General
Schulich School of Business is situated at York University, which lies one hour outside downtown Toronto. The campus is large, but situated in the middle of nowhere. Closest neighbors are industrial sites, highways and some of Toronto’s roughest neighborhoods.
Norwegians are not required to have a visa when entering Canada, so the only thing I needed to get into the country was my passport and the acceptance letter from Schulich.
I arrived on September 5 th
, a week before classes started. I found this practical, as you have time to explore and get rid of the jetlag. The last day of classes was Friday the 11 th
of
December, with most exams during the week after.
The reception from the school administration was nice, and we had a meet-and-greet information meeting for the exchange students early on. The graduate council GBC invited us to a social event called “Olympia” in late september, which most exchange students participated in, along with “regular” MBA students, and this was a fun way to get to know people, highly recommended. Schulich has an international office run by Cheryl Stickley, she is very nice and helpful.
I lived right next to campus in the “Village”, a group of houses shared by York University students. The rent was 580 CAD a month, relatively cheap in Toronto terms. I found this place myself, although the housing office was helpful in assisting me beforehand.
Living on campus wasn’t optimal, as the local environment is terrible, and there’s practically nothing to do. I recommend finding a place in the city centre; the 1-hour commuting to school is worth it. The one major positive with living on campus is that you’ll most probably live close to most of the exchange students, who tend to end up in the Assiniboine residence close to campus. I spent most of my time with the other exchange students, people from practically all over the world. I’m sure the contacts I’ve made with these people, and the experiences I’ve gathered in such a diverse environment will benefit me in my future career.
Adademic
All courses are taught in English. Your classmates are mostly MBA-students, and the academic level isn’t too high. The teaching is very interactive, with much emphasis on class

participation, and there are a lot of MBA’ers out there who are very fond of talking about their own work experience, relevant to the class discussion or not, so be prepared to fight for that participation grade. Expect to do a lot of write-ups, cases and assignments in all courses.
The workload is probably higher compared to BI, but again, it’s not hard to get a good grade overall.
The course literature was in English, and the quality was ok. One notable exception was in my strategy course, which I did not find very interesting. Exams are based both on the literature and on lectures, but normally you’re not tested on something that hasn’t been on the professor’s slides.
I had only one written “in-class” exam, lasting 3 hours. The rest were take-home exams, term papers and other types of write-ups. I can’t think of any way to fail the exams except by not turning up at all.
The Schulich library is nice, but there are few computers and only two printers in the whole building, so prepare to wait in line. We received free printing from the International office.
Course overview
OBIR 6350 The Management of Change (elective)
Prereq : None
Exam form : Group term paper, class participation, 4 reflection papers, student presentation of academic paper
Comments : Can be a bit abstract for “quantitative” students. Excellent professor. Prepare to participate in class, and to do a lot of self-reflection. Easy course to pass, but not to excel in.
FINE 6400 International Financial Management (elective)
Prereq : None
Exam form : 3 hour written exam, midterm, 2 written assignments, class participation, quiz
Comments : Great course for finance students. Fantastic professor: a star researcher and great teacher. Medium difficulty.
IBUS 6430 International Business Strategy (elective)
Prereq : None
Exam form : 1 week take home exam, 2 individual case write-ups, 1 group case write up, class participation.
Comments : Poor professor, too fond of speaking himself to let students participate in class.
The teaching and course material never got beyond platitudes and clichés. Easy course.
Contact details:
Cell: 97 10 87 36
Mail: lage.bohren@gmail.com