1. Preparing for the exchange

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2 1. Preparing for the exchange Before apply I studied at ESCP Europe Paris campus in spring semester 2016 as an exchange student. The exchange application process in Aalto ended in March 2015, so there was a long waiting time until hearing from ESCP Europe in September. Me and other students were asked to send a document contains: the completed application form in English or in French (with one picture ID), CV, a cover letter indicating your motivation for studying at ESCP EUROPE, transcripts of all years of higher education, photocopy of passport or identity card, and the score of the standardized language tests or any certification if available. The physical nomination letter arrived at Aalto International Office in 18 days. ESCP EUROPE Intranet As soon as the documents were sent to ESCP Europe and the registration was confirmed, I got an with the information of my ESCP Europe Intranet login and password. This is really important since intranet is where you register your courses in the beginning and find all of the course information. In ESCP EUROPE, the classrooms for each courses can be different for each weeks, and whether is cancelled or not also shown on the site. The login and password here is also used on the campus WIFI connection and other course related website in ESCP EUROPE, therefore it is better to pay attention on it. I forgot my password and it took much effort to fix the problem because it could not be retrieved on the site by myself. In addition, the intranet is definitely not the most user-friendly and intuitive website I have ever used. It is not so easy to look for the needed information. Therefore I will recommend to familiarize yourself with the intranet before the course registration. Students can also access our ESCP EUROPE through the intranet. All information is announced through that after the semester started. So it is more convenient to just transfer all of the mail automatically to your own account. Visa As a non-european student, theoretically I need to apply for student visa if I wish to stay somewhere outside of Finland in Europe more than 3 months. The visa is free if you are under the Erasmus program. According to the previous travel reports, the process was supposed to be quite easy and simple to just visit the French Consulate Office in Kaivopuisto with all of the prepared documents ready.

3 However, since I had not found the accommodation in Paris yet at that time, I had my French friend s address in the application form as my residence in Paris, and was asked to prove the relationship between me and my friend. After I provided the invitation from my friend, the staff called my friend to confirm unexpectedly. I still got my visa in the end but it seemed much more strict than I expected. Others There were also some other documents needed to be sent before arrival such as insurance and student card application. Nothing is too difficult as long you follow the instructions given through the mails. Traveling to ESCP EUROPE I took Norwegian Airline directly to Paris and also back. The arrived airport is Orly. It was a convenient and reasonable option. 2. Exchange studies The semester started at January 11st with the orientation week that included an introduction day, 3 days of seminar courses and exam in the last day. It was said to be compulsory to be there during the entire week. I was late for the introduction week due to the flight and other Finnish students in Aalto helped me to fit it. The first day was the introduction about all of the school facilities and getting to know other exchange students. There were about 200 exchange students in a semester including Bachelor and double degree students. Starting from the second day was the seminar course about the culture, history, education, major debates and so on in France. Last day was the exam. The spring semester has 2 periods divided by the spring break week. The official end of the semester is April 22 nd. However, the professors have 2 weeks of flexibility to adjust the classes, which means the last class of each course might not be on the same week. It depends on the professor.

4 Generally about the courses Before the course registration, the exchange office in ESCP sent the list of all of the courses that can be possibly registered for. My program in ESCP EUROPE is MIM (Master in Management), to which most of the exchange students belong. There was wide range of elective courses in the field of business in both undergraduate and graduate level and were taught in either English or French. Basically there were quite plenty course options for selection. Except if students want to choose a major, otherwise all of the given elective courses can be taken freely. Quite many of courses I had interests in were overlapping and some of my chosen courses didn t actually happen due to lacking of students. To avoid the trouble afterwards, I recommend registering as many courses of your interests as possible online during course selection period and drop the relatively unnecessary ones once you have enough credits. It just took me the effort of one to drop courses but some other students needed to meet school faculty to add courses. There are 2 kinds of courses: 2.5 ECTS and 5 ECTS. The ECTS of the courses depend if it lasts for one period or 2 periods. Basically each course takes 3 hours per week in the class plus the additional team work, assignment, reading and so on. The brief introduction and comments of the courses I took are listed below. LS01-02 European integration & Management seminar 2.5ECTS This was the seminar course that happened during the orientation week as the kickoff of life in ESCP EUROPE. The exchange students were divided into smaller groups and had lectures for 3 days about European Union, French culture, history of Paris city, French education system, major debates in current society and so forth. The lectures were taught by different professors and ware quite simple and pleasant to take. I gained some understandings and insights about the country through the discussion in the class and also got to know some other students. The course itself might not be that useful academically but was a fun one to know the culture better. Basically the seminar was compulsory for all exchange students to participate but only the ones who needed the credits had to pass the exam on the last day. The exam was quite easy as long as you participate in the sessions. I would definitely recommend anyone to take credits on this. MA06 - A7 Strategic Marketing5 ECTS We played a business simulation game throughout the Strategic Marketing course. In the game the students were divided into 10 different teams which represent different companies in 2 separate industries. Every week we were given power to make company decisions in the operation and marketing. The course was quite interesting since we were competing with each

