Details

• Italy
• MAWiRe-21
• Graduate
• SoSe 2026
• Time spent at the partner university: 5 months

1. Preparation

- talking to students who have been at the partner university on exchange before me, they can give you the most useful and insightful tips for every aspect - look up the administrative requirements: e.g. get a codice fiscale / tax ID (Milan, Italy) well in advance, it takes a long time to get it and you need it for the rental contracts

2. Accommodation

- Apartment search was horrible in Milan - very expensive, not many good offers on the market - For Bocconi I would recommend "Aparto" near the campus, from what I have heard and seen from colleagues - After Months of intensive and frustrating search, I found a private shared apartment with a very good location for around 1000€ per month. The Agency, Joivy (formerly Dovevivo) were unprofessional, unfriendly, and it was overall a terrible experience to deal with this kind of agency. No communication with a real person only WhatsApp chats and very strange and sometimes borderline illegal practices in the rental agreement. would NOT recommend to book on joivy or any similar type of agency ! - WhatsApp group with students from all over Germany/switzerland/Austria helped by far the most in finding something useful, entering the group was easy through a link - This is by far the worst part about an exchange in Milan, be prepared for a lot of stress

3. Academic life at host university

- Overall I was underwhelmed by Bocconi's facilities, the course contents and style and the overall level - The lectures are generally short (90 mins) but there are a lot of them. I found it hard to follow and to concentrate with this style of teaching, since the content is fractured in many pieces, but this is subjective - Course recommendations; Sports Law: very interesting content, not too much work, great Professor, very doable exam for "attending" students. Comparative Business Law: It's mainly US (Delaware) Corporate Law, which was very interesting and the course in which I learned the most. Compared to other courses it's more technical and overall more workload, which I liked. Also, there was no attendance requirement - A very positive aspect of Bocconi's academic structure is the principle of attending/non attending students, meaning you can opt out of having a mandatory attendance (sometimes, but not always, resulting in a different examination mode or grade composition), adding flexibility to the semester planning. Something that WU should definitely consider. I would recommend to do attending most of the time. - Also, what I loved about Bocconi was the exam modalities: it's generally all "bring your own devices" exams, so you can type them on your laptop. this is great and has significant advantages with as good as NO drawbacks at all in my opinion. WU should implement this immediately without questions.

5. Every day life in the host country

- get the 22€ monthly ATM public transport pass immediately upon arrival to save money, it makes the most sense. - metro and tram lines are good, not excellent but good. - I felt safe during the whole time in Milan, but heard stories of theft in the Navigli district, so be vigilant in very touristy areas - Milan offers a lot of activities and nightlife stuff to do, there are events pretty much every few days, great city for nightlife and social activities - the sport/gym situation is a very negative aspect: there is no gym with acceptable conditions in my opinion, I had to pay a very high price and bargain with the gym in order to get a membership for 4 months. Then you need a medical certificate (legal requirement), which was also annoying. The city is generally good for running and cycling (mostly on the canals)

6. Testimonial

What makes Milan special is the possibility to travel to various different cities in Italy (or even France or Switzerland) within 2-3 hours. Bergamo, Turin, Lugano, Como, Garda, Monza, Bologna, Florence, Genova can all be reached in 2-3 hours by train. these day trips were highlights of my semester. But also to deep dive into Milan's culture and spending a lot of time exploring cafes, restaurants, bars, stores, certain areas etc in the city.