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Why did you choose to go to Barcelona for your exchange trip?
As for the application process, I initially submitted my application to Office of International Relations (OIR), which is now known as Office of Global Learning (OGL). Spain wasn’t my first choice, as my priority was the geographical location. I preferred central Europe so that it is more accessible for me to travel around during my leisure. However, it was very unfortunate that I did not get my choice of university during the first and second round as it was very competitive and limited slots available in each university. Moreover, the more popular universities tend to be a good university in nicely located city with similar semester calendar with SMU.
There are a total of three rounds of exchange application. The selection basis, as far as I know, is based on GPA though it is stated that your CCAs, achievements and volunteer work come to play as well. For example, university X opens for two slots. That means the two people with highest GPA that choose this university will get into university X first. After the first round ended, the list of vacancies in the remaining universities will be announced in the second round, this goes on until the third round which is the final round. After going through the disappointment, I decided not to apply for the third round as most of them have poor academic calendar, i.e. September to February, which means it would eat up two semester academic calendar in SMU, hence this may delay my graduation time.
Moving forward, one of my friends recommended me to apply for an external study via Oasis -> External Study. I consulted the manager from OIR about the option, and then I was referred to one of the SOB manager for more information. The difference between external study and exchange program from OIR is that you have to find your own university, instead of SMU providing the list of university for the students. Furthermore, you have to take Leave-of-Absence (LoA) from SMU to take part in external study and I paid the school fee based on the university’s rate and you do not pay SMU school fees for the semester you applied for external study. Some university’s one semester fee could be cheaper than that of SMU’s.
Regarding School of Business’ requirement for external study, students must not apply for partner universities and instead I needed to search for non-partner universities. If I remember correctly, only SOB requires you to apply for non-partner, I heard that other school may allow you to apply for partner universities. You can kindly check with you respective school managers.
The application process was quite tedious; it took my whole summer added with my internship to prepare for this. I needed to communicate with all the potential universities I was applying for to ask for information such as courses available, costs of the program and their academic calendar. The respond time from them was generally slow; some universities did not even reply or replied you in their local language which was not in English language.
This program that I joined in Barcelona was not exactly an exchange but it was called International Study Abroad Program. In exchange program, students have the chance to immerse with local students while mine was to immerse with all international students from all over the world.
Not many people take this program because most of them are not aware of it and the cost of the program could be ridiculously high. I was determined to apply for an overseas study program because I had been eyeing for this opportunity since the day I joined SMU and I felt this could be the last opportunity for me to have to spend some time living in a foreign land.
After I finished my program, I highly recommend all my friends and juniors to go for an exchange program as you will learn a lot more about yourself and learn from all the people whom you met. I have captured the moments and I’d say one of the highlights in my SMU life, or even life.
What are the benefits of exchange program?
One of the benefits is getting to know international friends. I still keep in touch with my exchange friends. Keep an open mind and avoid sticking to one group. A big group of people is probably hard to coordinate, 2 or 3 people in one group is perfect for me. After exchange, you will gain more knowledge about the people and the culture of the different cities you travelled. To cite an example, I feel that the German are, in fact, quite conservative in comparison to some other European countries and surprisingly, they are pretty competitive in terms education and work which explains the fact that they are better economically as compared to others in the region.
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STUDY | TRAVEL | EXPLORE
Having graduated from Singapore Management University (SMU) in the year 2014, Michael shared his enthralling exchange journey in Autonomous University of Barcelona or UAB, in short. Upon reviewing his five-month exchange trip, it was truly an eye-opening and amazing experience. Barcelona is such a beautiful and buzzing coastal city where you can enjoy its unique culture, tradition and delicious cuisines, especially the tapas and churros that you can try from various cafes. Read the interview scope below to know more about Michael's exchange journey.
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What is the most memorable thing that happened during your study trip?
There are two key takeaways that are memorable during my time in Barcelona. One of it was that the friendships made during the travelling part with some of my good friends from SMU prior to start of the academic term. During that time, a handful of my friends went to Europe for exchange as well. Though we are all studying in different country, we decided to travel and plan the itinerary together. One of the highlight was the road trip we did starting from Croatia, to Slovenia and ended up in Budapest, Hungary.
Another takeaway was the fact that I lived fruitfully in that beautiful city of Barcelona for a good five months. I had a really good time with all the new friends I have made in the university, as well as my housemates. I was staying in a big flat consisting of 7 rooms with each occupants are from different nationality. How cool is that! They are people from Germany, UK, Spain, Japan, mainland China and Mexico. I did a site-visiting because pictures presented on the website were often deceiving. Indeed, the effort of arriving one week earlier to settle my accommodation turned out to be worth it, as I stayed in an exquisite single-room with the most awesome housemates ever. Along the way, I made a lot of friends from all over the world, including Italian, Russian, German, American, British etc.
