Stockholm School of Economics in Riga Students' Magazine

I’m willing to help!” ...with silently implied “unless it gives points”... is up to become the most common phrase among Y2s until the end of the fall semester!  What is the reason for such an intensive flow of altruism? Just the same as why so many Y3s are missing now and keep spamming your Facebook accounts with the spiciest updates from abroad. Yes, it’s time to talk about the EXCHANGE!Vova & Jegors (Sciences Po, France)

Ranking first in my today’s “MythBusters” reading-show is a well-known Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris (aka Sciences Po, France). Each year SSE Rigans strive to get there, deliberately learning French and doing perfect in their degrees - all to get accepted to the university with the “most difficult programme”, studying where is said to be “the most prestigious and posh” out of all universities included in the Erasmus offered list of the partner-universities... This year our Paris-conquerors are Vladimirs Zlotnikovs and Jegors Ivanovs, who kindly agreed to share their fabulous experience. 

With no longer due, let’s crash the biggest delusion of Science Po - its ultra-high & hard level of studies!  For Vladimirs the programme is easy because most of the economic courses are very similar to what we have in Y2, thus not many new things to learn. Nevertheless, the native programme is way tougher and is quite politicized.  Jegors still seems to be satisfied with the subjects he took:  out of the 5 chosen classes only one seems to be not cool. For the future “Science Po-ers” he highly recommends the class called the World of French Wine (given you like wine, of course :)).

However, you don’t quite communicate with French people because they mostly take courses in French and not in English. Still, you definitely won’t feel the lack of communication as the exchanges from all over the world (from Brazil to Australia) are coming to Science Po. Plus, there are a lot of extra-curricular clubs and societies (over 100), from a debating club and dozens of sports activities to AIESEC and JeJoue-style cultural organizations, although the majority of clubs make you practice French no matter whether you were planning to do it or not… :)

As for the financing issues, apart from the Erasmus grant, Jegors revealed a nice opportunity: “2 banks pay me 90 euro each for me being their customer (I call it free lunch in Paris)!”

It’s important to mention that although Paris turned out to be not that much expensive, unless what you are paying for is labour-intensive (café, hairdressers, etc), the accommodation in Paris is a real pain, so one should find it quite in advance (feel free to contact Vladimirs and Jegors for help).  But once you are there – huge opportunities to travel appear as Paris is a major European transport hub. Germany, Spain, Italy, UK – you can get to all these countries really cheap if plane/train tickets are booked on time.

How crazy is our fellows’ experience there? Jegors got stopped by the police on the way home from a massive party with a Velib’ bike. He was crossing the street next to the Eiffel tower on the red light with a girl sitting in the basket of a bike. Oh boy, this was a good soup! P.S. There really are quite a few attractive mademoiselles in that place! ;)

Note for the potential candidates:  If you want to study hard, this place is not for you! If you want to party, explore culture, and travel – Paris is close to ideal (if only the prices were a bit lower..)

Kamilė & Edvins (University of Akureyri, Iceland)

Let’s meet the reality: even if the most effort-demanding university turned out to be not so tough, the exchange semester must mostly appear like a vacation abroad. Going to a warm country on the seaside or to a mountainous place for skiing and snowboarding, or to a travelling & transportation centre, flying elsewhere all the time - all of these options seem quite attractive. But who would freely choose a volcanic land with a cold climate in the middle of nowhere?! Our second “MythBuster” page today is devoted to ICELAND (University of Akureyri) with the warm greetings from Kamilė Jociūtė and Edvīns Elferts.

It might seem that there is nothing to do in Iceland comparing to other countries, but the truth is the opposite. Just in a couple of months Kamilė managed to do an impressive list of crazy things: swimming in a cave with naturally hot water, attempting to catch a sheep (and witnessing Edvīns actually catching one!), walking around on a glacier, hiking to the top of a waterfall during heavy rain and wind, river rafting, whale watching, living with a Latvian from debate society and, of course, the good old “climbing a fence to take a shortcut home”!  Sounds fun & inspiring, right?

Speaking about the place, Akureyri is a small city even measuring by the Baltic scale, however, it is possible to find neat places to hang out as well as enjoy live music events that take place each weekend. If there’s a need for crazy partying, it’s always possible to go to Reykjavik, the capital. As eating out and drinks are very expensive, people just tend to have house parties and the neighbours do not seem to care. In general, people there are extremely helpful, plus, everyone speaks English, even the majority of senior citizens. Still, the younger ones are sometimes quite random and have a very different set of values than people back home. But you were seeking for exotics, right?

Turning to the “Study hard” part: courses, many of which are interconnected, are less stressed than in SSE Riga, however, there is still work to do as most of the lecturers give weekly assignments. The university itself has an almost sterile environment, is very well-equipped and has a lot of places where to hide when one wants to study. (Many dream about this while fighting with noisy crowds in Amica, making futile attempts to learn at least something!)  The library holds books in mostly Icelandic; however, the university has access to a number of great databases, from Jstor, to EBSCOhost, the second one being an irreplaceable helper with the BSc Thesis. And you won’t believe it, but you literally get the responses to emails and solve the problems lightning-fast - that’s what low bureaucracy means!

As for the financing issues - the exchange trip to Iceland is partly covered by the Erasmus grant, but the place is really expensive when it comes to consumer goods. In addition, flights are quite costly to mainland Europe, however, it’s relatively cheap to go to the USA, because, well, you’re almost halfway there! Of course, there are lots of interesting things to see in Iceland, some very close (an hour drive from Akureyri), others on the opposite side of the island.

Note for the applicants: This is not the place you go for a crazy party all year long (please go to Southern Europe for these things), this is the place you go to have adventures with heavy snowfall in October, geysers, volcanoes (one threatening to erupt any time now) and hot springs all over the place!

More exchange stories are coming in the next issue: Stay tuned and choose your dream destination! ;)

Santa Kratule