Name of the University: Simon Fraser University
Names of the students: Stine Gustavsen and Axel Hoffart
Exchange semester: Fall 2011
General Information:
Simon Fraser University consists of three different campuses in Burnaby, Surrey and Vancouver. The
one in Burnaby is the main campus. Compared to BI, SFU is a bigger school and offers a broad area
of educations like kinesiology, chemistry, psychology, communication and business and
administration. The number of students is close to 30 000. The study structure at SFU involves
lectures, seminars, tutorials, midterms, final- project, paper or exam.
Practical information:
We received the information package from the university in June, and we didn’t experience any
difficulties. The international office at SFU was extremely good to answer emails and they were
friendly all the time. There’s also a possibility to sign up for a buddy program which both of us did, and
that was very useful because then you could ask other students questions about the school, the dorms
and all other kinds of questions you might have.
When going to Canada as an exchange student you don’t need a visa if you’re there for a shorter time
than 6 months. There wasn’t any trouble getting in to the country at all, but it is important that you
bring the acceptance letter from SFU when travelling to the country. We both bought our tickets
through SAS and got them to a fairly low price, 6500 kr for a roundtrip.
We arrived at the SFU campus at the end of august and one of us joined the orientation week, which
was a good experience. They arrange a lot of different activities and you get to meet a lot of people.
This was a really funny but hectic week. And it was a good way to meet other exchange and local
students. It’s worth mentioning though that the orientation is only for students living in residence (on
campus). The first day of classes was September the 5th and lasted until December the 5th. And after
that it was an exam period from December the 8th-18th.
When we arrived on campus for the first time to move in, we were met by a students and staff at the
school. They were very helpful and they had made a very well organized system and they helped you
get the luggage to your room. During the entire day there was never a problem to find someone to ask
for help, and everyone was very helpful. Exchange students had the same move-in date as the other
students, but that wasn’t a problem at all because they were very well prepared and everything worked
fine.
Only one of us had a place to stay on campus when we arrived, and we will encourage everyone to
get a room on campus. It is a very special experience and you get to know a lot of other people that
potentially can be your friends for the rest of your life. The living conditions at the campus are ok; one
of us lived in Shell House and the other in Town House. So it is possible to get a room at the campus
after semester start, but it is nothing we would recommend to try, so it is important that you apply by
the deadline and fill out all the forms you have to. When you live in Shell House you live on one floor
with approximately 20 other people. You share kitchen and bathroom with them. It’s something you
have to get used to, but after a while everything works pretty well. And it’s another opportunity to get to
know even more people. In Town Houses you have your own room and share bathroom with one
other person, and kitchen with 3 others. It’s more like living in an apartment. Living in Town House is
more expensive than living in Shell House. It’s approximately $400 difference per month.
When you live in residence you have to buy your own food or buy a meal plan. One of us bought and
cooked its own meals, while the other was on a meal plan. It’s convenient to be on a meal plan, but
you get pretty tired of the food after a while. The selections of places to eat around campus are fairly
good, but the variety of food could have been better. On a meal plan you use around $1000. Prices on
books vary depending on which courses you take. And we spent from $200- on all books and
equipment. There is also possible to buy used books, and your books can be sold back to the SFU
bookstore at the end of the term. When it comes to the rent it’s more expensive to live in the Town
Houses than Shell House. For a semester in Shell you pay $1700, and in Town Houses you pay
$2800.
There is an international office located on the Burnaby campus, and they are responsible for the
exchange students. At the beginning of the semester, there’s a meeting for exchange students. And
you get a lot of useful information there, plus you get to meet all the other students that are also on
exchange. The international office provides you with all kinds of information about your stay and you
can drop by and ask them questions whenever you like.
During our stay at SFU we had to volunteer for a couple of hours by representing BI during an
exchange fair they had at the Burnaby campus. We basically just talked with people and handed out
some brochures.
We quickly got to know other exchange students and local students as well. There’s a really good
community at SFU and everyone is really friendly but it is a little bit hard to get to know local people so
it is mostly exchange students being together. But if you put an effort to it, it is not difficult to get to
know people. We ended up in a group of 5 people where we were 2 Norwegians and 3 Danish people.
We did a lot of travelling together, but we also got to know many other people as well. They arranged
special events for exchange students like a hockey game, bowling, dinner etc. So there were also
things you could do either with other exchange students or local students. You can also be a part of a
student association, and it’s a good thing to join something like that because then you get to know
even more people. We think that the stay at SFU has been really good; we enjoyed it a lot and got
many new friends for life.
