UQ Program: Bachelors of Commerce/Economics
I have just finished a semester abroad and Bocconi University in Milan, Italy. I have now completed my 3rd year of my double degree of Commerce and Economics. I didn’t really ever plan on going on exchange, and one of my main reasons for applying was because I wanted to travel around Europe with a group of my friends, and many of them were applying to do exchange. I know that is probably not the best reason to apply, but I am now so glad that I did.
I had an amazing 7 months overseas, spending 3 months travelling and 4 months living in Milan. I opted to live in an apartment rather than the dorms, purely because the dorms offered for exchange students at Bocconi University are not ideal. Although at the beginning I wasn’t thrown into meeting all the new exchange students, I don’t regret picking an apartment at all. Although it was a bit more expensive than living in a dorm, I had great room mates, my apartment was in the centre of town so I walked everywhere (to uni, to town etc) and only caught a tram once! I loved Milan as a city to live in.
Although I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it to tourists travelling to Italy for 2 weeks because it’s possible to see all the main sights in a day, Milan was an amazing city to live in. It has a great nightlife (it wasn’t possible to go to every club offered in 4 months), amazing gelato (go to Choclat just off Parke Sempione) and pizza (pretty much every restaurant will give you amazing pizza for 7-10 euro). Most of my friends ended up being exchange students, I think largely due to the language barrier. Even though everyone at Bocconi spoke English, the Italians tended to stick in their groups.
The only regret I do have is that I didn’t spend more time trying to learn Italian. I really did want to learn, but as you can easily get away with English and only Italian small talk, I found it hard to be dedicated to the language when there were so many new people to meet and fun things to do. Milan is definiately not the cheapest place to live, but Bocconi offers so many cheap deals on nights out with the exchange associations so definitely get involved with those groups. I also recommend seeing a soccer game (you’ll have to pick to follow AC or Inter Milan), and attending as many Aperitivo’s as possible (great happy hour’s with drinks and snacks/dinner).