Student Report – ESCP Europe, Paris – Fall 2015
General Information about the school
ESCP is a business school with campuses in Berlin, London, Madrid, Paris, Turin
and Warshaw. The school was founded in 1819 and is one of the oldest business
schools in Europe. Their Master in Management program was ranked 7th highest
by Financial Times in 2015. ESCP is one of the most prestigious Grand Ecoles in
France, and the campus is located in the 11th arrondissement, quite central in the
city. Even though the campus is older and smaller than BI, the facilities are still
very nice.
Study Structure
ESCP offers 2.5 and 5 credit courses with duration of 5 and 10 weeks
respectively. If you choose the 2.5 credit courses you may decide whether to take
several of them at the beginning of the semester, giving you less to do at the
second part. Or the other way around, or of course equal amount of lectures
throughout the semester. Exams are held in the last lecture of each course,
usually for two hours. This could result in having more than one exam on one
day. The exams are often structured so that you have some multiple-choice
questions, some open questions and sometimes a case.
I recommend that you choose more courses than you need at the beginning, test
them out the first week and drop out of the ones you do not like. The
administration is helpful in the course selection process. The courses have
mandatory attendance. More than two absences result in failing the course.
Practical Information
The school sent me an information package in May with useful information about
the school, housing and the city in general. I also got a student ID number and
password for the intranet, which is quite messy and confusing by the way. My
courses were never updated to the right ones, but they also offer an app where
you have a calendar with lectures etc., as well as a different intranet for the
courses with information and documents, which is quite easy to navigate.
Make sure you fix your insurance and send it in a few weeks before you leave,
that way you get your student card way quicker. This card gives you free pass to
most museums among other tings.
I also recommend that you choose your courses early when you receive an email
about this. This gives you more room to change around.
Residents from EU or EFTA countries do not need to have a visa to enter France.
Academic calendar
In the second week of September there was a compulsory introduction seminar,
European Integration Seminar, with lectures every day and an exam the last day.
By passing the exam you are accredited 2.5 credits, that is if you get this course
approved by BI, something I did not (and therefor did not have to take the exam).
The normal courses started the week after.
The firs week you also have to take a French test so they can assign you to the
appropriate course level for a language lecture every week. This course is not
mandatory to complete at BI.
There is a one-week break in October, and the exams are in December, usually in
the beginning unless some lectures have been postponed for some reason, then
the exam may be closer to Christmas.
Social events
Even though you do not get the credits from the seminar the first week, it is still
a great opportunity to get to know other exchange students. We formed a large
group of students from all over the world and hung out all the time. Other than
that, the school also arranged some events, and there are student associations
one can sign up for.
Housing
There are several opportunities regarding housing, although, I can only speak
from my one experience. Me and two other girls from BI found an apartment
through an agency BI emailed us early spring, called
http://www.entreeparis.com/. We ended up renting a fairly new, two-bedroom
60m2 apartment with nice facilities, everything you need and the kitchen, nice
bathroom, living room and a beautiful backyard. The apartment was located in
the 10th arrondissement, close to the 2nd. The price was approximately 2100€
(700€ each), i.e. fairly expensive considering two had to share a bedroom, but
that was quite common.
Other options are the student residences “Le Vivaldi” (quite expensive) or “Cite
International” (cheaper), but as I did not live there I cannot say anything else
than what I heard from others, which was that the facilities or okay, and that you
share a bathroom and kitchen with several others.
As for where to live I recommend the following arrondissements: 1, 2, 3, 9, 10,
11, 5 and 6. 8, 12, 13, 14, 15, and 16 (and I guess 17) are also nice but a bit
further from the center. 18-20 is also a bit far from the center and I was also
recommended not to hang out there by night.
Costs
Housing: around 700€, depending on size and standard (often higher).
Transportation: 70€/month for a Metro pass. I recommend the city bike or
walking, the distances are not far in Paris. Also you get to know the city so much
better by walking or biking. My top Paris tip!
