The CEMS term abroad experience: # 6 Warsaw School of Economics (SGH)

Warsaw School of Economics (Skola Glowna Handlowa w Warszawie) – Warsaw, Poland

(view from the Marriott SkyBar)

The city

Warsaw is a tremendous city, which is clearly booming in these times of crisis for the majority of Europe. Poland has a robust economy that, despite lacking some control regarding the budgetary component and fiscal consolidation, has always registered economic growth when everyone else was suffering. With a burgeoning nightlife, very reasonable prices for EU students, rich cultural settings, and a magic of its own, Warsaw makes up for an awesome place to have the 5-6 months of your life. I can only recommend this destination that in the beginning I put as my third choice for my CEMS period abroad, but, in retrospective, I would surely put as a first.

The best place to live is definitely in Centrum, either close to Al. Jerozolimskie or Al. Swietokrzsyska, which are the two most important avenues in Warsaw. Any place along those avenues or very close to them will be automatically close to very good transportation systems (Warsaw has a very punctual, frequent, and inexpensive one, and if you’re a student you get a 50% discount – in my case, I had to pay 30€ for a city pass that lasted for 3 months and gave me access to all transports!) as well as the party places, which you will surely appreciate. I was located in Chmielna, which is a very good street, close to Mazowiecka and the Nowy Swiat, which are the two main partying districts. There is always something happening in there, and I assure you will not be let down any day of the week (well, perhaps Monday). Alcohol in bars is very cheap (it’s frequent to find bars with shots at 3 or 4 zlotych, which is 0,75-1€), and the only time prices actually resemble those of Lisbon is in the disco (average 4€ per drinks such as whisky cola). Also, be careful when you go out in the night with two things: don’t have a Polish football club (for example, in Warsaw you have Legia Warszawa and Warszawa, and these adepts frequently beat each other up), and stay away from clearly drunk people. As long as you keep these two rules, you’ll be fine – Warsaw has police patrolling it actively 24 hours per day, and they are pretty strict, so security (aka being robbed or beaten up) is never an issue.

The best way to get a place will be through an agency: of course you’ll have to pay a commission, but it will save you a lot of time, effort, and potentially money (some of my friends had to travel to Warsaw and spend many nights in hostels just for this purpose, so you can imagine how much it cost them). As long as you point them these directions, they should be able to hook you up with a pretty nice place. Of course, rent won’t be as cheap as it would for locals, so you can expect a ‘foreign mark-up’ to be present (rents for good houses range from 300-450€, depending on where you live and whether you live alone or together with someone). In alternative, you can live in Sabinki, SGH’s student dorm, and pay a rent of 100€ - the disadvantage being that you won’t have a room for yourself and the facilities are far from European average (although improving in recent years). Get your preferences straight, knowing the costs and with how many (if any) people you want to divide your place, and I’m sure you’ll live comfortable with your choice. Know however that SGH has a metro station right in front of it, so no matter where you live, as long as you live close to the metro, it will be very fast getting to university.

Food is extremely cheap, and if you want to be a patriot, you can go and buy from Biedronka – its logo is the ladybug, and there are over 2000 stores all over Poland. It is actually strange getting food so cheap, and if you take into account that alcohol (aside from whisky and wine) is also very cheap (bottles of vodka for 5€, and 0,5l of beer for 0,5€…) and that bills are not really that expensive (I paid 100€ for 4 months and a half and I used heating, electricity, and water abundantly), you have all the elements you need for social gatherings and doing all kinds of stuff together with your colleagues. Have no doubt, your CEMS colleagues will probably become your family during this period, and I advise taking advantage of these elements to your benefit and be proactive in organizing this kind of events. Movie theatres cost about 5€, and discos generally charge a symbolic charge of 10 zl (aka 2,5€). It is no doubt less expensive than going out in Lisbon. You also have lots of museums and historical places, either in Warsaw or around Poland (Cracow and Auschwitz, Wroclaw, Gdansk), which are truly worth visiting – and if you use Polski Bus, you’ll be able to travel 500 km for less than 10€. Prices are truly insanely low in that beautiful country!

The boring part – the School!

At SGH you will most likely be scared that you have many more courses than at Nova – it is not uncommon to take 6 or 7. However, you can expect the workload to be much smaller, and also much more concentrated around the exam period, which occurs in January. It is customary that you just have to write an exam and do some kind of presentation or essay, so it is frankly easy for any student who has been through Nova’s intense training. The semester starts on the 1^st of October and officially ends in the 31^st of January, and the Block Seminar takes place, usually, in the third week of September. Regarding the second semester, it starts in the middle of February and lasts until the end of June.

This year the Block Seminar was about Entrepreneurship, and it was an awesome mix of fun, knowledgeable presenters and supervisors, and real-life coaching and experience sharing. The calendar was the following:

I won, together with my team, the best idea award, and we actually had a private investor which was willing to invest in it! I cannot overstate how contacting with all these brilliant people who were so much into entrepreneurship and leadership training was both enlightening and challenging – I definitely recommend this Block Seminar. It took place at SGH and not in a location outside Warsaw, and this was positive in that it allowed us to gather and meet bars, discos, and museums together instead of going to some remote place in Poland!

CEMS Courses offered on the Fall Semester 2012:

· Ethics and Institutions in the Economy
· European Strategies and International Business
· International Management
· Management Strategies in the New Economy (CEMS Core Strategy)
· Media Economics
· Organizational Behavior – Management Skills
· Transition in Central and Eastern Europe
· Microeconomics of Competitiveness (licensed by Harvard Business School)
· Knowledge Management in Practice
· Management in a Logistic Company of the Future
· Developing a Winning Sales and Marketing Strategy with L’Óreal Polska

I only put here the CEMS courses because, to be honest, these are the only ones that can potentially interest you. All other courses you might take you can do it at your own risk, but these are actually the ones where the quality of the English dominion is certifiable. In bold you have the courses I took. International Management and ESIB are honestly not that interesting, but I can tell that, if you’re interested in the respective fields, Transition and Media Economics are very interesting and worthwhile taking courses. All these courses are worth 3 or 4 ECTS (except the Core one which is worth 7,5), and that is the reason why you end up taking so many courses. But again, if you come from Nova, I’m pretty confident you’ll find it easy and manageable. Regarding those that I didn’t take, my colleagues really enjoyed the L’Óreal course as well as the knowledge management one, but regarding the other two I have little or no positive impact to report.

All in all, this is a tremendous experience, which I can only vividly recommend to anyone considering Warsaw as a destination. Don’t forget that this is one of the most powerful economies in the central-eastern block, and which will potentially drive the EU’s growth in the coming years. Jerónimo Martins Group, which owns Pingo Doce in Portugal and Biedronka in Poland, is rapidly expanding, and constitutes an excellent employment opportunity for Portuguese students who want an international experience and are interested in these countries. Do not think Poland is your typical ex-Soviet country: that is a huge mistake. It has developed beyond description over these past 23 years, and promises to continue having a shining future; so don’t judge this book over prejudice, but make sure you understand what an opportunity this truly is!

Finally, I share some pictures of my experience below. In them, you can notice that the group spirit is awesome, the parties are great, and the city is just beautiful. I promise you will fall in love for this city – and who knows, maybe with someone in the city. Truly an experience of a lifetime!