5 other in the class and we could really see how a simple decision can cause significant result or nothing at all. It would ve been better if there were more theories that can be applied or other useful class contents related to marketing strategies by the professor to help the decision making. But I think it is because this was an advanced level marketing course that the preliminary marketing knowledge was considered as given. The evaluation of the course was based on the performance of the company and two assignments-marketing plan and the company performance review. I think it was a nice experience and I had learned something through the game. However, since the business game was basically the only content throughout the entire course, the satisfaction of the course was highly dependent on the team that was assigned by the professor in the beginning of the class. CB02-A7 Corporate reporting, governance and social responsibility 5 ECTS BIONDI Yuri I didn t find out any information about this course before course selection and now I will highly recommend anyone not to take this class. Firstly, the class is on Monday evening, which was not the best time to concentrate. Secondly, the course was really boring. We had 2 or 3 sessions for the theory part about corporate governance. All of the theories were from professor s own papers. However, there was no presentation prepared for the class, only simple class materials to read. Therefore, it was really hard to understand or even pay attention in the class. In addition to that, there was one lecture spending on guest speaker and the rest were all reserved for team work. I have never experienced any courses that we just go to class to do team work, which I found it quite strange. The evaluation of the class was based on the team work and the final exam. Several topics related to the course were given in the beginning of the class such as Volkswagen scandal, Apple s CSR strategies, and corporate tax avoidance and so on. The teams were formed according to the topics and were asked to give one hour presentation in the end. The final exam was based on the theories taught in the class and also the presentations from other teams. The students were allowed to bring all of the printed material and check it during the exam. All in all, I am not so sure if I have learned anything in the class. IA10 - A7 Circular economy ACQUIER Aurélien / CARBONE Valentina J This course was an interesting one. It introduced the definition and all different topics about circular economy such as cradle to cradle, bio mimicry, and permaculture and so on. In addition, it also talked about the business angles of circular economy and new innovation around it. We also got to apply the knowledge to a real case study Coca cola Enterprise as our final presentation.

6 The evaluation was based on the class participation, individual assignment and team presentations. In the beginning of the class we were asked to make a brief presentation about the theories of circular economy by teams and submitted notes about the share economy conference that was organized by the professors. We did the last presentation for Coca Cola Enterprise on different topics such as out of home collection module, consumer behavioral change, the industrial ecosystem and the upstream network of actors and new innovative business model. If I remember correctly, this was the first time the class was organized, given on that reason I think it was quite good course to have a systematic understanding about circular economy in general. KE20-A7 Corporate Social Responsibility strategies 2.5 ECTS ACQUIER Aurélien / DELBARD Olivier The course was about corporate social responsibilities in theories and reality. The course was taught by two professors separately (2 sessions each and final presentation), therefore, it gave me a feeling of inconsistency. Furthermore, one of the professor was also the professor for circular economy, thus some of the content were actually quite similar. It was a 2.5 ECTS course and the evaluation was based on final presentation and maybe class participation (since the professor didn t really mention clearly in the beginning even though some students asked). The topic for final presentation was to analyze the CSR strategy of a chosen company and gave recommendations. In my opinion I think this course was quite loosely organized and didn t give too much to learn. However, it was still useful to have a general look about CSR and also get some easy credits at the same time. KE37 - A7 The U.S. cinema industry : the "Dream factory" DELBARD Olivier 2.5ECTS This course is recommended to anyone who wants to take a breath from management courses and have some fun time in Thursday afternoon. I really like the course. It gave thorough introduction about Hollywood cinema industry from golden age to now on production, laws, financing and other perspectives. For each class we had to watch one or two old Hollywood films in golden age and discussed them in the class. In the end we had to submit a report related to the discussion in the class and the analysis of each movie. LE10-A11A French 2.5 ECTS During the orientation week the students had a French test that defined which level of the class you belong to. I was assigned to the beginner s level. It was a small class and the content for each class was quite easy and useful. I didn t expect to speak French fluently during my stay there but actually did expect to learn a bit more. I have taken French 1A in Aalto and didn t