In Barcelona, most people speak Catalan or Spanish. I came with zero Spanish background, so at the start I really struggled, used a lot of google-translate to live. Luckily, I took basic Spanish course in UAB which helped me a lot as I progressed. So I’d recommend taking up some basic language before you depart for an exchange.
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What are the other cities that you have visited in Europe?
I started off travelling at the Eastern Europe. I had a road trip to Croatia with my Singapore’s friends. It is quite an exotic place to visit in the summer. As we did not have any tour guide, we must prepare everything beforehand. We used an off-line GPS app named SYGIC and researched the places that we wanted to visit. The public transportations in Europe are not very accessible, thus four of us eventually travelled by car experiencing the most exhilarating road trip. After that, we went to Slovenia and finally Hungary. The cost of living in Eastern Europe is cheaper than other parts of Europe as they are mostly developing countries.
I personally wanted to experience travelling alone as it is a one-time experience in Europe. So, I did a solo trip for 6 days to Vienna and Prague, after enjoying the world’s famous Oktoberfest in Munich with my friends. For accommodation, hosteling system is really advanced in Europe. You can check hostelworld.com or booking.com as these sites include reliable reviews of the accommodation. The hostel system is similar to hotel whereby it charged on per night basis and it is much more budget-friendly compared to hotel. During off-peak, you can expect a night in a hostel to cost ranging from 10-30 euros in a smaller or less popular city. However, one of the cons is that in a hostel, typically you have to stay with other people who are just like you and me, a traveler. For safety measures, do read up the reviews before booking the hostel.
I also had the chance to travel to various cities in U.K, including London which is one of my favorite cities. The top reason is very obvious; I wanted to watch live soccer match in a dream stadium there ;) It’s a very different experience for me to watch the soccer match live and girls should try it to. Not all soccer matches cost dearly, some may be around £30 to £40. Moreover, there are a lot of great musicals in London, so you’ll never get bored in the evening.
As for girls, probably they love shopping. Any recommendation on any shopping spree?
In Spain, shops such as Zara, Massimo Dutti, Pull & Bear, Mango, they all cost at least half price cheaper compared to that of in Singapore. Moreover, you can claim tax refund after you spend a certain amount (more than 91 euros) in Spain, which is a pretty good deal.
Have you encountered anything unusual during your time in Spain?
Hmm, there was actually one incident happened to my friends. When two of my friends were in the station on the way to Madrid, they were snaffled. Without using any weapons or sharp objects, the pick-pocketer stealthily stole one of my friend’s hand bag with a trick of offering tissue paper to clean up their suspiciously dirty backpack. They took up the offer, and one of them put down their hand bad on the floor, the next moment as they were cleaning up, it was gone, taken away by their accomplices. Therefore, just make sure to be careful in public places particularly in train stations and buses; do not get distracted by strangers who seem to be nice to you. One more thing is that not to leave your belonging out of sight in public places.
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What preparations that you have made before you go into exchange?
I set up two savings accounts in Singapore under Citibank: one is in Euro and the other one is in SGD. These Citibank account are pretty convenient for me, as they have a lot of ATMs around Europe which is awesome when you are traveling; and they charge you zero dollar for withdrawing your money. You can find out more from OASIS -> Ontrac. It provides past reviews from previous exchange students giving information about the universities that they enrolled in, the courses they took, cost of living, bank accounts, and many more.
How long did you take to prepare for everything?
I slowly asked people and looked up by myself. I almost used up my whole summer to prepare. It is better if you plan out 6 months prior to your exchange trip.
How many mods did you take during your study trip?
I could only take 3 mods because the university did not have the courses that I wanted to take. Fortunately, I had quite a few exemptions and managed to clear a lot of courses from year one to year three. Therefore, I only had to clear up 7 modules in my final year. It is highly recommended to take more modules in your junior years so that you have fewer modules in your senior years to focus on your job searching and attend interviews.
What are the most popular choices for exchange?
I would say that Europe and U.S are both generally more popular. However, the academic calendar is also a significant factor to consider. Some exchange or study trips take up 2 semesters in SMU calendar and thus students may be forced to delay their graduation. I had the option to have my in Germany but I do not want to delay my graduation. It is up to people’s choices, I guess. I even knew someone who did two exchanges in Philippine and Kazakhstan. The important thing is to plan your modules well ahead. For elective courses you can take them abroad while university and compulsory courses must be cleared in SMU.
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How about the visa? Is it troublesome to apply for it?
A lot of paperwork needs to be done. I applied for my visa in Singapore and on average, it takes up 10-15 working days. For your info, Spain visa covers almost every part of EU under Schengen, you can check the list online and take note of the countries you are able to enter with the visa when you are traveling.