Food: you find every price range there is in Paris. The wine in restaurants is
usually cheaper than in Norway, and much better, as is the food. The cafeteria at
campus is very cheap and offers lots of variations to choose from.
Mobile: there are a few operators to choose from. I ended up with Free Mobile
for 20€/month including more or less unlimited texts, calls and data. Only minus
was that their website and customer service is in French so difficult to get any
help when that is needed. I recommend that you order your sim online before
you go and get it delivered to your apartment.
Books: no books were required in any of my courses. All necessary material was
handed out in class.
Courses
The workload at ESCP is lower than at BI. However, most courses have
continuous evaluation with either test in class, presentations and/or hand-ins. At
times there were quite a lot to do, but still plenty of time to be social and enjoy
the city.
I chose mostly finance courses, which I found semi-difficult. They required quite
a lot, but the curriculum was less that what you usually find at BI, so it was
manageable. If you are interested in finance and highly recommend Financial
Analyst. LOTS to do, but you also learn a lot.
Regarding grading, they use a 20 point system, 20 being the highest achievable. A
grade over 14 is considered good, and it is impossible to get 20, the highest I ever
witnessed anyone receiving was 18. You must get at least 10 to pass the course.
MB04 Branding (5 credits)
Even though this course was maybe a bit obvious at times, it was still very
interesting and the most fun course I had. The teacher is very engaging and just
an amazing guy, you will know what I mean when you see him. There was one
project throughout the course (developing a market plan for a product launch in
a new market) and one fairly easy multiple-choice exam in the last lecture. For
the projects we worked in groups of 7 (!), so coordination of time was pretty
much the biggest challenge. All in all, a cool course.
FD01 Financial Analyst (5 credits)
This course was by far the most challenging one. We had four hand-ins, all in
which required a lot of work (in groups of four), we also had an investment
portfolio where investments had to be made every week (fake money, real
market), and lastly there was an exam that was quite difficult. The teacher
obviously had a lot of knowledge, all though a bit too fond of his own voice, but
you will learn a lot from this course if you put in the effort required.
EC02 International Capital Markets (5 credits)
This was a fairly straightforward course with focus on bonds and options. There
was a test every lecture (he forgot about it a few times actually), which counted
40% of the grade. If you did the homework the tests were manageable. The final
exam was also fair and with no surprises. With that said the teacher makes the
course more complicated than it really is, partly because of his poor English and
lack of pedagogical skills. Do not hesitate to ask questions, because if you do not
you will end up being quite confused.
If you are fairly experienced with bonds and options (basic knowledge) this will
be a very easy course for you.
FB03 Financial Strategy of Firms (5 credits)
This was the most confusing course I ever had. There was no clear outline of
what we were supposed to learn. There were two lecturers with totally different
lecturing styles and completely uncoordinated. During the semester we had two
presentations (in groups of 5) that demanded quite a lot of preparations. The
teacher asks you questions, and at times he could be quite rude. The final exam
was open book and the questions were connected to cases presented in class.
I do not recommend this course.
BEE1Behavioral Finance (2.5 credits)
This course was also very strange. The teacher had no experience with teaching a
class; he was an ordinary businessman. Well, ordinary is perhaps not the right
word. He had a strange way of presenting the course material, making students
read the power point slides (which had a LOT of text) out loud. The exam was
two hours with like 40 questions, and a lot of the questions were totally random,
because he wanted to, and I quote, "see how we react under stress and to see if
we come up with some fun answers". The course was totally random and I
learned nothing.
BE3D Me-Business (2.5 credits)
This was the easiest course I have ever had. With part classic lecture and part
class discussions we talked about the future of technology, 3D-printing,
customization etc. The teacher is a great guy, the exam was extremely easy (two
questions, where one was "what is the difference between push and pull?") and
an easy 2.5 credits.