Having spent one and a half months in Bocconi, I am really happy that I made the decision to participate in this exchange program a year ago. In my opinion, what makes this exchange program special is not that it allows me to study abroad, but that it gives me the opportunity to study in Bocconi. Actually, my life in Milan has just started, so it would be hard for me to share my travelling experience or tell how many friends I have made. However, what I can share with you is the opportunities you may get in Bocconi, which is far more important than just having fun in Europe.
Firstly, I will show you how the courses in Bocconi are like. I have chosen four courses here, and they are Time series Analysis, Private Equity and Venture Capital, Investment Banking, and Alternative Investment. Besides I attend every class of Financial Econometrics and Empirical Finance, and attend the course called Management of Fashion and Luxury Goods from time to time. I think these six courses may represent some of the teaching styles in Bocconi, so I will talk about them in detail respectively. In the econometrics courses such as Time Series Analysis and Financial Econometrics and Empirical Finance, professors always make a special emphasis on the use of software, either R or Matlab. Every two weeks, there will be a course in the computer room, where the professors show you how to use the software. For students who have some basis in econometrics, you may gain a different perspective and deep understanding of the knowledge you have already learned.
Besides, the financial courses in Bocconi are quite diversified. They include almost all the fields of finance. And it is quite common that one course may have two regular professors. Usually, they emphasize on different aspects, for example one may emphasize on the theoretical knowledge and the other may emphasize on practical knowledge. There are also guest speakers invited to give lectures on certain topic, and they are usually the elites from certain field of the finance world. In the course Investment Banking, we have a partner of Goldman Sachs as the professor emphasizing on the practical knowledge. He may talk about the real cases that Goldman Sachs have dealt with or share with us his experience of working in Goldman Sachs. In the course Private Equity and Venture Capital, we had a lecture given by a guest speaker who is the founder of the private equity system in Europe. From such courses, I can not only learn the theoretical knowledge but also know how the knowledge is applied in practice. As for the management course, the most attractive thing is that you may have the opportunity to give presentation to the management team from very famous companies. And the students who have good performance may get the chance to work in that company. In the course of management of Fashion and Luxury Goods, students will give presentation on the case study of Diesel to the L’Oreal management team. By the way, it is not easy to pass the courses in Bocconi. You must spend time and efforts on them.
Besides the courses, you may also have the opportunity to discuss your master thesis with some professors here. Some of them are quite famous in certain field. I heard that Bocconi is famous for its game theory studies, and there must be some top game theory economists here. So for students who want to go on with a PhD degree, studying in Bocconi provides you with an opportunity to get the recommendation letters from very famous professors, which seems to be the most important thing in the application process.
For students who want to find a job after graduation, Bocconi will also provide you with good internship opportunities. There are internship programs organized by the career center of Bocconi University and exchange students can enroll in such internship programs to gain the internship opportunity both abroad and at home. What’s more, some of the companies are really very famous.
There are also many campus activities organized by different departments of the university. This year, there is an activity called China Insight Competition organized by China lab of SDA Bocconi. This activity is a team-based competition, where different teams composed by Bocconi graduate students have the possibility to showcase their skill to industry participants and obtain visibility in the real career world.
Up till now, I have shown you the opportunities you may have in Bocconi. Another thing I want mention is that Bocconi University is really very famous in Europe. In Italy, if you graduate from Bocconi, you may find whatever kind of job you want. In Europe, if you graduate from Bocconi, you may have the best opportunities offered in Europe. To make a comparison, I would say that Bocconi University to Europe is like Peking University to China. And exchange students are mainly from top universities in local area, such as Fudan University in China, Duke University in US, HKUST in Hong Kong, Taiwan University in Taiwan, and NUS in Singapore.
Since there is no scholarship for this exchange program, many students may worry about the expense for living in Europe. I spend about 400 euro on housing and eating every month. So it is not that expensive as I imagined before.
I hope this article may help you know more about Bocconi.
WISE2009级硕士 王建明
