Happy Country, Happy Exchange Past Review

By Harrison Nguyen (The University of Texas at Austin) - abroad from 01/15/2016 to 07/15/2016 with

Copenhagen Business School: Copenhagen - Direct Enrollment & Exchange

What did you gain/learn from your experience abroad? Was it worthwhile?

I learned that I can do a lot more than I expected from myself while abroad. I gained a sense of independence after being away from my home university. It is definitely worthwhile and if I could afford a whole year, I would have taken the opportunity to do my exchange for two consecutive semesters.

Personal Information

How much international exposure did you have prior to this program?	6 months+

Review Your Program

* Overall educational experience Academic rigor, intensity, resources, etc.	Rigor will depend on courses taken and scheduling. Most courses are not rigorous and many resident Danish students skip out on classes which can be made up by reading all required materials. Sometimes it is more beneficial to just read instead of attending lectures.
* Host Country Program Administration On-site administration of your program
* Housing: How satisfied were you with your living arrangements?	Svanevej 4 is not a recommended place to live. It is out of the way and quite more expensive than other dorms. The dorm potentially could have been social with the common room and deck, however the manager Anete locked the common room because of a party. The mess was cleaned up the following day, but she still locked the room halfway through the semester and threatened to evict people. The advertising of the common room may as well be useless. Apartment gets extremely hot during sunny months. Cleaning resources vary depending on if students keep items or not.
* Food:	Food sold at the CBS cantine is great for the price, and where I ate most of my meals not cooked at home. Grocery in Denmark is pretty inexpensive compared to other things. Eating out should be avoided because it is so expensive. I would not recommend eating full meals at restaurants more than once every two weeks.
* Social & Cultural Integration: How integrated did you feel with the local culture?	Danish students are very cold in general and take a lot to break through to. While I felt very integrated with the city living, I did not make many Danish friends because everyone is in a program. This means they have taken classes with the same people at the same times since their first semester, so there is no need to branch out. Masters students may have more success with finding friends.
* Health Care: How well were health issues addressed during the program?
* Safety:	Safest large city I have ever experienced.
If you could do it all over again would you choose the same program?	Yes I would make more of an effort to join student organizations or go to Club Nexus to meet local students. Small talk is awkward at first, but I think the Danes open up after a few drinks.

Finances

* Money: How easily were you able to live on a student's budget? (1 = not very easy/$200+ on food & personal expenses/week, 2.5 = $100/week, 5 = very easily/minimal cost)	Danish students will have an easy time living because they get a stipend of $800/month which covers food and a part of rent. Be prepared to spend a lot of money on little things.
Not including program expenses, about how much money did you spend on food and other expenses each week?	300
Do you have any general money-saving tips for future study abroad participants?	Make your own food and buy a bike to avoid using public transportation if possible. Bring toiletries from home to use during the semester. If not counting plane tickets and accommodation, travelling to cheaper countries will save you a substantial amount of money on food.

Language

* Did your program have a foreign language component?	No

Direct Enrollment/Exchange

* Did you study abroad through an exchange program or did you directly enroll in the foreign university?	Exchange

Other Program Information

* Where did you live? Select all that apply	Dorm
* Who did you live with? Select all that apply	Local Students Americans International Students
* Who did you take classes with? Select all that apply	Local Students Americans International Students
About how many local friends did you make that you will likely keep in touch with?	0

A Look Back

* What did you like most about the program?	Safe city to live in, easy to navigate Exchange Crew provided many events for international students
* What could be improved?	Class scheduling system, classes must be picked without knowledge of schedule. Classes will overlap and students miss lectures.
* What do you know now that you wish you knew before going on this program?	To be more persistent with making local friends, and avoid other Americans. I would have put less effort into school because it is extremely hard to pull a perfect score in most classes without prior experience in oral exams.

Reasons For Studying Abroad

To help future students find programs attended by like-minded individuals, please choose the profile that most closely represents you.	The Avid Adventurer The wardrobe you packed was better suited for a semester of camping than club hopping. Outdoorsy, you might forgo a crazy night out for an early all-day adventure. You'd rather take in the rich culture of an old town than the metropolis of a modern city, but for you getting off the grid is ideal.

Individual Course Reviews

Course Name/Rating:	Marketing - The Essentials and Trend Drivers
Course Department:	Marketing
Instructor:	Carsten Buhl
Instruction Language:	English
Comments:	This is one of the best instructors at CBS. He has real world experience in marketing, and his final exam is about idea generation rather than memorizing things. It is not necessary to read the textbook if you attend every class as he does a great job going over necessary vocabulary. This can be taken as a first marketing class, no prior experience is needed. However, if you have taken an introductory course already, it will benefit you when writing the final. Carsten also offers opportunities to present cases in class and will critique you while presenting. It is a way for you to practice for the exam. I would recommend this class if you need a marketing credit or can afford to take it without losing your graduating progress.
Credit Transfer Issues:

Course Name/Rating:	Organizational Behavior
Course Department:	Organization
Instructor:	Elena Schulzhenko, Gitte Beierholm
Instruction Language:	English
Comments:	This was by far the most useless class I have taken. Gitte is a good lecturer, but that does not matter because Elena is the one grading final exams. Elena is a poor lecturer, and there will be many awkward silences. She expects the class to read 3 chapters and 1 or 2 articles each week which is not beneficial to anyone's learning. The lecture is just going through vocabulary words and how you "feel" rather than applying the concepts to real world scenarios. Highly soft skill course that will make you want to pull your hair out because it is so useless. If you've taken management before and need a free credit, I would take this class. All you need to do is read the case articles and you're set. Only two Danish students ever showed up past the first day of class, which is a sign of an obsolete lecturer.
Credit Transfer Issues:

Course Name/Rating:	Information Organization in Practice
Course Department:	Information Management
Instructor:	Atila Marton
Instruction Language:	English
Comments:	The course is a very soft skilled course in a heavily technical field which is tricky. None of the Danish students will know how to code or the basics of how coding works. There is a big topic for each week, but without knowing the basics of coding/databasing/computer science/etc., it is very hard to apply the concepts read from the articles. The Danish students come up with "solutions" but cannot critique themselves or list limitations because they do not understand that there are limitations within the code of the software they choose to use. I expected a bit of technical knowledge, but I really did not gain much new knowledge. Joshua Rock at UT Austin basically taught this course in a matter of two lectures in his MIS 301 class. However, the case discussions and interacting with students was very nice. Beware, Atila will say that the final exam paper is very casual, but he does not mean this. Expectations of what is expected in the final paper is not clearly lined out by the lecturer nor the syllabus.
Credit Transfer Issues:

Course Name/Rating:	Corporate Finance
Course Department:	Finance
Instructor:	Ulf Nielsen
Instruction Language:	English
Comments:	One of the greatest lecturers at CBS. Ulf does a great job of explaining concepts and will answer every question thrown at him with ease. He will explain a concept as it is, then intuitively, then prove it with math so there is no room for misunderstanding. There is no homework due so studying is a must if you do not want to sit for a whole week cramming right before the final exam. This is an intro finance course, so financial and managerial accounting is recommended, but I did well with only financial. This is a pretty intense course because there is math, you must read to understand, and you must do practice problems. After my rating and comments, I would only recommend this to students who have had prior experience in Finance because it is not a course worth taking while abroad.
Credit Transfer Issues: