Details

• Spain
• BaWiSo-23
• Undergraduate
• WS 2025
• Time spent at the partner university: 4 months

1. Preparation

Search for an apartment as early as possible!! I highly recommend plattforms such as spotahome, housinganywhere, help housing,… The earlier the better, I waited too long and then took an apartment off idealista which I wouldn’t recommend to be honest. Otherwise you don‘t need to prepare too much as you can buy basically everything in Madrid.

2. Accommodation

I was living with 9 other people which I can recommend, as you already meet a lot of people at home. I was booking through idealista, but as I mentioned before I would have rather booked through spotahome, etc… because of scams and reliability. I was living 20 minutes by foot away in Chamberi, which is a neighborhood I really liked.

3. Academic life at host university

I really really liked the campus as it was a really beautiful building and the campus is also very central! The professors were all really nice and supporting. The classes gave me school vibes, as the classes were small and the professors tried to learn the students names. All in all the courses were „easier“ than at Wu, but they are very strict with attendance. I mostly took classes with only exchange stundents, where the professors were a bit more chill than in the classes with also Spanish students. I loved the Uni!

5. Every day life in the host country

The public transport was great! Get the 10€ student card!! The process to get that is a bit annoying, but so worth it. With 10€ per month you can take any public transport in Madrid and also a bit outside etc for Toledo. City life Madrid (look at their website) helps you with getting your card. I always felt safe in Madrid even at night (except Lavapies). Just be careful of pickpockets in the Clubs. I know a lot of people that got their phone stolen in the Club. The nightlife is great in Madrid, you can do stuff everyday every time. I did sport with class pass, where you can get one month for free. But the Retiro park is also awesome for outside sports.

6. Testimonial

I absolutely loved Madrid! The city will stay in my heart forever and I come back with knowledge about new cultures, countries and languages. I didn’t only grow academically, but most importantly grew personally.