) but at times it was a bit dry.
How was your workload compared to Ivey?
Workload was definitely a lot lighter compared to Ivey. It was very easy to manage school
deliverables and traveling, or doing other activities around Barcelona. This is especially because
a lot of the courses will have group work, especially during the first half. So the benefit to this
arrangement is that you do have other people to divide the work with, assuming everyone
contributes their parts.
Culture and Country
Outline your impressions of the school, the students, and the country.
I really enjoyed attending ESADE, and the Sant Cugat campus was really nice and modern,
having being completed relatively recently. There weren’t a lot of instances where the
exchange and local students interacted which was unfortunate. This was because the exchange
students take their classes in English. However, if you do speak Spanish already, there are
exchange courses offered that are taught in Spanish where you would have the opportunity to
mix more with the local Spanish students.
I found the country to be amazing. Everyone is very friendly and the lifestyle there is a lot more
relaxed. Some of this relaxed nature is evident in the structure of the day (i.e. with many
businesses closed from 2-5pm) and others you will just find in the way people interact with you
and each other. It was nice to be in a warm country as well.
What advice do you have for students going to your exchange school in the future?
I would suggest that future students try and find housing before they leave, if possible, to
decrease the stress once you get there; aiming to live in the one of the main neighbourhoods in
Barcelona. I would also suggest taking the crash course at the beginning as a way to meet new
people and learn some basic Spanish that you will need at some point (i.e. ordering food, taking
a cab). It is also nice to try and get your courses to fit in three days or so (i.e. Tuesday,
Wednesday, Thursday) as way to increase your flexibility when traveling during the school year.
Some final thoughts…
How would you rank this exchange experience? (1 – Very poor experience, 5 – Very good
experience)
I would rank this experience as a 5, hands down.
Was the exchange worthwhile? Why or why not?
The exchange was more than worth it, and probably the best part of my undergrad. This
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exchange being my first time to Europe, it was great to be able to travel and meet new people,
experience new cultures and to be placed a little out of my comfort zone.
What changes would you suggest for future exchanges?
N/A
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Ivey Outgoing Exchange Evaluation
2012-2013 Academic Year
Exchange School: ESADE
Student Name (optional): Mike Rosenbaum
Student Email (optional): [email protected]
*If you enter your email address, you are giving permission to future students to contact you about your exchange
experience.*
Travel and Arrival
What happened upon your arrival? Were you met or left to find your own way?
Hey everyone, it’s great that you’re considering exchange, and even better that you’re considering
Barcelona/ESADE. If you were like me, it’s probably 2am the night before your application is due and
you can’t really decide where to apply. I’m going to write this report based on that, once you get ESADE,
feel free to email me and we can talk about more specific things. The last section summarizes
everything you need to know.
Arrival: ESADE does nothing to help you. Take a cab, don’t be a hero and try and take the metro, it’s
confusing if you don’t speak Spanish and I got my phone mugged on it. Have a place booked (either
hotel or hostel) and bring a printed out map to give to the cab driver.
Note: The 4 guys my year (Chad, Adam, Graham and I) booked a hostel for a week to live together while
we found our own accommodations. I recommend something like this while you’re still meeting people
and don’t want to lock into a place until you’ve physically been there and checked it out.
Visa
What advice do you have for future students in order to obtain their visa?
The visa process is simple but tedious. Follow the Spanish consulate information online, and go in
person to the office in Toronto to file the application. NOTE: they will hang onto your passport for 2-4
weeks; so make sure you aren’t leaving the country during that time. Start this process in November
Accommodation
What living accommodation was provided? (Give details, costs, and distance to school)
Where you live is absolutely essential, both for your social life and “Barcelona” experience. There are 4
options I’ll list out here, but really only option 3 or 4 I’d seriously consider if I were choosing where to
live.
1. Residence: ESADE offers a residence, don’t live there. The school is in Sant Cugat, which is
about an hours commute from Barcelona. Limit the days you have class to avoid the commute
and live in the city.
2. Gracia: This is more of a suburban/residential area of the city, a bit north of the city centre.
Many of my American friends who were on study abroad programs lived there with host
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families. This location will have some nice restaurants/bars, but is not in the heart of the city
where you’d want to be. No real upside to living here in my opinion.
3. Barceloneta: This area is right on the water, walking distance to the beach. From end of March
until you leave, the beach is awesome, so living close is big plus. Another huge advantage is that
many of the best clubs (Opium, Shoko, CDLC) are right on the beach so you could be in walking
distance. You will need to take the metro to get to the main train station (Placa Catalunya)
which is where you get on the FGC train that takes you to Sant Cugat/ESADE.
