josephinegillis@hotmail.com Organization Studies Fall semester Academic year 2016-2017 HEC Montréal Canada I General information about the city and school Montréal is situated in Quebec, the French part of Canada. Practically everyone is able to speak English within Montréal, but as soon as you find yourself in more rural areas, you will have to speak French. Since you are able to follow courses in English, the language will not be a problem within the city. Montréal is significantly bigger than Tilburg and all other Dutch cities and it has about 1.6 inhabitants. The inhabitants of Montréal and Canada in general are super nice, as far as I have experienced. If you look lost someone will come to you to offer help, you will often be talking to someone in the metro and taxi drivers are all very nice. They will appreciate it if you try to speak a bit of French, just the basics like thank you. The best way to get through town is by metro or bus, and these systems are well developed. A few cities close to Montréal are Quebec City, Ottawa, Boston and New York City. This gives exchange students many opportunities for travelling. Besides big cities, Canada has got many nature parks to visit. During my exchange I went to HEC Montréal, which is a relatively small school specialized in business. It is located a bit outside of the city centre, but easily reachable through public transportation from all ends of town. Many exchange students decide to live near university, where it takes you about 40 minutes to get to most bars, restaurants and shops. HEC students are able to go to the school s gym, and a membership costs about the same amount as it does in Tilburg. Within the school there is a restaurant, in which you can get signature dish poutine, sandwiches, sushi, coffee and more. Something that I experienced to be very different from Tilburg, is the way of teaching. At HEC, a lot is done through team work and oral presentations. You will not have that many s as you would have in Tilburg. The amount of students in lectures is quite small, around 40-50 people. Lectures take 3 hours, and you only have a certain course once a week.
II Practical information If you go to Canada to study for less than 6 months, you do not need a student visa. When you decide to go to the states for a weekend, you will need to apply for an online visa which only takes a few minutes to purchase. One of the main factors of HEC that influenced my decision to go there was the introduction week that is organized each semester by HEChange, the committee that organizes activities for exchange students throughout the year. It is a full week of parties, games and other activities. If you decide to go, they will provide an airport pickup service a few days before the week starts. During this week you will meet a lot of new people, so I would definitely recommend to go! Besides the introduction week, I went to Boston, Quebec city and Cuba with HEChange, which were all great trips. As an exchange student, you will be able to participate in a buddy program at HEC. I personally did not have much contact with my buddy, but it is nice that you have someone to go to if you don t understand something at school. Housing Many exchange students got their accommodation via getyourplace.ca or student housing. HEC will send you an email with some websites that provide rooms in student homes. Overall everyone was satisfied with the rooms that they got. It can be a stressful search, but if you are aware of the times websites start offering rooms and what it is that you are looking for, it will be fine. I looked for something on my own and got it a few months before I went on my exchange. As many other exchange students, I stayed at the Evo Vieux building, which is quite expensive but very nice. Living costs It is more expensive to live in Canada than it would be in The Netherlands. Groceries and alcohol are quite expensive, and besides this you have to tip 10-15 percent everywhere. If you order a drink in a bar, you will have to tip. If you go to a restaurant and do not tip enough, they will come back to you and ask for more tip. Wages are not that high in Montréal, which is why employees need big tips. So if you eat for 20 dollars, you will have to pay at least 25 dollars, since taxes are charged afterwards and you need to tip enough. Besides everyday costs, you will probably do a lot of traveling during your time abroad. Many places are relatively close to Montréal, but you still need to get there and find accommodation,
