The Exchange Report

ESCP Europe, Paris

Fall 2015

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1. Preparing for the exchange

The application process to ESCP Europe was rather simple and smooth. The

confirmation of the exchange place from Aalto came in the beginning of March

and after that I still had officially to apply to ESCP Europe. The required

documents were a filled application form, a copy of the passport, a transcript of

records, CV and a cover letter to indicate the motivation to study at ESCP. All the

documents were to send by email. The deadline for sending the documents was

at the end of March and the official acceptance letter and the information to

activate the email address and intranet access arrived from ESCP around one

month later, at the end of April.

Practicalities before the exchange

The course choices were to be made already by the 6th of May, but there was still

a chance to make some changes during the orientation week in September. Think

about the order of the courses carefully, as the school tries to take them into

account. It’s possible that you don’t get all the courses that you wanted – in my

case I had to reselect some of the courses during the summer. ESCP sent more

practical information during the summer, for example about housing, health

care, insurance and visa (for those who needed). If you are over 28 years old, you

need a personal insurance. In that case, make sure you have your personal

insurance to cover Civil liability, Individual accidents, Assistance/Repatriation

and Medical expenses abroad. I asked a separate English certificate from my

insurance company to indicate that my insurance covers everything, as the

school is very strict with this. The students under 28 years old may apply for a

special insurance offered to ESCP students, covering the above-mentioned parts.

The university gives more information about the insurance before the exchange

period and some last minute information also during the orientation week.

However, try to arrange so that the validity of your insurance can be proven

already during the orientation week – only by having a valid insurance you will

get your student card, which will be also your access pass to the university as

there is always a guard at the front door checking the student cards.

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The orientation week

The lectures started in the middle of September, and the obligatory orientation

week for exchange students was held a week before that. The exchange students

were divided into two different groups, and the week was spent mostly in these

groups. Getting to know to the other students was easy during the orientation

week, and I would certainly recommend being active with getting to know the

others during this week, since after the orientation week the university doesn’t

arrange too much common program for the exchange students. During the first

week, basically on the first day, the students are given all the practical

information about the exchange period and the rest of the week several classes

concerning French culture and history is arranged. At the end of the orientation

week there will be a French test in order to indicate the suitable level for a

French course as well as the final exam concerning the topics of the orientation

week. I recommend taking this final exam if you want the 2.5 ECTS for the

orientation week, which is called European Integration and Management.

2. Exchange studies

The university

ESCP campus is located in the 11th arrondissement, surrounded by great variety

of restaurants and little shops nearby as well as by good connections for public

transportation. The nearest metro station, Rue Saint Maur, is literally next to the

campus. The campus consists of six buildings, five of them inside the main

campus area and one just next to it. It’s relatively easy to find the right

classrooms as they are normally numbered based on the number of the building

and the floor, but there are also classrooms with names but without numbers to

indicate the direction, so those you have to find in the campus map. At the

entrance all the students are required to prove their right to enter the campus by

showing their ESCP student card.

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The buildings are mainly old and beautiful outside, but rather outdated inside.

The campus has a very nice and large yard with tables, chairs and shadows,

being a great place to hang out during the day and until the evening. The

students gather there also to spend their free time. The campus has a student

restaurant, café and a library with some working areas as well. I didn’t stay to eat

so often at the student restaurant due to its great lines during the lunch break, so

many times I went to pick something in the supermarket or sometimes for

longer breaks I had time to go home for a lunch.

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Social life and activities

As said before, the orientation week is the most important period for getting to

know the other students. There you will meet all the exchange students and will

spend a lot of time with them, while after the orientation week there are not too

many things arranged for the exchange students. However, as in many English-

speaking classes the major part of participants are exchange students, there are

possibilities to get to know more people there. In addition to exchange students

for one semester, there are many international students who study at ESCP for 1

or 2 years. The school also offers a possibility for a Tandem program, in which

the exchange student will be connected with a local student that can help for

example with the language or just to make new friends.

During the semester, several student parties were arranged at the university

building. Also ESCP’s social association Shuffle arranges some events and

activities, from theater plays to dinners and parties. There are also other

organizations by the school that offer for example weekend trips and other

activities with a good price.

The studies

The exchange students will get a list of courses to choose from and there are

courses available both in English and in French. The semester is divided into two

terms, both lasting 6 weeks including the week of examination. There are 2.5 and

5 credits courses, the latter ones lasting the whole semester. As the courses were

chosen from the list of electives, there were both undergraduate and graduate

students among the participants. This, together with the fact that all my courses

were English speaking and hence probably targeted mostly to the exchange

students, might have made the level of the courses slightly easier compared to

the ones I had at Aalto University’s MSc Programme.

