Study Abroad at EM Strasbourg Business School : Play Hard, Work Hard

I know that it may seem like it is all play and no work here in Strasbourg, but I promise you I am taking classes here as well! I have added some pictures of the inside of the school such as the computer lab and a classroom on this post. For those of you who don’t know, I am staying here for two semesters in the BEM program. This stands for Bachelor in European Management. They split up all of the BEM students into two groups based on last names, putting me in Group 2. Both groups take the same classes, just at different times. I have been lucky that my classes are only on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. I am in school for over 8 hours on Tuesday and Wednesday. But it is nice getting most of the classes knocked out during several days, instead of just a few every single day. I am taking six classes this semester; five of them are business courses and one is a basic French language course. These courses were chosen for me by the University because after my completion of the courses over the two semesters I am awarded with a Bachelor degree in European Management from EM Strasbourg along with my Bachelor of Science in Business Administration (BSBA) degree from Bowling Green State University.

My schedule has been pretty consistent, which I am hearing is a little abnormal here. Students have told me that professors can change the day or the time of the class from week to week. But thankfully that has not been the case for me. The biggest difference I have been noticing is the room allocation. In the US, once a teacher has a room for a class, it does not get changed. The opposite happens here, where every week, even every day I am checking online to see if a room for a course changed. I have had it happen that on the day of a class, the room number changed online three different times. Thankfully, all of the students help each other out and let each other know if a change occurred.

This past week has proven to be one of my more academically challenging. I had a group presentation on the innovation strategy of Google, and an exam in my Basics in Innovations Management class along with a French exam. This all happened in one day and it was a bit overwhelming since most of the class grade comes from these few tests and projects. I believe I did well on all three, but of course only time will tell. Since no progress reports are given throughout the semester, I can only gauge my grades on how heavily projects and tests are weighted and how well I believe I did. We have a week break starting today then once we come back its back to work on end of semester presentations and more exams.

This upcoming week I will be traveling to Budapest, Berlin, and Prague, so you will get more updates on those when I return!

Have a great Falcon Friday!

Carly