Magdalena Plesa

A New Beginning

Wed, 26 Oct 2016 06:04:32 -0700

Cite Universitaire

Sun, 18 Oct 2015 15:00:00 -0700

I suppose it just wouldn't be right to tell you of only my room and not say anything about the wonderful campus at Cite International Universitaire Paris. It is located in the southern portion of the 14th Arrondissement away from the hustle and bustle of the city center and also away from the tourists. Those that live here come from all over the world to 40 residences from 40 different countries.

Cite University was created in the aftermath of the First World War by the dreams of incredible men. In the inter-war years André HONNORAT, Minister of Education conceived the idea of creating a “campus” intended to house foreign students and thus to contribute to the construction of peace in the world in a place dedicated to international exchanges, where the youth of the world would learn to live together.

Thanks to the support given in the early days of the project by the industrialist, Émile DEUTSCH DE LA MEURTHE and Paul APPELL, the Rector of the Paris Academy and the President of the Council of the University of Paris, the Utopian dream became a reality in 1925.

At that time, the public authorities wished to increase the number of students in Paris. But the accommodation crisis made it impossible to offer those students a roof over their head. The International Campus was at the time a humanist solution to a concrete problem.The founders of each residence had a completely free choice of style of architecture. This explains the diversity of styles, which combine national references and modernist...Read More

So I Made it to Paris

Tue, 13 Oct 2015 15:00:00 -0700

I finally arrived to my beloved Paris and I had one less worry on my mind than most people: accommodation. Because of being awarded the great Ile de France Bourse I also received housing at the beautiful Cite Universitaire. And since I didn't find out anywhere what kind of room I was getting by googling beforehand, I shall now provide you with some amazing photos so you see what the atmosphere is like there.

Yes you get a mini fridge!

You also get bed sheets and a pillow.

They also provide you with some toilet paper and soap and shampoo for the first few weeks you're there.

All in all it was a much bigger room than I expected.

And my views are pretty amazing. Who knew Paris has so much greenery!

My home sweet home for the next year!

All the Money!

Tue, 13 Oct 2015 01:11:48 -0700

So you got into the program that you oh so desired and now the question comes to mind: how am I going to pay for this? Maybe you were lucky enough to get a scholarship from your institution, and congratulations are in order if you did, however if you didn’t don’t be discouraged because there are many more options to choose from!

The first thing you have at your disposal is the Student Affairs and Scholarship offices of ESCP Europe. They are the best people to ask about what scholarships you are eligible to apply to, based on your citizenship. And yes all scholarships or “bourses” are based on your nationality and age when applying so be sure that you comply with those requirements before filling out any tedious forms. ESCP Europe has two scholarships that you can receive for your Master year 1: EU citizens can receive ESCP Europe need-based scholarships and non-EU citizens can receive ESCP Europe merit scholarships which are subtracted from your tuition fees. Those are basically the 25, 50, 100% scholarships that are automatically applied to your tuition payments so you never really see a cheque or bank transaction for it.

Now a few posts ago I mentioned that I had applied in the Autumn session because that’s when you get more scholarship opportunities and here is why: the two biggest scholarships for non-French citizens are the Eiffel Scholarship or...Read More

Hard Work Does Pay Off

Tue, 13 Oct 2015 01:09:04 -0700

You completed your application, wrote numerous paragraphs on why you’re amazing, and got through the interview reiterating your awsomeness and why they should pick you. You’ve done all you can and now it’s simply a matter of patience. It takes about two to three weeks for the schools to make their decisions so it’s not an extremely long time to wait, however with this much anxiousness surrounding your every move, it feels like an eternity. The SAI program is well organized when it comes to admission and showing who got in and where. You’re sent an email the night before results get posted with links to each of the 5 institutions even if you didn’t apply to all of them.

The five partner schools for the SAI Admission process.

On December 4th the results were posted and each institution has its own way of conveying their admission candidates. You do need to remember to have your SAI reference number since most of them require it for their login. Some schools do individual results while others have lists that show all the candidates who have been admitted through that round.

HEC has an individual login where you see only your own results.

Just a few examples of the different ways the schools have of showing you who’s been accepted into their program. They also have waiting lists and they let you know if you are on the list and what your place is.

ESCP Europe has a list system (other candidate names have been removed for their privacy.)

The time had arrived and since...Read More

You Can't Handle the Truth!

Mon, 12 Oct 2015 05:16:09 -0700

So you made it to the interview, the final task standing between you and glorious admission, but they never make things easy so preparation is key once again. The interview takes place approximately two weeks after your admissibility results have been sent and they are done in either English or French. It will be approximately 30 minutes long and will have a committee principally composed of alumni of the SAI member schools, representatives of the member schools or business representatives. There are usually 2–3 people on this committee which means that not all schools are represented and you should take this into account if you’re applying to a specific school in the SAI. The interview itself is an open discussion focusing mainly on your general knowledge, your academic background and your motivation for undertaking a Master in Management in France.

