Student Report
Name of the University: Pace University, Lubin School of Business
Exchange semester: Fall, 2014
I. PRACTICAL INFORMATION
Before leaving Norway
- When and how did you receive information from the exchange university, and
did you encounter any difficulties?
- We received the information from the exchange university really late, we couldn’t
remember precisely when, but we think it was in June.
Applying for a visa (if applicable)
- How did you apply for your visa, what did it cost and did you have difficulties?
- You need a student visa to study in U.S., which costs $160 + some other fees.
The process of applying for visa was a bit complicated, and it had to be done over
several days because of payment processing etc. You should definitely start with the
application the day you receive all documents needed from the university.
Travel
- How did you travel to your destination?
- We travelled by airplane directly from Oslo to New York. The price was about
5000NOK for a roundtrip.
Housing
- Was housing provided by the university? If not, did you receive support from
the school?
- Pace has a lot of dorms offered and we received information and support to apply, but
we chose to rent an apartment instead because it was cheaper, bigger and more
flexible. We found our apartment through a facebook group called “Ung i New York”,
and the two of us shared a three bedrom apartment with two Danish girls and one
other Norwegian girl.
Costs
- Approximately how much per month did you spend on rent, books, food,
transportation, and other personal expenses?
- The exchange rate increased dramatically over the semester. We paid $1300 rent per month +
-
utilities which was about $200 in total for the apt per month
amazon.com is cheapest place to buy or rent college books, while Barnes and Noble (book
store outside of the university) is very expensive.
We had walking distance to the university so we did not need a monthly subway card.
Taxi and limo is very cheap compared to Norway.
Food in the store costs approximately the same as in Norway, but the food expenses in
total depends on how many times per week you want to eat at restaurants etc. There is
a lot of cheap take out places and how much you spend also depends on how much
you want to spend, for example if you rather buy lunch in the cafeteria or bring home
made lunch.
-
New York is an expensive city but how much money you will to use depends on how
much you want to use. For shopping lovers, the spending can become pretty high.
Rent
Books
Food
Transport
Other
8000-9200NOK
$50-$150(350kr-1000kr) per book, and you have one book per
class
1000NOK
Subway: 16NOK per ride, 200NOK per week, Taxi: 150NOK
from downtown to midtown
9000NOK
Culture and language
- Did you have any language problems with the faculty or other students?
- How were the possibilities to experience the country and the culture?
- We had almost no language problems in general but when it came to finance classes,
we had to use some time learning the English terms.
- There was not much time to travel outside Manhattan, but we went on a day-trip to
Philadelphia and a two-day-trip to Washington D.C. It was really cheap to travel by
bus, and the museums and attractions we to went to were free.
II. ABOUT THE SCHOOL
The University is located right next to Brooklyn Bridge on lower Manhattan in the financial
district. Pace is not only for business degrees but also law, science, art etc. so it is a very
diverse studentbody.
Compared to BI, the inside of the school is much older and the classes takes place in small
class rooms with 20-40 students. The professors knows your name and you get graded by
class participation and attendance.
Course registration
- When and how did you register for courses?
When it was time to register for courses, we got a link that we had to go into to find
appropriate courses, and then we had to request a spot in the courses we wanted. We did this
over the summer (july). Things got a little bit complicated when the mandatory strategy
course we had to take was full, but we soon found another course that BI approved. Just make
sure to have more than one option from BI.
- When did the add/drop period end?
We managed to make a complete course pack before the summer ended. But there was a due
date for adding and dropping courses around 20th of September. So there was possibility to
change courses once you started at Pace.
Academic calendar
Arrival date:
First day of the semester:
Last day of classes:
Examination period:
Any special events/holidays:
Other:
20th August
3rd September
12th and 15th december
15th – 19th december
Thanks giving holiday
26th-30th November
A couple of other days
without class because
of jewish holidays
Arrival
- Describe the introduction week
- There was no introduction week, but we had two orientation days with the other
exchange students and the international office. We got a tour of the school, a lot of
information and some “get to know each other”-activites. These days was when we
got to know most of the people that we spent time with during the semester.
The International Office
- As an exchange student, did you receive sufficient and relevant information?
- We got the information needed but it could take a long time for email responds from
Pace.
Promoting BI and Norway
- There was one International Day where we could promote BI and Norway, but we
only got the information about the event at the same day as the event so we were not
able to attend.
Social activities
- How was the relationship with native students and that among exchange
students?
- We got to know a couple of native students but mostly we hung out with other
exchange students. We soon became a group of exchange students that went out in the
weekends and worked together with school projects, so the relationship was really
good.
- Are there any special activities, student organisations, and gatherings for
exchange students?
We did not join any special activities or student organisations because they were
poorly promoted.