7 finish 1B due to the time constraints. If I could do it again I probably would ve finished it and try to take one level up in ESCP EUROPE. 3. Free time and other information Cost of living The general daily expense in Paris is a bit cheaper than Helsinki. However, not everything is cheaper there. For food, the fresh ingredients like vegetables and fruit are much cheaper but sometimes for some groceries of same brand are more expensive. There are much more food options in Paris and a lot cheaper but it could easily end up spending too much on restaurants or bars, especially if you hang out with friends often. Accommodation ESCP EUROPE doesn t have its own dormitory. I stayed in a studio near ESCP EUROPE during my stay in Paris. The rent in Paris is really expensive compare to Helsinki and it is not that easy to find a studio with reasonable price if you are alone. Renting shared apartment would be a nice option if you know others before going. There is a forum on intranet where you can find some students subletting their apartments or you can join Facebook group ( for more information. Some people use Airbnb or other short term rental websites. I got my place through the website 9flat. However, I am not so sure if I recommend this website even though my place was not bad. Some exchange students stayed in the accommodation called Vivaldi which is in partnership with school. Students can apply for CAF for small amount of rent subsidy each month. However, it requires opening a bank account in France. Given that the difficulty for the paper work and waiting time, most exchange students didn t apply for that. Transportation The school is close to la Marais, Bastille and le Republique, and also not too far to the city center. Taking metro is really convenient. Even walking is fine as well if weather permits. Students can also apply for regional travel card if you need to take metro every day to school. The travel card can also be used on longer distance travel within zone 1-5 such as Versailles, Fontainebleau, Disneyland or other popular cities. Free time Paris is literally the city with everything. No matter what kind of people you are, you can always find places to go and meet like-minded people. There are a lot of museums in Paris with free

8 entry if you are students under 26 years old. Otherwise the first Sunday of every month is also free for everyone but it takes some times to queue. There are a lot of parties every week hosted by school association in ESCP EUROPE ( Every now and then there is also organized travel to some famous tourist attraction with reasonable price. And also some events in the city for young people ( Traveling in the host country The weather in Paris in spring semester is pretty bad and cold. Some of the nice places were not in the season in the beginning or even not opened. It got better when the time moving toward late April. Therefore, if you wish to travel in France, it is better take the weather into consideration. During my stay, I went to some cities near Paris like Mont Saint Michel, Honfleur and other cities in Normandy by myself. I also went to Chamonix the Alps during winter break. It is amazing. I highly recommend it to anyone who likes to ski. Annecy is also a beautiful city to travel. Since the transportation is convenient in France, traveling to other neighboring countries like the Netherlands, Belgium and Switzerland is really simple by train or car. Just have to pay attention that the toll can be really expensive if you travel with car.

9 4. Final Comments I think Paris is a really beautiful and amazing city to live for a while. It has everything and it is totally different from what you can experience in Helsinki. ESCP EUROPE is in the city center so one can easily enjoy everything happens in the city. Also the school experience in ESCP EUROPE is so much different than Aalto. French students are more laid back and socializing, so do the professors. I think it can definitely be an unforgettable experience during your master study. And the opportunities to meet different students from all over the world are also good ways to know European cultures. However, academic wise I think the quality of courses was a bit disappointing. Therefore, I would recommend it to anyone who doesn t take studying as the most important goal for the exchange experience. Otherwise the city itself is already a perfect reason to come.