It is time to write about my new university: the Stockholm School of Economics in Riga. It is the "sister" school of the "Stockholm School of Economics". When I decided, that I want to have my semester abroad there, I knew that this school has an excellent reputation. But I had no idea how special this school is. This is the beautiful building:
First we really had to get used, that every day tourist buses and groups stop in front of it. But there are a lot of other things I had to get used to. I was ready for a little culture shock, when I come to Riga. I got one, but a different one than I thought. It was more like a luxury culture shock...I guess the following pics will give you a good impression of the nice lecture rooms:
Everything is so nice there, but also a bit crazy. For example: They have a leisure room, sponsered by P&G, with couches, kicker, Flatscreen and Xbox. Also everything is very personal: you call the prorector by first name and they all try to learn your name.
On our first day we had a welcoming speach of the rector and some other people from SSE Riga. A choir was singing and all sang "gaudeamus igitur". It was a very special athmosphere, because they were all so proud to be part of this school. The students, who study with us, had a hard selection process: motivation letter, tests, interview... they take only 100 from 1000 applicants. I guess you can all imagine now, how good the students around me are.
Finally we met the other exchange students ~20 people. They are all very nice and we are a big group of Germans. (Btw: Be careful if you come here, a looooooooot of people speak or understand German very good.) So we had another personal induction done by Diana, our prorector, and Evita, our international coordinator. And there is another person, who enriches our daily life: her name is Aisma and she is a Year 2 student. She organizes events for us and showed us the school and everything.
Some days after the first day at SSE, I can say, studying here is definitely not easy. They have high expectations and you always work interactive and in small groups. You write reports, have presentations (ja in my first week I already had my first presentation!) and exams. But you get a lot of support from teachers and administration staff. The athmosphere here is really special and it seems like the students are really really ambitious. (well, they pay a looot of money to go to this school)
To sum it up: the studying conditions are pleasant and people are nice. The courses are not easy. But this school really has a spirit and it feels like we can be proud to be a part of it.
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