Erfahrungsbericht

University of Michigan (MBA)

Hochschule

University of Michigan

Titel des Studiengangs

MBA

Standort

Ann Arbor

Zeitraum

August - Dezember 2018

Fachrichtung

Wirtschaftswissenschaften - allgemein

Bewertung von

Anonym

Gesamtbewertung

5

Gesamtbewertung

5

Ansehen der Hochschule

5

Ausstattung der Universität

5

Wie bewertest du die Vielfalt an deiner Hochschule?

5

Alumni-Aktivität

5

Networking

5

Career Services

4

Unternehmenspartnerschaften

5

Karierremöglichkeiten

5

Austauschprogramme

5

Preis-Leistungs-Verhältnis

5

PRO:

  • Echte "College Life Experience"
  • Vielfältiges und gutes Kursangebot
  • Vielfalt an Möglichkeiten für socializing

CONTRA:

  • Hohe Lebensunterhaltskosten allgemein

Erfahrungsbericht Zusammenfassung

Gesamtfazit

I would definitively recommend a semester abroad at the University of Michigan – I had an amazing time in and outside of the university and would choose the same school for an exchange at any time again.

Empfehlung

As already mentioned before, living costs in Ann Arbor can be quite high. And as smaller supermarkets and shots in the downtown area or around campus are especially expensive, I would highly suggest to do “American style” grocery shopping: Rent a car (enterprise or Zip-car) or get an uber with friends once a week and go to either Walmart or ALDI outside of town to buy groceries that will last you the entire week.
You should definitively buy a season ticket for the football games in advance as soon as they become available online. Even if you don´t go to the games, you can still sell the single tickets with a profit.

Art des Studiums

Master (MSc, MA, etc.)

Förderprogramm

University of Michigan

Die Hochschule

Studienwahl

Es handelte sich um einen Austausch über meine Heimatuni in Deutschland wo ich im MSc. Management studiert habe. Da es keinen Masterequivalent in Michigan gab belegte ich ausschließlich MBA Kurse.

Studiengang

Sehr breite und gute Vielfalt an Kursen die Teils sehr PRaxisorientiert sind. Ich konnte anders als zu Kursen in Deutschland teilweise das Gelernte sofort in meinem nächsten Praktikum umsetzen. Eine detaillierte Bewertung meiner dort belegten Kurse als Auszug aus meinem Auslandssemesterbericht (in englisch):

BCOM-561 Management Presentation - Nancy Kotzian
The focus of this course is on giving presentations and practicing public speaking in general. The course is therefore quite interactive and a variety of settings are offered in which you need to speak in front of the class. The extensive feedback that you will get from the instructor as well as from your peers will definitively proof to be very helpful, even if you already feel comfortable giving presentations. Overall, I can only recommend this course. Workload is rather low, and no additional material such as books need to be purchased.

MO-512 Bargaining and Influencing Skills - Shirli Kopelman
Basically an in-depth negotiation class that covers a variety of negotiation scenarios from cooperative to assertive business negotiations. The class is very interactive with case studies and negotiation simulations in almost every class. As every negotiation differs with your respective negotiation partner. There are 3 assignments in this class which a rather straight forward and short (max. of one or two pages). For this course, you will be asked to buy two books which can be purchased at the book store on campus for around 30$ in total.

TO-512 Decision Support Spreadsheets – Tariq Mughal
This excel course starts with very fundamental functions in excel and also covers some advanced functionalities in the later sessions. If you have already worked with excel before, this course might teach you not that much new. Nevertheless, I saw it as quite a good recap of what I already knew and was also able to pick up some tricks and functions I did not know about here and there. The exam at the end of the quarter can be skipped to get some additional time for traveling if you complete all weekly assignments with more then 80%. You should be able to complete these assignments in less than 3 to 4 hours per week.

TO-515 VBA for Excel – Hila Etzion
This course about VBA programming in excel might be one of the most useful classes I have taken so far. It requires you to already have a good understanding of basic functionalities in excel, but does not require any prior knowledge in VBA or any other programming language. The course teaches you in weekly assignments basic and also quite advanced functions of VBA. I found the class extremely useful and as I write this report, I am applying the knowledge of this class in my current internship. Therefore, I highly recommend taking this class even if the assignments can be challenging at times. If over 80% is reached in the weekly assignments, the exam in the end also can be skipped.

