Student Report
Name of the University: Bocconi University, Milan
Exchange semester: Fall 2012
I. PRACTICAL INFORMATION
Before leaving Norway
I received an e-mail around April from the International Student Desk with
detailed information on how to reach Bocconi, and the online application
procedure, including housing, academic calendar, courses and the Italian crash
course they offer. When the letter of acceptance arrives by mail, you will receive
the rest of the information needed to complete the enrolment procedure.
You do not need to apply for VISA to stay in Italy if you are a Norwegian citizen.
Travel
The easiest way to travel to Milan is by Norwegians direct route from
Gardermoen. It is likely to find tickets back and forth for between 10001500NOK. When you arrive at Malpensa just take the Malpensa Express which
takes around 35 minutes and costs €11.
Housing
The most difficult part is to find housing in Italy. The school offers several dorms
located in different areas, but I would recommend finding an apartment close to
school instead, due to strict rules in the dorms. It would be smart to spend some
time in advance to get this done before you arrive, because when you are first
here, there is a lot of events happening and time goes by. If this is not possible –
don't worry, then I would recommend to rent a hotel room for a week, and check
the “For rent”-table located at school. There are also several other webpages like
easystanza.it, airbnb.com and homeaway.com where you can look.
Costs
The rent was around €550 per month including everything. This was a very
standard amount for most of the other exchange students also. The prices on
books are pretty much the same as in BI.
Food and transport is a lot cheaper here, including restaurants. For €15 you can
have a decent meal at a restaurant.
Going out is also cheaper than back home – depending on the place you go of
course. In some of the more fancy places you pay around €20 and you get two
drinks included.
Culture and language
Most people at the faculty speak English well enough to communicate in a decent
level. It is a very international school, so there were few language-problems,
except for the first day when I asked the receptionist where my classroom was, it
turned out she did not speak English at all.
There are a lot of opportunities to experience the culture and country! Milan is a
very central city compared with Rome, concerning weekend-trips. The ESN
group at school also arranges trips each month. However, as soon as you get
some friends, I would recommend going on excursions with them instead,
because the ESN trips are very crowded.
Cultural and social effects from the exchange experience
Through my exchange period I have got to know a lot of people from all over the
world, which is very exciting in it self, but it could also prove helpful in future
occasions. In the first period you have to leave your own comfort zone and
approach as many people as possible - from this you learn a lot about yourself
and others. I believe this experience shows that I am willing to take chances, and
that I am willing to do something else than to stay home in the safe country of
Norway doing the usual stuff. Which I would say looks good on your résumé.
It has been a very fun and interesting experience that I would fully recommend
everyone!
II. ABOUT THE SCHOOL
Bocconi is a large university with around 10-15 000 students, including 6-700
exchange students. The campus is made up of several buildings in a small area by
walking distance from each other. There is also a lot of restaurants and café’s
which I would recommend to use for lunch, because the cantina does not have
the most exciting and healthy food – it`s usually pizza, pasta and French fries, as
expected for Italy.
Course registration
You usually register for courses before your arrival. But it might be a good idea
to actually come down here and try out the different courses if you are unsure
about what to choose. The add/drop period lasted until the 20th of September,
and the semester started around the 6th of September – which means you have
plenty of time to decide. However, it is very important to note that the courses
are given at a first-come-first-served basis.
Academic calendar
The semester starts around 6th of September, but the language course is usually a
week prior to this date.
During the two last weeks of October there is a period with optional midterm
exams. Since these are optional, but recommended, you can choose to spend the
time travelling instead.
The last day of classes was 12th of December, and my first exam was the 10th of
December, so you do not get the same exam preparations as you do in BI. So
therefore it is important to stay updated in each class.
Arrival
The administration was well-prepared with a gift-bag when I arrived the first
day. This contained a map, guides and the student ID card.
The first two weeks consisted of different events everyday with the rest of the
ESN students. I would recommend participating in this to get to know as many
people as possible.
The international office
There is a international office with a good staff, however, it may take a couple of
days before they answer your e-mails. So I would rather visit them instead of
sending e-mails.
Social activities
It was very easy to get to know other exchange students, because you were all in
the same situation, and wanted to get to know new people and the new country
you were in. So the relationship among the exchange students could not have
been better I would say. It was a bit harder to get to know the Italians. Some of
them were very polite and nice, and others were not so easy to approach, but I
guess it`s the same with Norwegians.
There is a student organization at the school, and I would recommend to join the
ESN group at facebook as soon as possible to get easy access to information
about all the events and happenings.
III. ACADEMICS
In the classroom
All the courses I chose were taught in English. However, the language-skills of
the professors are very different. A couple of my professors spoke English quite
badly, and were difficult to understand.
The teaching is both practical and theoretical, in some courses more than others
of course.
The workload is very much the same as at BI. I would say if you choose a lot of
economics courses the workload is quite big, but if you choose more in the
direction of marketing the workload is smaller. Since the semester is shorter
than at BI (approximately one month), the workload is quite big, and it might not
seem sustainable at the end of the semester, because the exams starts before the
lectures are over. If you read through the entire semester you should have no
trouble keeping up with the pace – but this is very dependent of which courses
you choose.
The relationship between students and professors is good, but more formal in
Bocconi. If you have questions after class, some of the professors would prefer if
you asked the teaching assistant first, and if the TA is not able to answer, then
he/she will ask the professor. Thus, it seems like it is more and more usual to
just contact the professor straight away.
Course material
In some courses you were given slides to read for the exam, and in some others
you have books and slides as we are used to. They use power point for almost
everything and the blackboard in some occasions. I think it would be easier for
them to get better activity in classes if they used the same system as we have at
BI with the cameras and projectors. They always upload the slides after the
classes, because often the slides were used for detailed knowledge about the
different subjects. I would also say the level of course material is very much a
like as in BI.
Exams
All the exams were heavily based on the subjects we went through in class,
compared to all the readings in the different books. In many courses you get
sufficient knowledge to get a passing grade through reading slides and doing a
couple of exercises.
In two of my courses, Industrial Economics and Financial Markets & Institutions
I had midterm exams. The grade I received in these two courses counts as a
weighted average together with my finals. In the three other courses I only had a
final exam, though in Monetary Theory and Policy we had 4 home assignments
during the semester that accounted for 40% of the grade. In Financial Markets
there were also 5 home assignments that had to be done, which accounted for
10% of your final grade. Some of the courses also demanded class participation
to some extent, but not very much.
The exams usually last from 1-2 hours.
Library and technology
Students have easy access to the library and all of its facilities. The library at
Bocconi consists of many small study rooms instead of open office solutions.
However, the study rooms are quite noisy, and the chairs are not very
comfortable. I spend a lot more time at the library back home at BI.
The IT equipment they have is quite out-dated – the computers are slow, often
trouble with printing and Wi-Fi is limited to certain areas.
Description of courses
Course code & name
30006 Financial
Markets & Institutions
Master/
Bachelor
Bachelor
30012 Business
Strategy
30031 Industrial
Economics
Bachelor
30159 Monetary
Theory & Policy
Bachelor
30169 Economics of
Financial Regulation
Bachelor
Bachelor
Exam form
Prerequisites
Midterm
optional. 2
hours written
final exam.
Written exam, 2
hours.
Midterm
optional. 1 hour
written final
exam.
4 Home
assignments & 2
hours written
final exam.
Written exam, 2
hours.
None
Approved
as
Finance
None
Strategy
Micro,
mathematics
Economics
Macro,
mathematics
Economics
None
Economics
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