4. Ciutat Veilla / El Born / Barrio Gotico: This area in my opinion is ideal. Chad and I lived in this
area with 4 other exchange students and absolutely loved it. We were in the old city, with
narrow roads and local bakeries, butchers and grocers. It had the real “European” look and feel,
and was walking distance to Placa Catalunya (where you get the train to school). Our place was
very central, cabs cost < 10-12 euros to just about everywhere you’d want to go.
Google Maps: Sant Pere Mes Alt, 39, Barcelona to see where we lived.
Cost: Accommodations are a bit more expensive than London, more comparable to Toronto. You’re
looking at 450-550 Euros per month on average, but if you look hard you can find cheaper. As we all
know, the Spanish economy has been in recession for a long time, meaning it’s a renters’ market – keep
that in mind and negotiate, nothing in Spain is a set price!
Note: Don’t cheap out on accommodations, you want a nice place and feel comfortable. Having said
that, you’ll probably be travelling every other weekend, so maybe the money spent traveling makes
more sense than paying rent for an empty apartment. Try and figure out how much traveling you’ll be
doing and pick a place to live accordingly.
Costs
Compare costs between staying in London, Ontario and the costs in your host country. Some things
consider when answering include: housing, public transit, food per week, books, airfare, other (travel
etc…)
Exchange is expensive, know that before going into it – but if you ask anyone who went, they’d say it
was absolutely worth it. Here are some of the costs, keep in mind the EURO:CAD rate was hovering
around 1:1.4 at the time. In total, I probably spent around $12,000-$15,000 all included from January
until July of traveling.
Housing: ~475 Euros/Month
Public Transit*: 60 Euros / Month
Food Per Week: 60 Euros / Week groceries + 60 Euros / Week eating out
Books: No books are necessary
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Airfare: $1000 round trip if you book early NOTE: Air Transat offers direct BCN-YYZ in the summer for
your return flight, otherwise you’re flying through the US or Europe
Travel**: 1000Euros / Month
Notes:
• *Transit: I rented a scooter for the 5 months I was in Barcelona and absolutely loved it. It was
one of the best decisions I made and really made the city accessible! The scooter costs
100Euros/Month to rent and gas is extremely cheap. Keep in mind you’ll need to get an
international drivers license (can get one from CAA for $20 before you leave). If you don’t want
to get a scooter, buy the unlimited 3-month metro pass. It’s an expensive upfront cost, but
easily pays itself off between going to school and just getting around. The other option is to buy
10-ride passes, which are much less economical if the metro is your primary method of
transportation.
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**Travel: This is the biggest reason for and biggest expense of exchange. Flights can be pretty
cheap around Europe (use skyscanner.net to price shop) and hostels aren’t bad either. I put
down 1000 euros per month as a rough estimate, it could be more or less depending where you
go and what you do of course.
A big tip: pre book your big trip flights and hostels early (November or December before you
leave). Everyone in Europe goes to Dublin for St. Patrick’s Day, many people go to Amsterdam
for Queens Day in April – book those with a bunch of Ivey people early and save a ton of money.
Also, if you’re in Barcelona, you HAVE to go do a south of Spain trip – Chad and I did an 8 day
trip to Malaga, Marbella, Ronda, Sevilla, Granada and Madrid, and loved it! Morocco is another
amazing destination that’s cheap and a unique experience. For fans of electro music, make your
way to Ibiza.
Courses at your Exchange School
What courses did you take?
Spanish Intensive, Change Management, Travel and Tourism Management, Brand Management &
Business Government Relations
Which courses were most beneficial?
I took the Spanish course to meet people the first few days but dropped it after that. It wasn’t about
learning how to speak or converse, but rather conjugate – plus it was at 9am everyday for 2 weeks and
we don’t receive credit for it back at Ivey. Take it for a few days, if you like it stay, if not drop, but at
least you met people.
The other courses were all the same – similar to Western classes, mostly lecture and a few group
assignments and presentations. There aren’t any exams. I didn’t find any of the courses particularly
beneficial, but then again, who goes on exchange for the courses.
Pick your classes based on days of the week, Chad and I had 1 class Wednesday and 2 classes Thursday,
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giving us a 5 day weekend to travel and avoiding the long commute to Sant Cugat.
Which courses would you not recommend?
Like I said earlier, the Spanish class was a waste, but useful to make friends so sign up for the first little
bit.
