Details

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

1. Preparation

Regarding preparation for the application process, I just did typical things. I researched my universities of choice to be able to argue why I want to go to those universities. Regarding preparation for my semester abroad, it was quite a long process. I highly recommend applying for your ETA in time to avoid any stress. I also spent quite some time comparing the prices of flight tickets and, when they seemed relatively low, I booked them. I used Google Flights as a tool to compare the prices and bought the tickets directly through the airline. Some of my friends decided to fly to Edmonton with just one layover, but I had two layovers and was quite happy about that. I decided to travel a bit before the beginning of my exchange semester, so I bought flight tickets just to Toronto, and after two weeks, I continued to Edmonton. On my way back, I still had a 10-hour layover in Toronto, which was great. On one hand, I wanted to have enough time to not miss my main flight (as I was flying on 23.12. and the weather conditions were unpredictable). On the other hand, I was able to avoid sitting in an airplane for over 10 hours straight and got to experience Toronto at Christmas time. It was very nice and refreshing to have this kind of long layover with a trip to the city.

2. Accommodation

I have opted for dorms offered by the university. I was really happy about my choice because I got to live directly on the campus. Nearly all of my friends were living in the same dorm, I got to know a lot of new people as well. As I wanted to live on campus, the number of options was limited. I have decided to live in Nipisiy House and was really happy about this choice. I really don't recommend opting for HUB as the rooms have windows facing inside of the shopping center. The rooms have weird smell due to all the restaurants in the HUB and some people complained about having mice in the rooms. International House was a solid option with no mice, yet Nipisiy was even better. The rooms were very clean and modern, no mice. I was sharing a unit with 3 other people and it worked out very well. Campus overall is very safe and I was never worried about walking around there in the night. On the other hand I would want to warn about the public transportation. Taking the public transport throughout the day is okay but in the evening it's starting to be relatively dangerous. There is a lot of homeless people in the trains (especially as cold months come) and the whole atmosphere seems weird. So I would then think about how do you want to commute home every evening. Going as a group is still okay but alone is was really uncomfortable and I tried to avoid it as much as possible. I also had some friends (both girls and guys) that were taking Uber every evening to avoid this.

3. Academic life at host university

Campus of the university is very big. The buildings and equipment in them were modern. Academic culture was slightly different than in Vienna. In my opinion it is slightly easier than in Vienna. All the professors were really helpful, I highly recommend going to their office hours when you have some questions or some problems with learning material. They have also used this bell curve where your grades are being scaled and that also helped me to get better grades. I took four courses. Introduction to accounting, Introduction to Finance, Introduction to international business and Technology Ventures. I highly recommend all of the courses except from international business course. I found that one a bit too easy. Finance and accounting courses were very interesting but quite demanding.

5. Every day life in the host country

Public transport was okay but not as good as in Vienna. Regarding safety in the public transportation throughout the day it was okay and in the evening somehow manageable but not very pleasant. I definitely had more encounters with strange people on the buses in Edmonton than in Vienna. Campus was very safe for me, downtown not that much. In the evening I didn't felt that safe going there alone. Regarding sports, there is big sports center directly on the campus and we had access to a lot of different sports facilities for free. I was doing squash and ice skating regularly. Also I've joined Outdoors Club and can highly recommend it. They are not very well organised but when you oversee that their trips are always fun. I really enjoyed going hiking with them.

6. Testimonial

Rocky Mountains were the best part of my exchange semester. I spent a lot of time hiking, skiing and ice skating in the mountains and it really made my semester special. Canadian nature is different than european and I can highly recommend making like-minded friends and going to the mountains with them.