When it comes to the language we didn’t have any difficulties. Since we went to an English speaking
country we didn’t really meet that many barriers. People were very friendly and most of them took the
time to explain things we couldn’t understand. We spent a lot of the weekends travelling around in the
Vancouver area to experience more. We also went on a couple of trips to the state. It only takes 1.5
hours to get to the U.S. border from Vancouver and everything is fairly easy to access since you get a
u-pass (free public transportation) as a student at SFU.
We think that our exchange period will make it easier for us to communicate in English than it was
before. We’ve also become better in written English. We also got a lot of new friends from all over the
world. And that’s something that is going to help us in the future when it comes to our working career
and connections. We think that going on exchange to North America is going to help us in the future
when it comes to applying for jobs, because we have knowledge about a different culture and we
show that we are willing to take risks and explore. And if we want to work in North America we know
how it works, and that will benefit us from others who haven’t been here studying.
Academic information:
All the courses at SFU are taught in English. And they are fairly easy to follow. Some of the challenges
are that some Asian professors speak very poorly English and this makes it difficult to understand
what they are saying. When it comes to the level of study compared to BI, SFU is a more demanding
school. You get a lot of homework and you are expected to do them all and participate in class. You
get grade for participation in most of the classes. You also have midterms and presentations, and they
don’t give less homework for that reason. So the workload is extremely more demanding compared to
BI, so you need to be good at prioritizing and organizing. The courses we took were quite different
from each other. One of us took mostly business courses while the other took mostly communication
courses. And some of the courses are theoretical while others are practical. One course was mainly
based on cases and group projects, while most of the courses were lectures. In almost all the courses
we had to work on different kinds of group projects. What’s different from BI is that at SFU the
professors encouraged the students to come by their office for a talk and they are more than willing to
help you whit whatever you might ask about. And most of the professors invited us out for dinner after
the last class, so that’s different from BI. It is also easy to get in touch with the other students in the
classroom, and in many of the classes it was only 20-30 students, so you get very comfortable when it
comes to speaking in public.
When it comes to the literature all of it was in English, but it was quite easy to read. Again it depends
on the professor how much you talk about the readings in class but you are expected to do them, and
use them when you’re in class or at your final exam. The literature we had is quite similar to the one at
BI, so it’s no difficult to read.
When it comes to exams it really depends on what kind of course you are taking and what the
professor have decided. One of us didn’t really have any final exams except from handing in some
papers and doing a final movie project. And the exams never count a 100%, but mostly around 2535%. When writing the exams you are supposed to use the knowledge you have from the lectures and
from the literature. You are also expected to find your own information online or use knowledge and
experiences from other classes as well.
The library at SFU are easy to use and are open from 9am-10pm but you can use it almost 24/7 during
the exam period. You have easy access to online articles and other literature (really helpful for
research papers). There are a lot of computers you can use on different locations on campus both
windows and mac.
Courses:
Code:
CMNS 226
CMNS 346
CMNS 455
Name:
Digital
Communication
Techniques
Communication
and
developement
Women and new
information
technology
Prerequisites:
Prereq:
CMNS
110 and 130
Exam:
Final
project
Prereq: 60 units
and CMNS 110
and 130
Prereq: 75 credit
hours, including
any one of CMNS
253, 353, OR
453; CMPT 320;
WS 204
Prereq: BUS 312,
347, 360 and 60
units
Final
paper
No final exam.
Final Paper,
weekly quizzes,
Group Projects
and
presentations, as
well as
participation
No final exam.
Final Paper,
weekly quizzes,
Group Projects
and
presentations, as
well as online
participation
BUS 446
Marketing
Strategy
BUS 338
Tech Innovation
Prerequisite: BUS
207 (or ECON
301), 312, 343,
360W and either
BUS 374 or 381;
90 units.
BUS 495
Social Media
Prerequisite: 60
units
BUS 486
Leadership
60 units;
BUS 272, 360,
and either 374 or
381.
BUS 478
Strategy
Prerequisite: BUS
207 (or
ECON 301), 312,
343, 360W and
either BUS 374 or
381; 90 units.
movie
Type of course:
Practical
research
Theoretical
Final
paper
answering
4
essay questions.
Theoretical
Final case, make
a power point
presentation
Based on cases,
both
theoretical
and practical.
Practical/ Seminar
Final
paper,
weekly
journal,
presentations,
and participation
in class.
Group paper, final
individual paper,
presentations, in
class
participation.
Practical/ Seminar
Practical/ Seminar
Practical/ Seminar
Even though it has been a demanding exchange we never regret that we went, it’s been an
experience for life. So we would recommend going to SFU if you want to go to North America. It’s a
great school and the experience is even greater.
Don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any questions:
Stine Gustavsen
stine.s.gustavsen@live.no
Axel Hoffart:
axelhoffart@gmail.com