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Most of the courses I selected were 2.5 ECTS courses, except one course that was

5 ECTS. In addition to the normal courses, the European Integration Seminar that

was held during the orientation week was worth of 2.5 ECTS if you take the exam

at the end of the week. The exchange students are also invited to take the French

course that is also worth of 2.5 ECTS if you attend regularly throughout the

semester (you can have max. 4 absences during the whole semester) and take

the final exam.

Generally, there is a compulsory attendance in all the courses, which may limit

for example the travelling possibilities mostly to the weekends.

The courses

BE3D-A7 Me-business – Using Information Technology 2.5 ECTS

The course’s professor, Robert Piret, is extremely easygoing and likable person,

and his method of teaching was very interactive. He’s experienced in several

fields like management, strategy, product development and technology, to

mention few. The course familiarized the students with mass-customization and

its role in business through case studies and company examples. The course was

rather easy – the lectures were compulsory and in the last class there was a final

exam that required justified opinions based on the examples and material

discussed in the class. The evaluation was based on this exam and the

participation in the classes. All in all, the topic of the course was interesting and

definitely important issue in today’s business.

BE93-A7 What Does the Brain Do? 2.5 ECTS

This was one of the most interesting content and course for me. The course was

also lectured by Robert Piret – he knows a lot about the topic and taught it with

great skills of storytelling, encouraging students to participate in the discussion.

The course handled the functions of the brain and neuroscience’s influence on

management and business. The topics of the classes were super interesting, but

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generally the course was pretty easy. The final exam at the last lecture of the

course required some preparation, but the professor mostly expected students’

justified opinions about the matter. The evaluation was based on the final exam

and the activity in the class. So if you want to challenge yourself with studies and

workload, this might not be the right course in that case. Nevertheless, I would

recommend choosing this course if you are interested in neuroscience and

psychology as well as increasing your knowledge about how the mind works.

BECA-A7 Competitive Intelligence & Technology Watch 2.5 ECTS

Professor Daniel Rouach has a wide experience in innovation and competitive

intelligence; therefore he really was able to provide us some interesting insight

about the competitive intelligence practices of major companies like L’Oreal and

Rolex. The course contained compulsory classes with examples of different case

companies and their competitive intelligence practices, and the final project in

which the teams were to familiarize themselves with the case of their own choice

and to present the competitive intelligence practices of that company or

industry. The evaluation of the course was based on the final project.

KE02-A7 Negotiation and Culture 2.5 ECTS

This course was based on different themes, basically the habits and stereotypes

of different cultures: German, Arab, Latin cultures (Italian, Spanish, Greek) and

French. The evaluation was based on the final report, a reflection paper that was

to be delivered to the professor in the last class, and the final exam. The course

was rather interesting as it was held by different lecturers depending on the

content of the class, and as representatives of that specific culture the lecturers

could give us more insight of the characteristics of that culture.

KE15-A7 Turning the Silver Economy Into Gold 2.5 ECTS

Turning the Silver Economy Into Gold concentrated on the marketing strategies

and practices concerning the ageing population. The course was very interesting

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and extremely useful for future marketers as it challenged us to think about the

impact of age-related differences on consumer behavior and marketing practices.

Professor Raphaëlle Pandraud encouraged us to participate in the discussions

through case practices during the class. One should come prepared to this class

as the discussions in the class were partly based on reading at home. Professor

Pandraud also required everyone to participate in the discussions. At the end of

the course we presented the results of our case study - launching the senior

phone Doro in the country of our choice. There was also a final exam, and the

evaluation was based on both the case study project and the final exam. All in all,

I would recommend this course – the topic was interesting and the methods of

teaching encouraged us for interactive classes.

KE37-17 The U.S. Cinema Industry: The “Dream Factory” 2.5 ECTS

This was one of the most interesting courses for me, and it was also very popular

among the exchange students. First of all, Professor Olivier Delbard is extremely

knowledgeable person and he could provide interesting insight about the

industry itself as well as the movies we analyzed during the course. The course

was formed of five compulsory classes, in which we analyzed few classic movies

of different times, and of the final report that was delivered directly to the

professor a couple of weeks after the final class. The report was kind of an exam,

and required a lot of preparation. One had to show for example knowledge about

the industry and at the same time one had to be familiar with the movies we

analyzed during the course in order to justify the opinions required in the final

report.

