VERY! IESEG’s International MBA is a one year program consisting of 2 semesters followed by a 4 to 6 month internship and\or job. Our courses began in August 2018 and will finish at the end of May 2019 when we will receive our certifications for finishing classes. These certificates are not considered official diplomas, in order to officially graduate from the program we need to fulfill the internship/job requirement. During these beautiful Spring days, only 1,5 months away finishing the program, I think I can confirm the density and weight of the program and compare both semesters.
In the first semester we took our mandatory courses which lasted approximately 4 months, from the end of August until the end of December. I have to warn you beforehand that you should be ready to work very hard and intensively during this period without any break! (There are no vacations in the first semester, only a couple of single bank holidays). During this time we took our 13 mandatory courses, which form the main frame of the MBA. Most of the courses began at 8 in the morning and will last until 5 in the evening, with a 1 hour lunch. These 8 hour days are consisting only of lectures… assignments, homework, group projects, presentations and exams are additional.
Don’t worry, there is an upside to this situation. It is said that the first months in a foreign country are usually the hardest due to culture shock, but you will not suffer those! During the first semester there is no time to feel depressed or homesick, only time for school and an occasional Apero!
The second semester begins in the middle of January and lasts until the end of May. Even though the second semester is longer than the first, it has gone by much faster due to multiple vacances and less class hours. It has been an adjustment getting used to a slower paced schedule after such a hectic first semester. The main reason the second semester has passed more quickly has been because we have been focused on finding an internship, which is a time consuming in a foreign country. We also had the opportunity to control the weight of our courses, because in the second semester there are only electives and we had the option to chose which classes we wanted to take. We also had one week of winter break in February and a spring break in April (I am currently writing this post on the bus ride to Zurich). The spring break is a class trip around the EU visiting neighboring countries for both cultural experiences and company visits. We will definitely write a separate entry about this trip, do not worry!
IÉSEG International MBA Student Blog 