Experience report
Name:
E-mail:
Exchange semester:
Academic year:
Host University:
Country:
Floor Janssen
fsjanssen@hotmail.com
2
2014-2015
Bocconi University
Italy
TOPIC: Admission, arrival, housing
I booked a flight to weeks before school started. We did this together with my roommates who are
Dutch like me. We flew together from Eindhoven to Bergamo airport. From there we took a bus to
Milan and from there we took a tram to our apartment. There was no one to pick us up because we
did not know anybody there. We organized the apartment by ourselves. We could have picked an
accommodation from the university but everything was not really close to the center or was very
expensive for what you can get.
TOPIC: Location of university/city
Milan is a very active city. Every day there was something else to do. I shopped a lot but also visited
the highlights of Milan. When the weather was fine I went to the park a lot (Parco Sempione). We
chilled there with some friends we met. Afterwards most of the time we went for apperitivo. Milan has
so many good places to eat this. This is a concept where you pay 10 euro for a cocktail and then you
can eat everything you want. It is like a buffet but then with only Italian food. I gained 5 kilograms
when I got back in Holland. My most favorite place is called Mayas. It is near the famous area Navigli.
There is a big canal and a smaller one. Maya’s was one the one with not many restaurants. It was
always busy there. Sometimes we had to wait outside for a couple of minutes but this was not a
problem at all because the food is very good. Especially the desserts are very good (think of liquid
chocolate fountains).
Because I lived near Navigli we went there a lot with friends. Just to have some lunch or dinner or to
chill in the sun with very good whine. Our favorite was also to get a crepe. This is some kind of
pancake with everything you can imagine. Of course we took a lot of Nutella. In navigli we also ate a
lot of ice cream. Near Parco Sempione there is an ice cream store which is called Schocolat. Their ice
cream was so good! After dinner we went most of the time for a walk and ice cream there was the
best.
Because we love to cycle we bought bike-me. Bike – me was 36 euro for one year. In the area every
500 meter had a place where you could take the bike. This was nice but the traffic is like crazy. There
were not many places for you to cycle. Most of the time it was a combination of cycling on the street
or at the steps.
We partied a lot of course too. Our favorite club was Old Fashion. A lot of our friends came there. One
we went to another more local club and it is called “Dude club”. This was a really cool club so I have
regrets that we discovered this one so late. This was a techno club. You don’t really have a lot of
those clubs in Milan so this one was more special. In the international clubs they usually just spin
regular top 40 music from 2 years ago. After a couple of weeks we were a little bit sick of that.
The university is about 15 minutes cycling from the centrum. This is about 30 minutes’ walk I guess.
Walking there was fine and the tram connection (tram 9 from Porto Genova) was totally fine as well.
TOPIC: Academics
I took four courses: 1. Company and business law (advanced course). 2. Business Law (selected
corporate and tax issues and tax issues in management and internal auditing 3. Comparative
business and European law 4. Fashion management. I took a lot of business law courses because
they interest me a lot. My bachelor is called business law so I thought that is was a good idea to take
those courses. First I took banking law too but I changed this to fashion management. The reason is
that banking law seemed very hard for me because it had a lot to do with finance.
I would recommend the first two because they were taught really well! The professors were good in
their job and they were very helpful as well. I am a bachelor student but those two courses were
master courses so this was hard for me. I would recommend them when you are in your master
because I thought they were easy. I had to work really hard for those courses because otherwise I
would not have made it.
Fashion management was very boring. I thought well I am in Milan now so I am going to do this. Well
I had regrets. It was very boring. I had rather staid with my choice of banking law.
I think that the level is higher than in Tilburg. The way Bocconi works with students is really
comfortable. Everything was clear on the site and the teachers always summed up the things we
spoke about before. They tried to make everything as clear as possible and it worked really good for
me. The workload was a lot but it was nice to do. In Tilburg I always feel bad that I have to do my
homework because some courses like criminal law don’t interest me.
I am not really happy about my grades because I hoped they would be higher. It is my own fault
because the first two courses were just too hard for me.