restaurants etc. Make sure to keep this in mind when you make up a budget for your exchange. You do not want to economize during an exchange. Most of my money was spend on traveling. Transportation is very important in such a big city, so you should get an OPUS card as soon as you arrive. For this you need to go to Berri-UQAM station and get your picture taken. A 4 month card costs approximately 192 dollars (138 euros). You will be able to travel by bus and metro unlimited. In order to pay for an exchange, most students get a student loan. You should start on time to receive enough money to be able to finance everything. Besides getting a loan, you should start saving up money soon enough to get a buffer yourself. Finally, Tilburg University will provide you with a grant of 750 euros when you go on exchange outside of Europe. Academic Calendar The academic year lasted from the 29 th of August until the 20 th of December. In between you will have a mid-term break. This means that there is a week of mid-terms and finals. Mid-terms are in October and finals are in the beginning of December. At HEC there are no retakes possible. Before finals there is an end of the semester gala for exchange students. Culture and Language I did not experience a culture shock in Canada. It is a well-developed country with much of the same norms and values as Dutch people have. A difference that I did notice was the politeness and friendliness of Canadians. They treat everyone a lot nicer than Dutch people would. As I said before, the first language in Montréal is French, but this was not a big problem. Practically everyone is able to speak English, especially all exchange students. Be aware of the fact that at HEC, a lot more courses are offered in French as in English. This limits your choice in courses. Personal Development From a cultural point of view, I think my exchange period made me a lot more open-minded. Since you are with a multicultural group of people all the time, and you keep meeting new people, you will experience a lot of unknown norms, values and beliefs. People from Asia will probably be a bit different from your friends at home. Even though this difference exists, you still will have to be able to cooperate with everyone. You should be nice to everyone and treat them with respect, even though they might act a little odd at times. I experienced Dutch people to be significantly more direct, which makes them expect that directness from other people as well. Not everyone is going to be able to treat you as direct as you are used to, and this takes some getting used to. I myself had some trouble with accepting this and not pushing people to just say it when something is wrong. This open-mindedness and patience will probably be quite useful in my future career. If I start working in an international corporation, everyone will be from different countries with different habits. Besides this, working with people in general will become easier when you have a little more patience and respect for every single person.
III Academic Information Most courses offered at HEC are in French, and regular students will be able to choose courses before exchange students. This results in a limited amount of courses that you get the choose from. I only followed courses in English, but most courses are in French. I would recommend the following courses: Course Prerequisites Exam ECTS Comments Conflict None Final written 6 Many Management (233011 A) assignments, but a relatively easy International Management (300604A) Corporate Social Responsibility (244007A) Strategic Management in Organizations (33014A) None Final written None You should have some knowledge about strategy formation. Midterm written course. 6 A big group assignment 6 I replaced this course with CSR in Tilburg. Simulation 6 A lot of work with a big payoff. Besides the courses listed above, I would also recommend the course Management Skills. I did not take this one but heard about some very good experiences. All courses I did were bachelors courses. I would say that the level of education is higher at Tilburg University as at HEC Montréal. Even though you need to hand in more assignments throughout the semester at HEC, you will probably receive a high grade for every assignment. Whereas at Tilburg University, you will not easily reach 90% for ple. At HEC, the focus is more on practice than on theory. They use roleplays, videos and group discussions to get a message across. While in Tilburg it is more about discussing scientific literature. I very much enjoyed the way of teaching at HEC, you get the feeling that you are really learning something useful and it is easier to remember something when you are actively involved in class. Tips for future students I would definitely recommend everyone that is interested in living abroad to go on exchange! You will not get many opportunities like this one. Tilburg University has got many connections to other universities worldwide, and make use of these connections! If you lived abroad for a while, you learn to be more independent and a better communicator. You get to know a lot of people, which you could meet again if you decide to travel somewhere. Montréal is a destination for exchange students all over the world, I met people from Australia, Scandinavia, Asia, South-America etc. This resulted in a diverse group of people that you saw on a regular basis, and this was very educative. You learn many new things about people from all over the world.
A tip that I would give someone going on exchange, is to bring a good camera with you. This creates a lot of memories and gives you the opportunity to look back on this period abroad for the rest of your life. Besides bringing a good camera, I would also recommend to go to Montréal with two suitcases. One is not enough once you have bought proper winter clothing and shoes, since it gets extremely cold near the end (if you go during the first semester). If you have any questions, you can always contact me via e-mail. (j.a.h.gillis@tilburguniversity.edu)