III. ACADEMICS
In the classroom
How the lectures is build was very different from class to class. Some professors wanted the
lectures to be mostly discussions while other professors had power point and some just used
the white board. The professors are to be called professors or doctors, but apart from that, is it
a very informal and relaxed class environment. The native students attitude towards class
continued to surprise us when some people went out in the middle of a class to buy coffee or
ice cream and many of the usually arrived late.
It is really hard to compare the studying here with BI but; the level of the students are
generally lower even though the grading system is stricter. You have to attend most classes to
get a good grade and you get homework for every class. There is also quizzes,
midterms(which starts in the end of September and ends in the end of November), projects;
papers and presentations, pop-quizzes and some courses have three exams. Thus, the
workload could sometimes be a bit overwhelming, but mostly because it was mandatory like
in Norwegian high schools.
Course materials
Most courses had one book, but we were often handed additional articles and papers etc to
read before the next class meeting.
Exams
Was the exam based on the course materials or on the lectures?
Regarding exams and projects, is it most important to be in class and listen to what the
professors think is most important.
How was the course evaluated (include all that apply)?
Over the semester, the courses were evaluated by written and home assigned mid-term exams,
in-class quizzes, presentations, group projects, small assignments, class participation and
debates. Our finals exams were all written, mostly in class, but some of them were take home
assignements. A lot of the courses also offered extra credit assigments which could give you
for example to extra points to the final grade.
Library and technology
The library at Pace is really big, with both open space for group work, small cubicals and a
computer lab, and it is normal for students to study there. It is also a place to be social and
meet other students, but therefore it could sometimes be very noisy.
Description of courses
Please list below all the courses you took while on exchange. Your comments are useful for
BI and for future exchange students, include information on the qacadmic level, challenges,
relevance to your studies, if the course was practical/theoretical, any enrolment issues, etc.
Course code & name
Example:FIN123
Finance
PHI253 Logic
Master/
Bachelor
Bachelor
Bachelor
Exam form
4-hour written
exam
3 exams, 12hours written
Prerequisit
es
None
Approved
as
Elective
Comments
None
Elective
This course was
definetly not
relevant to our
studies but it was
fun
This course dealt
with macro
economics, but was
mostly oriented
against the
American bank
system
This course
contains everything
you have to know
regarding starting
up a small business.
We had a group
project where we
did research about
one company
chosen which was
ECO238 Money and
Banking
Bachelor
3 exams, 1-2
hours written
Micro and
Macro
economics
Elective
MGT315 Small
Business Management
Bachelor
2 exams, 2
hours multiple
choice + group
project of of
12 pages over
the semester
You have
the courses
required if
you are a
ØKAD or
BBA
student
Strategy
FIN320 Corporate
Finance
Bachelor
2 exams, 2
hours + to
group projects
(presentation)
BØK 1 og
BØK 2
Finansiell
styring
FIN358 International
Finance
Bachelor
2 take home
exams
You have
the courses
required if
you are a
ØKAD or
BBA
student
Finansiell
styring
MGT 362 Human
resources management
Bachelor
Mid-term +
final exam:
open book
multiple
choice plus
two essay
questions. One
individual
assignment
and one group
debate.
Not sure,
but I think
“Organisasj
onsadferd
og ledelse”
from the
second
semester in
the first
year at BI.
Elective
very similar to the
marketing plan we
made the first
semester at BI
This course was
relevant for our
studies. Most of the
content was similar
to what we had
done in other
courses at BI,
however we had
some group
projects about
valuating stock
prices and
forecasting which
was new and
interesting to learn.
This course was a
combination of
history of finance
in U.S. and how US
finance is
compared to
Europe and Asia.
We talked a lot
about the financial
crisis in 2008. 35%
of the grade was
class participation,
but there were no
additional quizzes
or homework other
than reading some
articles before
class.
This course
analyzes the
strategies,
problems, and
procedures used in
assessing human
potential, abilities,
and performance.
This course teaches
how the Human
resource
department works
and what they do in
a company. I found
it very interesting
and useful even
though I’m not sure
I’m going to work
within HR in the
future.
On a final note, how will you sum up the exchange experience?
All in all we had a great exchange semester. New York is a great city with endless
possibilities, you will never be bored in this city as there is always something new to see or
do. We got to practice speaking English every day, and we noticed how much more
comfortable we are speaking it now, than at the beginning of the semester. Sometimes we
caught ourselfes speaking English to each other when it was just us in the room, and we even
had dreams in English.
We also learned a lot about the American culture, but also about many other differens cultures
around the world as we became friends with people from Italy, Germany, Ireland,
Switzerland, Brazil and more.
It was absolutely a good experience living in this city and we are both very glad we took the
chance we got and went on exchange. If you are considiering doing an exchange semester, do
it, you will defintaly not regret it!
exchange brochures)