The campus was from the front side beautiful to see but inside where you could eat and go to the
toilet I thought everything was kind of dirty. For a private school I expected everything to be more
clean. The facilities were not good. To print something was a hell. It was ridiculous. It was like they
lived in the middle ages. The computers were very bad too.
TOPIC: Social life
In the first couple of weeks we went on trips by I ESN. But after those couple of weeks I thought the I
ESN guys were very annoying. It was like their only intention was to hit on girls. We met one Italian
guy from Bocconi and he was very nice and showed us a really cool place what is called Nombre
d’vin. It is a really cool whine bar in some kind of a celler. The local people are always nice. The only
exception were the workers in the supermarket. They always had bad attitudes.
We participated in a speed dating program from Bocconi. This was fun for once but those people
were not really my people.
After a month we met a lot of people and we formed some kind of group. It were people from Holland,
Finland, Australia and Canada. It was a really big group and we met most of them at a I ESN tour to
Genova. After this trip we booked a trip to the Amalfi coast. This was really pretty. We rented cars in
Pompeii and from there we travelled to Salerno, Positano and Sorrento.
TOPIC: Living costs
My parents paid for my apartment with the scholarship. Apart from this I used my own savings for the
rest. I spend the most of my money on food. Ice creams, apperetivo, lunches and dinners. O and I
should not forget coffee. We did not had to buy books so this was okay. I think my monthly budget
was 1000 euro. It is a lot but housing in Milan is ridiculously expensive. I would recommend students
to spent their money on food as well. I should not forget that going to clubs is expensive too because
you have to pay entrance fee. We always bought a bottle of wine before we got to the club because
this was much cheaper.
Housing: 600
Food: 300
Partying: 100
TOPIC: Culture
I did not experience a cultural shock because it is still Europe. I think Italians are laid back but
because Milan is in the North of Italy they are still punctual. They enjoy everything much more than in
Holland I guess because they take time to enjoy food, wine, culture and so on.
I learned that you have to be patient with Italians. Sometimes they don’t really respond but they did
hear you so you just had to wait for something because they were busy doing something else. I was
surprised about that.
I did not like the fact that they exploited tourist. I don’t look Italian but they were sometimes not that
nice. I was surprised by that as well. They are also not really interested in other cultures. They
Bocconi students were an exemption because they were interested. I brought dutch food and gave it
to the students and they really enjoyed it.
I don’t think I learned a lot because it is still in the North of Italy. People are not that different than in
Holland because Milan is such an economic city. I would like to learn more but not from a big city but
rather from a small town.
We travelled to the south of Italy (Napels and to the Amalfi coast). People there were really different.
They were more rude than northern Italians. They don’t really care if you don’t like something. They
do their own thing. It was more dirty as well. But I must say I loved the Amalfi coast. Especially
Positano. There was a food festival so we tried a lot of special Italian food. We travelled by train and
rented cars. People drive crazy over there.
TOPIC: Personal development
I learned that I rather spend my money on food and clothes than on partying and things like that. I
also learned that I love Holland more than I thought. I was so good to be home for a couple of days
during my exchange that I was kind of homesick. I learned that I like my life in Holland more than I did
on exchange. Of course those two environments are very different but I like the one I Holland more. it
is not really like me to live in the spotlights. A lot of people wanted to do that in Milan and this is
nothing for me.
I think I would have done something different. That was choosing my own things and not go with the
flow because everybody wanted to do this.
My worst experience was a little fight with my roommate but this was a small thing. I don’t really have
further worse experiences.
The best experience was that my parents came to visit me after a couple of months. We did a lot of
nice things and ate so much good food. We went to the soccer derby between AC milan and
Internazionale
TOPIC: Tips for future students
I recommend Bocconi because the university is really good. I recommend then to look for an
apartment themselves instead of going into a dorm by the university. They have strict rules. You
cannot have a lot of visitors and things like that. They should try new food and eat icecream everyday.
I really miss the food and the ambiance of Milan. Every corner has a their own special ambiance and
all were good.
I don’t think there is a lot of preparation necessary for this city. It is good to know Italian so I would
recommend some Italian courses. A lot of Italian people can’t really speak English that well.