Can you tell us more regarding the cost of living in Europe?
I think the lowest cost of living is in Poland but it is really competitive to get in. There is actually a website listing down the highest to lowest cost of living in Europe by cities, you can easily google it. In general, the living cost in Eastern Europe is typically much lower than north Europe. If you are on tight budget, you should find places with lower cost of living so the money can be saved to spend on other things such as traveling. For me, I also saved money by cooking at home rather than eating outside as eating out was more expensive. I somewhat enjoyed learning cooking and buying groceries with my flat-mates.
What is your favorite country out of all the places that you have visited?
I would choose Iceland as my favorite country. I felt that I was in a different planet when I was there. Due to the freezing cold weather, the land is infertile and all the plants are not able to live well hence it is rare to see any greeneries. The daylight is very short there. I went there in early November and it was considered pretty good to have daylight from 9-3 p.m. I’d say to try to avoid traveling to Iceland in December as the daylight is the shortest (11am-2pm), so technically you will experience darkness most of the time and would not be able to sightsee well.
Talking about Northern Light, I felt quite disappointed. One of our main reasons to Iceland was to see the Northern Light. In order to see it, it has to be a good weather with clear sky. We began to feel panicked during the last four to five days as we hadn’t seen the light. Worst, it was raining almost every day and the dark clouds were looming over the sky almost all the time. In the end, we only managed to catch a glimpse of the northern light for approximately 5 seconds on our last day in Iceland. The best place to see clearly is far outside the city with least light pollution, i.e. to be as dark as possible. There is also a website which predicts the time of the northern light to appear, the location and the intensity of the light. You should check on the day you want to visit to be more accurate.
In Iceland, driving could be dangerous due to the slippery road and heavy snowstorms. We encountered an accident during our road trip across Iceland. It was a bitterly cold night with strong wind blowing. Although my friend drove slowly, we could feel the car was unstable due to the strong wind. It was around 12.30 a.m., there was a strong snowstorm. Sometimes in the northern hemisphere, the wind is pretty strong; even on the day you could feel the wind and it can become extreme weather condition causing deaths to people.
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Suddenly, on the next split seconds, the wind turned wild and the next thing that we knew was our car was stuck at the side road covered with thick snow. We felt terrified but tried our best to remain calm. We wanted to come out but the strong wind prevented us to do so. We then called the emergency number for help which was available 24 hours. We told them where we were based on our location coordinate. After a while, a giant van came towards us and the people helped us to come out of our car. We migrated to the nearest hotel while our car was still stuck in the same place.
On the next day, we filed a police report to claim for insurance. We also went to a car company to ask them to tow our car out. Our plan was delayed, but we felt grateful that we were all safe. It was one of the nerve-racking yet memorable experiences for all of us. One note is that, in Iceland, avoid driving in the evening from 8pm onwards, as the weather gets really unpredictable at night and could potentially be very dangerous.
What is the best time to go for an exchange?
There are pros and cons to each of them. If you are going in year 3 sem 2, you can take more courses. But if you are going in year 4 sem 1, you will not experience weather shock as the temperature gradually changes from warm to cold. But it all comes down to people’s preferences.
Any last words or tips for juniors who plan to go for exchange?
Plan early for the courses that you want to take; at least plan how many mods that you intend to clear on each term. Also, try to clear as many mods as possible in your junior years. For people with only a few exemptions, it is best if you take 4.5 or 5 courses each semester. The reason is that when you go for exchange, you never know how many modules that you can clear. It can be 3, 4 or 5 depending on your chosen university. On top of it, take compulsory courses first; leave the electives to the last as the electives are allowed to be taken on exchange. Your time will come and the time in exchange flies. As an undergraduate, exchange is something that you will remember for life so it is highly recommended for each student to experience by themselves. Besides, you will just be an undergraduate once in a lifetime. Work hard and play hard ;)
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"After going to Iceland, I understand why my friends said that it is probably their best experience in Europe. It is filled with beautiful and stunning sceneries, friendly locals and adventure. You will never be bored of this place as every attraction has their own unique point! Iceland, the land of fire and ice, is the best traveling experience I have had so far and I highly recommend to visit this place! I will definitely come back again to catch the Northern lights and visit attractions I missed out~ (due to bad stuckie!)"
~ Michael Hermantoso
An insight to European countries
"Hey guys, feel free to drop me an email if you have any enquiries about exchange !"
*Click the picture to send an email to Michael or connect with Michael via Facebook
In Barcelona, most people speak Catalan or Spanish. I came with zero Spanish background, so at the start I really struggled, used a lot of google-translate to live. Luckily, I took basic Spanish course in UAB which helped me a lot as I progressed. So I’d recommend taking up some basic languages before you depart for an exchange.