LE10-A12 French 2.5 ECTS

The French course is offered to all the exchange students and there are several

levels available. The attendance is not compulsory, but if one wants the credits

for the course, at least in my class there couldn’t be more than 4 absences during

the whole semester. I took the beginner’s level class as I didn’t have almost any

knowledge of French before besides the very basics, and this choice was a good

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one for me. All the discussions in the class were held in French, so we didn’t use

English at all making the practice even better. The course was very useful and

supported my language studies well.

LS01-01 European Integration and Management 2.5 ECTS

European Integration and Management was part of the orientation week. It

contained several classes for example about the French culture, history, people

and habits. The orientation week was a great introduction to the exchange

period in our new home country and gave some useful insight for the following

months. The attendance to the classes was compulsory, and the ones who

wanted the credits for this week were to take an exam at the end of the week.

The exam required answering to five essay questions considering the themes of

the classes.

OA07-A7 Design Thinking in Management & Entrepreneurship 5 ECTS

In this course we applied the methods of design thinking to a real life project that

we could choose ourselves. The course lasted throughout the semester and was

held by Jacqueline Fendt, a professor with quite interesting character and

personality. She’s demanding but at the same time she has a very artistic style of

teaching, so in this course the creativity really matters – the more out of the box

you think, the better! In this course, each group of 5 or 6 students were to create

a solution to a practical problem of their own choice. The only requirement was

that it had to be something based in Paris. For example, the chosen problem of

my group was to enhance the Paris metro experience from the user’s point of

view. Based on the steps of design thinking (i.e. ideation, prototyping, testing,

refining the problem) we came up to a solution that was presented to the visitors

at the design thinking fair at the university’s lobby. Participation to the classes

was compulsory, as was the design thinking “bootcamp”, an overnight class in

which we were to build the prototypes that were presented next morning at the

design thinking fair. It meant that we slept on average 1 or 2 hours in over 24

hours, resulting more creative solutions. At the end of the course there was a

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final exam, so the evaluation of the course was based on the project itself, the

final exam and some deliverables during the course. All in all, I would

recommend the course if you are interested in challenging the normal methods

of learning and you would like to experience something completely different

compared to the other courses.

3. Practical information

Housing

Accommodation in Paris is expensive, and especially if you are looking for a

private studio, start the apartment searching early. In Paris it’s common to rent a

room only and share the apartment with the others. The rents also vary to some

extent depending on the arrondissement – the closer to Seine and the historical,

touristic center the apartment is, the higher rent one has to pay. ESCP is located

in the 11th arrondissement, in a nice and vibrant area with plenty of restaurants,

bars and food stores. Many of my student colleagues lived in this area and

enjoyed it a lot.

ESCP Europe has a partnership with Vivaldi residence that offers student houses

around 25 minutes’ walk from school. According to the information the rent for

private studios would be around 800 euros per month. For me it was clear that I

wanted a private studio and in a good area in the city center. For the apartment

searching I recommend to have a look at least the following websites and

companies:

Airbnb (I found mine through Airbnb)

Lodgis (I heard the agency fees are relatively low compared to many

other agencies and several of my friends got the apartment here)

Institut Finlandais – “petites annonces”

Paris Attitude

Homelidays

Appartager

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Nestpick

Erasmusu

Also it’s good to be active in all the ways in apartment searching – post on

Facebook and ask anyone who might have a connection to Paris if they know any

apartment available. And as finding a flat might take some time, I suggest

starting the searching early on.

I found my studio in the 3rd arrondissement, Le Marais. This is a very tourist

friendly and beautiful historical area with full of little shops, boulangeries and

restaurants. For me the safety of the area I would live in was an important issue

and I wanted also to live close to Seine, and was eventually lucky to find my

apartment in a perfect area for this criteria. The downside of this area was that it

is a historical and generally very appreciated quartier, so also very expensive – I

paid 1150 euros per month for my studio, and in this area it is possible to have to

pay a lot more. More reasonable rents can be found for example closer to the

university, around 10th, 11th and 12th arrondissement.

Paris is a city with great connections between different parts of the city – one can

always find a metro station nearby. The metro system is well planned and

functional, making commuting easy and smooth. However, I wouldn’t

recommend finding an apartment from a completely opposite part of Paris than

ESCP is located – although metro is a great way to travel within the city, the

travelling time may get somewhere from around 45 minutes up to 1 hour if you

have to travel all across the city. Therefore the recommended locations for

housing considering the smoothest way of commuting to ESCP would be in my

opinion in any arrondissement of the northern part of the city, or as the Parisians

call it, the right side of the river, “rive droite”.