How was your workload compared to Ivey?
The workload was much less than Ivey, one or two little assignments per class plus a final presentation.
Work will never get in the way of travelling for you, just make sure you overload at Ivey so you can take
only 2.0 credits (20 ECTS) abroad and don’t leave all your assignments to the end because the due dates
overlap.
Culture and Country
Outline your impressions of the school, the students, and the country.
ESADE is a great school for the full time (non-exchange) students. It has a reputation of being a premier
business school in all of Europe and many of the students come from affluent families (similar to Ivey).
Your ESADE experience as an exchange student will be very different than the regular students. All your
classes will be in English and the level of teaching and content will be fairly low compared to Ivey.
As I was saying earlier, you won’t meet many local students unfortunately, which is probably my biggest
(and only) criticism of ESADE. There’s virtually no effort to help you ‘mix’ with the local students. There
is a group of ESADE students who run the exchange program and throw parties, but your friends will be
other exchange students. The exchange students my year were mostly Canadian, many Americans and a
few Europeans.
Spain is a great country, so diverse in culture and varies by region (which is why you need to travel
around Spain). People talk about the economy and protests, but on the ground you hardly notice,
Spaniards are happy, proud people, and Barcelona is a very international city. Barcelona is central, great
for traveling around Europe and has amazing weather. It hardly rained while we were there, and got
very nice around March. It’s chilly for the first few months, so bring a light jacket and some longer
clothes.
What advice do you have for students going to your exchange school in the future?
1. Don’t panic. It can be kind of overwhelming getting started in a new place, but everything will
work out and you’ll have the time of your life.
2. Have a friend or 2 you know before you get there. This can either be a fellow Ivey student or
talk to people on the ESADE facebook group which you’ll be invited to a few months before you
go – a great way to find roommates as well
3. Get a light class schedule, try and make it only 2-3 days max. Having 3-5 days to travel
uninterrupted opens up so many options
4. Do a lot of your traveling early, especially the colder countries. Once it gets hot in Barcelona
(April/May) you won’t want to leave and people will start visiting you
5. Rent a scooter
6. Plan the big trips super early (Pattys, Queens Day, etc.). Queens does an amazing job of this, it
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would be so nice to see Ivey take the same initiative. Queens rents out pretty much an entire
hostel in Dublin for Pattys and they all meet up for the weekend – it’s really something special
partying with your Ivey friends abroad.
Some final thoughts…
How would you rank this exchange experience? (1 – Very poor experience, 5 – Very good experience)
I’d give this exchange experience a 4.5/5. It was an amazing chance to be immersed in a new culture
and travel for months while you’re young and without any real responsibility. Barcelona is an incredible
city, so diverse and rich in culture. The city is so livable, there’s always something fun happening, the
partying is awesome and so is the weather. For a European experience, I can’t think of a city I’d rather
be in, probably why it’s the most requested city for Ivey exchange. If you want to be in Europe, apply for
Barcelona.
Was the exchange worthwhile? Why or why not?
While I was recruiting in HBA1 for a summer job, I would ask Alumni about their Ivey experiences, and
there was one thing they all had in common: those who didn’t go on exchange said it was their biggest
regret, and those who did said it was the best part of their HBA experience. I can now say I feel the
same way as they did.
The exchange was 100% worthwhile, I wouldn’t trade it for anything! Of course exchange can be
expensive, but even if you take on debt you’ll pay it off in a few months of working. When else in your
life will you be young, without responsibility and have 6 months to travel?
Exchange was a chance to live in a new culture, learn a new language, make new friends and travel. For
6 months, you’re going on trips of a lifetime every other week. From drinking Guinness in an old Irish
Pub in the Temple Bar district of Dublin one week to eating pizza in Rome the next, and then riding
camels in the Sahara Desert of Morocco, there is so much you can do on exchange! It’s such an
incredible experience, that I only started to really appreciate once I got back home, and probably will
only fully appreciate in years to come.
If that’s not compelling enough, think of the alternative: spending another 4 months in London, visiting
the same bars and taking similar courses while many of your friends flood your social media feeds with
pictures from around the world, wishing you were there the whole time.
Bottom line: Throw a curve ball in your life and go on exchange. Whether it’s Barcelona or somewhere
else, just go! You will undoubtedly have the time of your life, make friends from around the world and
have experiences you’ll cherish forever! Barcelona was an amazing 6 month journey for me, and I hope
it will be the same for you. Good luck with your application and feel free to contact me with any
questions.
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