Rykken Norway
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- Bu səhifədəki naviqasiya:
- Logistics at the partner school
- Social life
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Alex Rykken BI Norwegian School of Management Spring semester 2006
In general I found classes to be somewhat similar to Carlson’s in structure with a few big exceptions. They are similar in class size, similar classroom settings and similar in that the professors are friendly and will try to connect with their students. They have a website much like ClassNet (or Vista) where we could find notes and assignments online. They have a beautiful new building just like we do (although ours is nicer…). The most noticeable difference is in the way exams are set up. When you arrive, you have the first week to attend any class you like in hopes of finding 5 that you like. You then attend these classes through all of January, February, March and sometimes part of April depending on the class. At this point, regular classes end and finals begin. Here’s the big difference: finals continue for 3 months. I had my first final on April 7th and my last on June 16th. This allows you ample time to “study” for each one. I found I enjoyed using this time for travel much more than for study but to each his own I guess. Classes at BI (as the Norwegians call the school) are primarily in Norwegian so unless you speak the language your course choices will be somewhat limited. Fortunately, the school does have a large exchange program and because of that offers about a dozen classes in English every semester. In my program there were 126 exchange students, only 8 of whom were from America, which I found to be very cool as it gave me a great chance to meet students from all over the world.
I found classes here to be much easier than at Carlson. My disclaimer on this statement is that because grades come back from study abroad as pass/fail, I probably didn’t take classes as seriously as I do here where my grades all count towards GPA. Perhaps if I had done that, they would have been closer in difficulty level to CSOM’s. For one thing, you only attend each class once per week, which makes for a pretty laid back schedule. When you do attend class, they say it is 3 hours long but in reality it’s only 2 because you usually spend at least 20 minutes of each hour on break. I took 5 classes while abroad. This is the minimum required by the U of M. It is 30 ECTS credits or 15 credits back here at the U. The five classes I took this semester were: Scandinavian Worklife and Management Business Communication: Negotiation and Presentation International Economics and Trade International Commercial Law Macroeconomics and Financial Markets I found all of these classes to be fairly interesting and believe I learned some good things from all of them. The only class I ever heard anything bad about from my peers was Statistics but I can’t imagine anyone from Carlson would be taking that over there since we all have to have taken it here already (I think). Homework is also non-existent. This is not true for all classes but for the five that I took, 100% of my grade was based on my finals, meaning there were never any assignments to worry about during the semester. Between only having class once a week and never having homework, plus having several weeks to study for each final, I found myself with tons of free time. This was nice because it allowed lots of time to meet fellow study abroaders and explore Oslo.
The school has an office for international students, run by Ellen Tobiason and several other very nice people. They are all extremely helpful in answering any question you might have whether that be, “If I sign myself up for 2 classes that meet at the exact same time, will I get credit for both?” or “I got lost in this huge building again, where’s the computer lab?” or really anything else you can dream up. They will have an answer for you and they’ll give it to you with a big Norwegian smile in their face. Logistics at the partner school:
My only advice here is to be sure to read the WHOLE email when they tell you where to meet them. They will send you a very detailed email telling you how to get yourself from the airport to the train station in town. My mistake was I just skimmed the email and didn’t catch the part about which store to meet them in front of at the train station so it took me several hours to find them but I am confident if I hadn’t made that mistake, the process would have been very easy. Once you are met by a blonde Norwegian girl at the train station, she will escort you down to the subway system and to your building where she’ll help you get checked in and guided all the way to your doorstep. She’ll also leave you with a packet of information telling you more about how to get around and how to get to school and a schedule of events for the week. Your first week will be filled with tons of orientation events during the day to get you familiar with the city, the school and the culture and events during the evenings to get to know the other students better. I was very impressed with the orientation.