TO582 Action Learning Project
This course is basically a semester long consulting project hosted by the University and AT Kearney in cooperation with a local client (e.g. Coca Cola, Dell, Axalta, Siemens US etc.). The grading consists of a final group report (30 – 50 pages) and a final presentation in front of the class. Besides of regular classes which are basically guest lectures of the leadership of AT Kearney, there are weekly calls with the client, with your respective coach from AT Kearney, and the professors in order to track and communicate your progress on the project. You can state preferences for the projects in the beginning, but in the end the group and project allocations will be determined by the AT Kearney and the professors. The content, deliverables and also the workload varies quite strongly with the project you get assigned to and also your group members (groups consist of 5 to 6 students from various backgrounds: MBA, Master in Supply Chain MGT, BBA). The project management can be quite challenging as you have multiple stakeholders with different standards and perspectives at times (AT Kearney, Client, Professors) and the various backgrounds of the groups makes it often hard to find times for meetings. Also, as the initial client problem statements can be vague, it is extremely important to discuss and set the scope and expectations of the project in the beginning. As I experienced here some issues within the project team, I had some unpleasant and stressful experiences with this course at times. Overall, it is hard to give recommendations regarding this course as it is extremely dependent on the group and actual project. Nevertheless, I have to admit that I learned quite a lot during this project about myself, team dynamics, project management, and was also able to apply some knowledge from my VBA class. It also allowed me to visit the client site (manufacturing plant near Detroit) as a field trip which became definetively a valuable experience.

Studienbedingungen und Ausstattung der Hochschule

Sehr gut, moderne Austattung am gesamten Campus

Die Studentenschaft

Studierende

Sehr aktive Vereine und Clubs, sehr leicht Anschluss zu finden. Auszug aus meinem englischprachigen Study Report:

As Ann Arbor has around 120.000 inhabitants and the University of Michigan has almost 50.000 students, life in Ann Arbor in general is very much dominated by the students and the campus. There are plenty of activities hosted by student organizations or the international office that you can attend to meet new people and locals.

Student Organizations
At the university of Michigan, there is a student org or club for almost everything. From non-profit student organizations, frats & sororities to professional clubs for networking and organizations surrounding sports and leisure activities – there will certainly something that fits your personal interests. I was able to join two student orgs during my time in Michigan and I would only recommend you to do so as well as it enabled me to get significantly closer involved into student life around campus and also to meet plenty of local students.

Studying Facilities
Studying facilities at the University of Michigan include several libraries (I would recommend to check out the law library!) and also more modern studying areas (Including facilities in the Business school itself where you can also reserve study rooms) spread around campus as well as a variety of café´s with WiFi around campus.

Restaurant, Bars & Nightlife
While eating out is definitively not cheap in Ann Arbor, there are more than enough decent restaurants especially around the downtown area that are worth to have a look at. For a classic American style barbeque, you might want to try a restaurant named “blue tractor”. There is also no shortage of Bars in Ann Arbor. You will find plenty of sport bars around the campus area and sometimes they have special offers for students on certain days of the week. There are also a couple of nightclubs close to campus and also in the downtown area, while the clientele varies from club to club.

Sports
Sports is huge in Michigan. Tailgaiting parties (pre-drinking before football - by far the most popular sport) are huge social events happening every Saturday when the Michigan wolverines are playing in the big house. But even if you are not into college football, you can enjoy watching highly professionalized sport matches (Basketball, Soccer, Ice Hockey etc.) almost every weekend. The tickets for less popular sports are often under 20$.

Services und Angebote

Kosten und Gebühren

Studiengebühren wurden in Deutschland gezahlt wordurch die exorbitanten Studienkosten in den USA vermieden wurden

Stipendien, Fördermittel und Unterstützung bei der Finanzierung

DAAD Förderung möglich ( ca. 5000€)

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