London,
United Kingdom
The time in London was incredibly great!
Our CEMS group consisted of ca. 35 students from all over the world. I had
never met such an international and diversified group before and I really loved
this experience. Because the group is not as big, it is very easy to stick together
as a group. We organized a lot of activities like travelling to Brighton or
Cambridge, enjoying Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park, watching Billy Elliot’s
Musical, playing laser tag or just going partying or out for drinks. You will
never be bored in London because it offers you everything you want and much
more. Time was just too short to even experience more of this wonderful city. I
guess I’m not going to say more about this city, because it would blow up this
document. But I will ensure you that you will adore this city!
Courses
Believe it or not, but from my point of view, LSE is not as hard as
everyone expect it to be! The quality of the teachers are very good and the
courses are much more theoretical and based on academic papers than at Nova
(for the Germans: more like at German universities). The workload within the
semester is not as high as at Nova because you normally don’t do that many
assignments (always dependent on the course you are in).
Evolutionary Psychology and Management: It is not a Management Class
at all! And it also has nothing to do with Diversity management or HR as some
people expected this! A lot of people are very critical about this course
because it deals with some ambivalent topics. I really enjoyed this class,
because it was very different compared to anything that I have been doing
before. Moreover, it gives you some new perspective on human behaviour. The
grades are only based on oral participation. Thus you need to read and prepare
parts of the Professors book beforehand. There will be a lecture, where you get
more theoretical background information and a seminar where you can asks
questions and discuss the topics you have prepared.
Corporate Finance A: I guess the content is very clear for that one.
The lecture was not as hard and there was a seminar every week, for which you
had to prepare some answers for the homework questions. I normally didn’t do it
and still had no problem with following up the classes. The grade is based 100%
on a final exam, which is definitely doable!
Managing Digital Business: The topics are very interesting, if you
like talking about Cloud Computing, E-Governance etc. from a managerial
perspective. The grade is based on 10% oral participation, 20% a literature
review in Week 5 and 70% an assignment at the end of the semester. You can
choose your own topic and I pretty much enjoyed this class. For the seminar,
there is always one group who will present a topic and discuss it with all the
students. So it’s very interactive.
Housing
I found my apartment on airbnb and just
wrote the landlord whether she would be interested to rent it out for 3 months
(if she goes down with the price). And yes, it worked out. It is very hard to
find something and it is very very pricey!! Try to get into a student residence
– even though some argue online that they only do one-year contracts, it is
mostly possible to rent it for a shorter time.
University
The university is in the middle of the city
and more like a campus. Everything is very modern and well organized. There is
a gym on campus for 80 GBP per semester (I didn’t use it as there is only a
limited amount of treadmills etc., you can also get great deals with other gyms
such as Nuffield Health, YMCA, Fitness first, LA Fitness). The library is very
big, you have quiet areas and group rooms. Printers and computers are everywhere.
There are hundreds of events every week at
LSE, from consulting workshops and networking events to lectures and discussion
with Nobel Price winner like Muhammad Yunus. If you want to get a broader
perspective within Politics and Economics and you do not only want to dig around
Business, you will find everything you want at LSE!
The big Consulting and Investment banking firms are all available at
uni, and some firms like Merrill Lynch even have more than one event per week.
You also find all the companies of the FMCG industry as well Online firms such
as Google.
There are many, many recruiting events at LSE and you can basically
attend one every day if you feel like it J
Sightseeing
My tip: Try to go to a new bar, pub or restaurant every time you go
out! There are a lot of nice places in Shoreditch, Covent Garden, Soho and
Fitzrovia.
Visa
No Visa for
Europeans necessary!
Vaccines
No vaccines necessary.
Surprises
When you do your exchange semester in London in the fall term, there
will be no LSE CEMS student. The group consists only of INCOMING CEMS students.
But this is no problem at all. You will love this small and very international
group!
--
By Tania Moser, Class of 2014/2015
Term abroad - Fall 2014
Nationality:
German
Country
of residence: Germany
Home
School: Nova School of Business and Economics
Host
School: London School of Economics and Political Science