Housing isn’t really a shining high point for this program but at the same time it isn’t bad. You’ll basically have 2 choices. One called BSN which is right next to school and pretty new but you’ll pay through the nose for it (somewhere in the neighborhood of $700 per month for a shared room) and a lot of students I know had some complaints about the management there. I didn’t live there nor did I spend much time there so I don’t know a lot about it. I stayed at the other place, called Kringså run by SIO. Pluses to living at Kringså: - Much more affordable ($430 per month for your own room, a bathroom shared with one other and a kitchen shared with 6 others) - Beautiful surroundings. It’s right on the edge of town at a place called Sognsvann where is the major hub for all of the ski trails in the winter and hiking and swimming in the summer. It is breathtakingly beautiful. If you’ve ever been to the boundary waters, it reminds me very much of that. - Rooms are ok. Nothing special but nothing bad either. - Lots of other students around all the time = always something to do. Some downsides to living at Kringså: - Farther from campus. It’s either a 20 minute subway ride or about a 45 minute walk. - SIO is an organization that runs student housing for 7 different universities in Oslo, which means you’re living with students from all over. None of my neighbors were at my school and I think only one other person even in my building was. It’s a good opportunity to meet more people but at the same time, the 6 people I shared a hallway with barely spoke English which made communication very difficult. We never really got much further than the, “How are you, my name is” stage. This is different from BSN in that that is a whole hallway of exchange students living together. - Management isn’t really in any way helpful but that didn’t seem to be much different from BSN.
Meals. I would strongly suggest learning to cook a bit for yourself before leaving for Norway. This is a skill I had failed to master and now wish that I had. Food is very expensive, even more so when eating out. I think aside from when my family was visiting (and paying) I ate out 4 times my whole time in Norway. The cheapest place to get a whole meal is McDonalds where a Big Mac meal comes out at about 12 bucks. Prices go up from there. IKEA also has a fabulous meatball and potato dinner for like 13 bucks. I did eat that every few weeks cause it was delicious. They have little convenience stores called either Narvessen or 7-11 all over the place. These also usually have some kind of special going on where you can get some decent food for not too expensive. A meal at a real restaurant is generally gonna run at least 30 bucks. Otherwise, grocery stores are the way to go. I cooked for myself all semester long (you will have access to a kitchen wherever you live). It was rough at times, I once ate frozen pizza for 36 dinners in a row, but as the semester went on, my cooking skills improved and my meals got better.
Oslo’s public transport system is delightful. They have a great system of subways, busses and ferries that can take you absolutely anywhere you need to go in the city and trains and busses that can take you everywhere outside the city. Almost anything you’ll ever need to go to will be on a subway line but for the few things that aren’t, busses or ferries will certainly get you there. Tickets cost about 3 bucks per hour, which seems pricey to me but there’s a good deal for students where you can buy the “Studentkort” for about 62 bucks that will allow you unlimited rides on any mode of public transportation for one month. All tickets are done on the honor system so if you’re really gutsy you could probably get away without tickets as well but I wouldn’t recommend it. They don’t check for tickets frequently but when they do, they won’t accept any sob stories and the fines are hefty.
There’s loads to do. I applied for a group called the “Student Representatives” which is a half a dozen foreign students that work together, meeting at least once a week to plan events for all the exchange students to participate in. We worked very hard to plan tons of events for students to come to and there was always a great turnout. Things we planned ranged from an international cooking party (where everyone brought a dish from their home country to share buffet style) to a soccer tournament to an eight-day trip though Sweden, Finland and Estonia. This is pretty much the only English speaking activity group but we planned lots of different things for everyone to do. The school has another program called InSA which is a bunch of Norwegian students who try to coordinate events between the Norwegians and the international students so they have a number of events going on as well. The school owns something called the “Studenthus” which is about 2 blocks from the main building where there’s a large party every Thursday night. (You must be at least 20 to enter). Host Country Culture
Norwegians fit their stereotype pretty well. Blonde haired, blue eyed, quiet, stubborn, athletic and polite. Students are very quiet in that there are only a select few who will actually approach you to talk. They at first will appear rather shy but I’ve learned that if you take the initiative and approach them to start the conversation, it often becomes almost hard to get them to stop talking. If you initiate the conversation, they become some of the nicest people I’ve had the pleasure of knowing. Also, while Norwegians are generally fairly quiet and stoic, it seems they have a little pent-up energy or something inside them from all that stoicism that needs to burst out every once in a while so when they party, they party hard.
You will have lots of opportunities set up to socialize and make friends with plenty of other international students and so socially, you could be fine never even speaking with a Norwegian but I would strongly recommend starting a few conversations and making some Norwegian friends. I think you’ll find it worth the effort, as they are great people and what better way to learn about the culture than spending time with the locals.
