Details

• Netherlands
• MACEMS-25
• Graduate
• SoSe 2026
• Time spent at the partner university: 5 months
• Contact: Login to see contact information

1. Preparation

I would say preperation was very little. It was super easy to book a train (I recommend the nighttrain). Everything else you don't really need to take care of if you are from Europe. Otherwise check insurance and banking accounts. One thing you need to start early is looking for housing! It is very limited and super expensive. Otherwise what I would do is book a swapfiets early so that they are not taken. Whenever the semester starts they can run out of them because of too high demand. Include the insurance - we had so many people get their bikes stolen...

2. Accommodation

This was honestly horrible. There is no housing offers and if you find a room it is very expensive. You can check on Kamernet if there are offers but I got unlucky. I only found housing through a friend of a friend. I ended up in a flat with two roommates. I also had to pay one month extra and it was 950€... definitely far from cheap. But I will say the apartment was nice and especially my roommates were the best! I lived in oude nord that was mostly a safe area. Tipp: If you can ask the previous CEMSIE that was in Rotterdam if they have any contact into Whatsapp groups, I would do that. I don't want to discourage you - just start looking early and expect higher prices. But definitely factor that in - you wanna rather pay more instead of living outside the city. And at the end, everyone somehow ended up finding a place...

3. Academic life at host university

The campus is a 10/10, especially the polark builing. I also loved the campus gym. The teaching here was excellent, especially the Global Leadership Seminar and the Marketing AI course were actually some of the best courses I ever had. I have the feeling I learned a lot. The only issue was that some periods I have nothing to do because the courses come in blocks. So make sure to evenly space out your courses or take a fun extra! Overall I am very happy with my learning experience at RSM.

5. Every day life in the host country

For public transport you mostly only bike. At the end I ended up having my car here (if you ever do get an OV Chipkart with that you can park for free at P+R areas such as Kralingse Zoom or Meijersplein - parking completely for free is at Capelsebrug). The safety was fine overall even though at night you should not really be by yourself - especially when walking. I did a lot of sports here as I signed up for a half marathon. Moreover I joined the Erasmus gym for about 150 euros in total from Jan-Aug, but I would only recommending this if you live close . Lastly there is sooo many Classpass courses so if there is an offer definetly join classes - the dutchies really know how to do great groupworkouts! Rotterdam also has to offer a lot socially and culturally - you can always go to a museum or other exhibitions. I recommend following studium generale - they had wonderful events and talks! Lastly, the CEMS club was absolutly fantastic - we had a wonderful cohort here, and I highly recommend joining a team as so many fun things will be organized.

6. Testimonial

I had an amazing time. I met friends for life and I even learned a little Dutch. If you think of going to the Netherlands - I can only recommend!