Travel reports Alberta
HT18
I study the Master's Programme in Accounting and Finance with the orientation Management Control. During fall 2018 I studied at the University of Alberta (U of A) in Edmonton, Canada. I wanted to go to an English-speaking country, I love sports and in particular ice hockey, so Canada felt like a given choice for me! The U of A had really interesting finance courses as well and it was relatively close to the beautiful Rocky Mountains, so I decided to go there!
The semester started at the beginning of September, but all international students were encouraged to be there one week ahead and join the Orientation Welcome Program. Since I took MBA courses I was enrolled in both the MBA welcome week program and the welcome week program held by my residence Pinecrest. From day one you got to know new friends from all over the world! The welcome programs were intense, it was not mandatory to join every event, but I did, and I totally recommend others to do that too since it’s the easiest way to meet other students that are also in the same situation as you and it is really fun!
I stayed on campus at a residence house called Pinecrest. It was a four-bedroom apartment which I shared with three other girls from Brazil, New Zealand and Australia. The apartment was quite simple. We had our own bedroom, two shared one bathroom and we all shared kitchen and living room. The rent was around 5 600 SEK per month. The vast majority were international students at Pinecrest. It became a small community with several daily and weekly activities. Every weekend there was at least one beer pong tournament! I was enrolled in five courses because it was equivalent with a full-time semester in Sweden.
The courses I took were:
- Risk Management
- Fixed Income
- Energy Industries and Markets
- two different Real Estate courses.
You studied all courses at the same time during the whole semester. My experience is that the courses at U of A are more practical compare to the courses in Uppsala. The study pace was more intense, we had midterms and finals and additional assignments due on a weekly basis.
During my spare time I tried to travel as much as I could. The Rocky Mountains is only a four hour drive from Edmonton, so I went there a couple of time, hiking and skiing. The popular city Vancouver is only one and half hour flight West. I finished all school work in the middle of December and after that I traveled to Calgary, Toronto and Montreal as well. I could really recommend traveling around in Canada while you are there, it is a big country and the differences between the cities are remarkable. The nature in the Rockies are amazing.