Details

• Italy
• MAWiRe-21
• Graduate
• WS 2025
• Time spent at the partner university: 4 months

1. Preparation

Make sure to carefully review the course catalog and compare it to the online credit transfer database (in my case a few courses were not available anymore). I would recommend to arrive earlier than the official start of the exchange period, as this will give you more time to make friends, get comfortable and have some time to just enjoy Milano before uni begins.

2. Accommodation

I did not search for that long as I was able to get allocated a spot through Bocconi Housing at Aparto Giovenale which is a modern student residence located very close to Bocconi University. They provide a great overall service and I was happy with my housing-experience there. Safety was fine in that area and the location (close to Bocconi) in general is in my opinion a very good starting point to explore Milano.

3. Academic life at host university

Bocconi's campus is partially new and modern and partially a little older. Most of the lectures were held in one of the older buildings. All lecture rooms were well equipped. The teaching style at Bocconi depends much on your course as there is also a high number of foreign teachers/professors. So some courses are comparable to WU, some not at all. A general difference (and in my opinion benefit) is that Bocconi incorporates a lot of guest lectures into the courses. I would recommend the following courses: 50256 FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS IN EUROPE: Very interesting and fair workload. 20576 BANK AND FINTECH: VISION AND STRATEGY (finance course): A lot of group work but still a nice course very much focused on the future e outlook of the sector with a thought provoking discourse during the lectures. Fair final exam. 50260 DISPUTE RESOLUTION IN A GLOBALIZED WORLD: Gives a great overview of international arbitration, low-workload exam. 50222 EUROPEAN UNION LAW: Fair workload compared to ECTS

5. Every day life in the host country

Public transport is worse than in Vienna, because it is not very dependable. The metro works very well though. I did not have any safety concerns but Milan is not one of the safest cities in Europe. A few places should be avoided at night (e.g. Milano Centrale). There were a lot of welcome activities and events at the beginning of the semester. There are a lot of Bocconi sports team which you can try to get in (Tennis, swimming, etc). Apart from that, Milan is a sport city in general (I played padel tennis a lot there with friends).

6. Testimonial

My exchange experience at Bocconi in Milan was one of the best periods of my life. Milan offers such great cultural depth (food, bars, art, etc) and is also a very international city in general - that made it the perfect blend for me. Even though it was not one of my favorite cities (as a tourist) before my exchange, now it is at the top of my list. The thing I miss the most now being back at home is the caffè al banco.