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Safety

13th of November 2015 will not be forgotten. The terror attacks that happened in

Paris on that evening left their permanent marks to the city and to the whole

country. The attacks happened in the 11th arrondissement, where also ESCP is

located. The school sent the first announcement already that night, informing

about the attacks and about the procedure that followed the shocking events.

ESCP closed its doors after the information of the attacks came, and kept the

students inside the school for the night for their safety. The school was

evacuated early in the next morning. ESCP kept everyone informed by the

regular email updates and also made sure that everyone was safe by sending an

email that required an answer to announce that the receiver is surely safe. As the

whole country had a 3-day period of mourning, attending the classes wasn’t

obligatory during those days. Also a psychological support for those who would

need it was arranged.

The attacks naturally shocked everyone and the atmosphere in the city was

cautious and more silent than usual for a long time. At the same time, it was good

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to see how people slowly came back to the streets and continued their everyday

life, not letting the fear win. None of the exchange student colleagues I know quit

the exchange program, although some universities would have allowed that. Also

for me that was never an option – Paris had become my second home and it was

clear that I want to continue my life there as before. After some time, I also felt

that Paris might be one of the safest places to be. There were guards and soldiers

everywhere, patrolling especially in the touristic areas to guarantee the safety of

the people. The security checks are very usual even at the entrance of larger

supermarkets, as in the shopping malls and bigger shops even the metal

detectors are used. No museums will be entered without a security check. The

life in Paris has continued and although the happenings won’t be forgotten, the

people had to move on and besides the clearly increased security everywhere,

the life in the city got back its normal pace.

Generally, in everyday life, I have always felt safe to live in Paris. It’s not

recommended to walk alone during the night hours especially for the women,

and of course there has to be a normal caution with the pickpockets. Otherwise,

considering the safety issue, the life in the city is as in any other big city, just

having the normal awareness and caution will be enough. I never felt threatened

or insecure, and I didn’t hear any negative experiences from my friends either.

4. Life in Paris

Paris in autumn is wonderful. After a warm September, there was still a

possibility for a summerlike weather also in October and this year even in

November. Of course, in this city it is better to be prepared also for quick changes

in the weather even during one day. I learned quickly to carry my umbrella

always with me. However, Paris is a great option to skip the dark late autumn of

Finland – there was always more light and warmth in Paris. Personally, I found

Paris to be one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been especially in autumn.

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Paris is obviously also a great base for travelling around Europe and many

exchange students, especially from other continents, did that to a great degree.

Personally, I wanted to stay in Paris and to get to know the city better. Although

travelling is amazing, I heard from several students that they felt slightly sorry

that for all the weekends they spent outside of Paris they eventually didn’t get to

know their actual hometown so well.

Paris itself has so much to offer – countless number of restaurants, museums,

cultural activities, nightlife, parks and shopping possibilities – that after four

months I still felt that I haven’t seen even a little part of that all. However, if you

choose to travel, there are relatively cheap flights from Paris and great train

connections around Europe. The earlier you book a train, the better price you

usually get. Also one great option is to travel by bus – at least Flixbus and

Eurolines offer great prices to several destinations in nearby countries, if you are

just willing to spend some time in the bus.

4. Final comments

All in all, I can only recommend Paris and ESCP Europe for the exchange period.

Paris is a great city full of vibrant life, restaurants, entertainment and culture.

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There won’t be a boring day in this city! The Parisians have the stereotypical

reputation of being rude, but based on these wonderful months I spent in this

city, I can only disagree with this stereotype – I found the locals to be very

friendly, open and warm people. Based on my experience, the French are of

course proud of their country and language, but they are also very curious to get

to know the people from the other countries. With an open mind and being

active it’s easy to make friends with the locals as well.

For me, the first weeks in my new hometown where the hardest in the sense that

everything was new and although I’ve visited Paris also before, I wasn’t familiar

with the routes, practicalities and I also didn’t know too much French. After

starting the studies at the university, settling in my apartment and making new

friends, and slowly getting more familiar with the language also, life in Paris

started to feel very comfortable. As time passed by, I just adored Paris and the

life there more and more. And yes, the time flies! If I would do the exchange

studies again, I would probably make a better plan of everything I would want to

do and would do this already in advance so that anything important and

interesting wouldn’t be missed. Also, I would perhaps travel more in France, as

the country has many other amazing cities to offer as well.

All in all, living abroad was an amazing experience – adapting to a new

environment and making friends around the world is something that I will carry

with me hopefully throughout my life. At the same time, I got a chance to live in

one of the most beautiful and romantic cities in the world – I would, without a

slightest doubt, do it any time again! I got to know Paris very well and it’s

wonderful to know that any time I will come here again in the future, I can feel

that I’m at home again.

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