Exchange Report

Firstly, if you follow the instructions on the application process you will usually not have any problems. But you can check if the CEEPUS grant has a higher monthly grant amount than Erasmus+ in your semester. Start looking for accommodation 2 months before the start of the semester is sufficient and check with which bank you get the lowest charges for transactions in foreign currencies (I used Revolut and Trade Republic). Besides that, there was no additional immediate organisational measure needed for me.

Unfortunately, the SGH is not really helpful with finding an accommodation. I used the platform "pepehousing", which I would not recommend now as it has high charges for booking a room and you basically get no information on the lending company before signing a contract. For transparency, it is best to simply use Facebook for finding a flat or to ask other universities in Warsaw if they have free spots in student accommodations. Regarding location: I had my flat directly next to SGH, but anywhere near one of the two metro lines is good.

The campus infrastructure at the SGH is good overall. There is a library next to the main building, in almost every building is a canteen and the lecture rooms are mostly comfortable. The teaching style and the quality of a course highly depends on the course and on the lecturer. There are courses where the lecturer seems bored and is not really interested in teaching and courses, in which the lecturers give precise feedback on skills, interact with students and show an interest in teaching. From my experience, particularly quantitative courses were good. Overall, while the quality of a course differs, the organisational frame is improvable. There is usually no information on the grading system before the course and the syllabus is often incomplete.

The public transport system in Warsaw is good, but it is recommendable to avoid buses in the center during rush hour. Furthermore, the train system in Poland is great and you can get to basically every city in Poland quickly and cheap with a student discount. Warsaw is overall very safe and there are no quarters you should not visit. As with every big city, there are many social and leisure activities in Warsaw and comparably a little bit cheaper than in Vienna. Only the cold weather in January made outside activities difficult during my stay. Besides that, there are a lot of events organised by the Erasmus student network including football games and bar activities.

The exchange semester in Warsaw gave me not only the opportunity to meet many nice people from various countries, but also the chance to see new perspectives on political and societal topics and even on daily routine. I grew personally with the experience and learned a lot even in fields outside of of economics.