The first thing that happens when you walk in the room is a formal greeting and you offer your documents to the members. You also have to remember to bring three copies of your CV (Resume) so that the committee members can see what you’ve done. I personally also attached my two reference letters so they have a better understanding of my qualifications. After a few minutes they took to read my booklet, the true questioning began. I’m not sure if this happens in every interview but I had a “good cop”, a “bad cop” and a “neutral cop” and the questions ranged from extremely difficult to lighthearted. The first question was something I had thoroughly anticipated: “Why do you want to do a Master’s degree in France?” There are of course numerous reasons why and everyone has their own. I personally loved the International Management program and ESCP Europe just happened to be situated in...Read More

Nothing Worth Having Comes Easy

Mon, 12 Oct 2015 05:13:28 -0700

The Concours International SAI is the international recruitment application specifically for the Masters in Management program at: Audencia Nantes, Emlyon Business School, ESCP Europe, HEC Paris, and SKEMA Business School. Essentially with this single process you can apply to all five or just a few schools, your fee and procedure will be the same. They have four selection periods: Autumn, Winter, Spring, and Summer. I personally applied through the Autumn period since I already graduated and had all my examination results. Another benefit from applying earlier, besides the fact that you get your admission result sooner, is that you have a wider breadth of scholarships available but I’ll get more into funding in a later post.

The SAI is broken down into three steps: the online application,standardized written test, and the interview. The online application consists of:

your personal information and all of your academic transcripts, even those for exchange semesters
two academic recommendation letters, and if you must one can be professional however they would prefer that both be from your academic studies
resume with a photo attached to it
English test score, unless you’ve taken your bachelor in English
your academic degree or enrollment certificate
and of course the completion of the questions online

Most of the application is straightforward, asking about your language...Read More

Enchantée My Friends

Sun, 11 Oct 2015 12:37:41 -0700

The purpose of starting this dialogue is to offer my experiences so that others can learn from them and better understand some of their own situations. I have been running into some difficulty finding all the information I need about my Master’s program and I invite you to all come along while I try and piece things together. I should begin by saying why I wanted to do a Master’s degree and why I chose this particular one. It was during my year abroad in Germany, where I attended Mannheim Universityand was given the opportunity to take some Masters level courses. After successfully passing them I realized that they weren’t as daunting as I had previously envisioned them being.

Thus began my new quest — to find a suitable school and program that would intrigue me. Of course there were other reasons to continue my education, since I only had one year left of my undergraduate degree of International Businessat Carleton University, I was finishing a chapter in my life. Having something end can be scary if you don’t plan for something else to begin. Also the idea of working in a bank or being a tiny cog in a large corporation just didn’t seem too appealling to me and going to school was an alternative. So after careful research I narrowed down my choices. I’ve always been intrigued with the notion of living in Europe and my recent trip to Paris floored me more than I could have ever imagined so at least my location was chosen. I also knew that I wanted to continue my stream in business, or management however I did not want to waste my time on an MBA. Now don’t...Read More

Some Perspective

Sat, 10 Oct 2015 15:00:00 -0700

Before I continue on with the application process and school information, I’d like to give you a brief look at my profile. In my last post I stated some of my reasons to continue on with higher education and not go in the workforce right away, and now I’ll explain how things don’t often go as planned.

When I returned to Carleton University in Ottawa after my year abroad for my final year of my undergrad, I was adamant that I would do everything in my power to get accepted. This included being involved in almost every student association known to mankind at the Sprott School of Business. I’m not completely exaggerating this point because I was in the executive committee for four associations: Sprott International Business Association (SIBA), Sprott Student’s Management Association (SSMA), Carleton DECA, and Carleton University Exchange Society (CUEx). On top of that I was a Sprott Student Ambassador and frequently volunteered for fairs, shows, student/parent visits and class talks about the International Business program.

My spare time was nonexistent.

Now on top of that I was taking four courses a semester and they all demanded a great deal of my attention since they were senior level lectures. I thought I had a good enough grasp of everything so I started doing my research about the GMAT. All of the universities and...Read More

If at First You Don’t Succeed…

Mon, 08 Jun 2015 15:00:00 -0700

The school year came to a close and with that came the end of all my extra-curricular commitments as well. I had one more thing to accomplish before graduation day and that was DECAU Internationals. DECA is an organization that has both high school and college level business case competitions. Both these competitions in turn have provincial or state level rounds and then international finals. They comprise many business areas such as: Accounting, Entrepreneurship, Human Resources, Finance, Hospitality, Marketing, and many more. I was fortunate enough to have attained a high score at my provincial competition thereby advancing to the DECA Collegiate International Case Competitionwhich were held in Washington D.C.

We had all come prepared for our own case categories, however when we arrived we had discovered a new competition: The Entrepreneurship Challenge. We were mostly drawn to the fact that first place had a prize of $5,000US so we had to at least give it a shot. The task was simple: create a business that was operating in an emerging economy and that had the ability to be franchised.

The competition was fierce consisting of over 60 teams from universities all over North America and many had come specifically prepared for this challenge. My friends and I came up with the idea to transform shipping containers into homes for displaced people in Colombia. There are millions of people without a home there and there are millions of unused shipping containers sitting idle in ports. We believed that we could solve two problems and make a profit at the same time. We had worked hard on our presentation and managed to get through to the...Read More