Details

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

1. Preparation

Connecting yourself with the other WU students going to Montreal (or actually any destination you will get accepted at) is probably the cheapest and safest option for accommodation if you don't know anyone who did a semester abroad there or lives there. Moreover I would make sure to check that a metro station is close to your home because no matter what time you go there, you will have to survive the cold. For the application process I think WU is pretty clear, for my case the cover letter was not even looked at but that completely changes depending on the professor who interviews you

2. Accommodation

I used Airbnb and did not like the experience which was simply bad luck due to a mismatch in the people i was living with, which was a fault of the host. In total Airbnb is not too expensive and a safe, easy way to find you a home. From what i heard student dorms were also fine, but also many of my friends were unhappy with their accommodations even if they used a real estate agent. I would recommend you to live with people you know if that is possible for you, areas : either downtown or plateau, there is also a new metro line now so if you stay close to edouard montpetit you are really close to the University and the training facilities such as swimming pool and gym and you are in the city heart within 5 minutes Safety was not so much a concern on the side of the mountain of HEC (where i lived) but in "the village" or "gay village" for example, as in the city center... there are a lot of homeless people on drugs, so if you are a girl alone i would not recommend beaudry, Besides BERRY is the transport hob of the metro Finally if you have some warm months you have to use Bixi! 100% worth it

3. Academic life at host university

You should know that most courses are curved, which was something unfamiliar to me. If you are in courses with a lot of exchange students this can give you an advantage since a lot of them will be on pass or fail and not put much effort. The problem is that in nearly every course you have important group projects and your team members will maybe not contribute as much as you would have liked - thats regarding the grades. So pick intelligent with who you will be in a group!!! For the level of education I have to say that all my professors were excellent and the courses were really practical and interesting, i learned a lot and i am grateful for that experience Exams will be really easy, some completely open book, with a lot you can "only" bring 2 papers of notes, so the grades really get decided during the semester due to your group projects

5. Every day life in the host country

There is a HEC Exchange group who is really trying its best but as a WU student my expectations got a bit disappointed, i expected the big city life and you have to search for that yourself. The clubs in the city were not really good for me personally, and as I know that this is important for many exchange students I thought i mention that you should keep your expectation in place. If you appreciate diversity Montreal is the city for you, every food you can imagine and people from everywhere around the world. You don't absolutly need french in this city but it makes life a lot easier.

6. Testimonial

For me Montreal was a very interesting experience. The weather was by far one of the most amazing things, summer was there until end September, October the threes were breathtaking and early November (which is not normal) we had 40 cm of snow. The sky - always blue. While I expected crazy parties as in the USA, I learned that Montreal has nothing to do with that. If you look for a option like this Kingston might be a Canadien option for you. For the girls I 100% recommend getting Classpass as there is a amazing course offering and the studios are nothing but stunning. I would say Montreal is the Amsterdam of America, a lot of diversity in any kind of way. I really enjoyed the teaching style of HEC but same time I am happy to come back to WU now.