I did not learn a 2nd language. I started trying to learn Norwegian at the beginning of my time there but soon gave up. It seems like a relatively easy language to learn but at the same time somewhat useless. It is a language that isn’t going to be useful anywhere but Norway and every single Norwegian speaks near perfect English. I have never been in another country ever where I’ve been able to speak to so many people so clearly as in Norway (this comparison does include time spent in England). Because Norwegians are so good at English, every time I would try to use Norwegian, they would automatically switch over to speaking English as they could see that was obviously easier for me and being the polite people that they are, they wanted to make things as easier as possible. I spent more time practicing my German with the German exchange students than I did learning Norsk. Social life:
Medium. I got to know several of them very well and made some good friends but that was largely due to a big effort on my part. I described this a bit above…
Integration with other international students is fantastic. As I also described above, during the first week there will be many chances to get to meet everyone. You will take all of your classes with all international students and the Students Representatives of which I was a part, spend lots of time planning lots of social activities for international students. I believe everyone who participated in this program would say they made lots of good friends from all over the world.
Go to as many of the planned social events as possible. These are the best way to meet people. I would also strongly recommend buying a cell phone over there. I did not do this and if I were to go back and do my trip over, I think that’s the one thing I would change. I was one of only a couple students who didn’t get a phone which made keeping in touch for social events much more difficult. Making phone calls on these phones you buy is somewhat pricey but text messaging is dirt cheap so that’s how most students communicated. I relied on AIM which was a bit more difficult. I would strongly suggest getting a phone.
Well… how most students spent their time and how I spent my time are quite different stories. By far, the most popular student activity for after hours and the weekends, I’m sure you might guess, was kicking back with a few adult beverages. I’ve never been much for drinking and generally try to find better things to do with my time so I didn’t partake in these outings with much regularity. If you love the outdoors, which I do, Norway is about the best place you could possibly go. The surroundings are beautiful beyond words, especially if you get a chance to get out to the west coast or up north, so I spent the majority of my free time skiing in the winter or hiking and running in the summer. They’ve got thousands and thousands of kilometers of perfect trails. I participated in the Birkebeiner (ask any Norwegian about it and they’ll proudly tell you). It’s a huge Cross Country ski race, spanning 56 kilometers and over 2 mountains, held every March. I spent my first 3 months training for this with a lot of my free time and then spent the next 3 months running, training for a marathon back at home. If you like stuff like this, you’ll fit right in with the locals. Norwegians are amongst the most outdoorsy athletic people in the world. It wasn’t uncommon for some 70 year old looking guy to school me out on the ski trail. Kind of embarrassing but impressive nonetheless. Other:
Money-wise, Norway is kind of a bummer. I didn’t find out until after arriving that Norway is currently rated as the most expensive country in the entire world to live in and I have no trouble believing that statement. Everything is ridiculously expensive over there. It’s also quite amazing so probably worth the money but if cash supply might be an issue for you, I would not suggest Norway as a place of study. I think I spent about $9800 while there, not including plane tickets or tuition, that is just day to day expenses for living there from January 3rd through June 10th. I did travel quite a lot so if I cut that out of my expenses that would probably have saved me three to four thousand dollars so if you don’t intend to travel, perhaps a thousand bucks a month is a more accurate budget estimate.
Students best suited to this program will be those who aren’t too worried about how much the program costs, those who are outgoing will have a better time getting to know Norwegians and immersing themselves in the culture and guaranteed anyone who loves the outdoors will love every minute they spend in Norway.
No, you do not need a Visa. You will need to purchase a residence permit within a week of your arrival there. It is a fairly easy process though and the international office at the school will give you detailed instructions, all the required paperwork and all the assistance you’d ever need.
Enjoy yourselves, it really is a wonderful program. Aside for the large cost relative to other study abroad programs, I haven’t got a single bad thing to say about my time in Oslo. If you have any more questions about anything whatsoever, don’t hesitate to email me. I’m always happy to answer questions and dispense advice. My email is rykk0007@umn.edu. Enjoy your time abroad! ~Alex Yüklə 28,76 Kb. Dostları ilə paylaş:
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