Why Erasmus in Oslo though?

"Erasmus again: yes or no?" was not really a question. After having returned from Ireland, where I spent my bachelor Erasmus semester, I had basically already decided that I would go abroad again during my master studies (independent of my choice of master programme). Spending a full semester in another country was a great experience and I wouldn't let this unique chance of doing it again pass by.

I could have gone overseas as well (Mannheim's business department has plenty of partner universities), but I would have had to do another overpriced standardised language test. Since I was required to do the GMAT in order to just apply for management in Mannheim, but Mannheim and/or its partner schools decided to not accept the GMAT for study abroad periods overseas (like seriously, you need to able to do maths in English language, why isn't that enough?), I was like: nope, I'm not giving Pearson or any other of these so-called "non-profit" organisations any more of my money...

Plus, there were enough European destinations left for me to do a semester abroad. Therefore I just did the Mannheim Language Certificate again, which costs less than 20% of the TOEFL and qualifies you for basically any Erasmus destination. So, Erasmus it was!

AGAIN!

I'm not sure I ever mentioned it on my Ireland blog, but when I applied for my bachelor Erasmus semester, I had a hard time deciding which university should be my first priority. I went for Ireland in the end, but that was more of a random decision. It could have been the North as well. So back in 2014, when I got an email that I would get my letter of acceptance for one of my priorities a day later, I was actually not sure whether I should hope for being accepted for my first priority - or rather my second...

Anyway, so doing a master Erasmus semester was the perfect opportunity to finally spend a semester in one of the Nordic countries. I made sure to set all of my 5 priorities (since there is only one application deadline for business students, they give you at least 5 priorities instead of 3) on Nordic destinations: 2 on Norway, 2 on Sweden, 1 on Finland. And yeah, it became Oslo in the end. :)

After spending my bachelor Erasmus semester in a town (close to Dublin, but still a town), I wanted to go to a real city this time - which Oslo definitely is. Additionally, which is also important if you might want to explore not only the city you're staying at: Oslo has good connections to the rest of Norway as well as the rest of the North. And since I've never been in Scandinavia / the Nordic countries before, I'm for sure going to make use of these connections and explore the North!

In between, I will also be studying, of course. :D Since I'm doing management, I will be a student of BI Norwegian Business School or Handelshøyskolen BI, as it is called in Norwegian. It's a private business school, not a university. And it looks quite fancy on their photos:

I'll spare you the "modern & light-flooded glass campus"-blah and just link to the school's website, in case you're interested. But it does look cool indeed, so let's see if that makes studying in the library more fun. ;)

Introduction as well as classes will start on Monday already, so I'll try and give you an update on BI (preferably with my own photos) next week.