HEC: First week

Now that I am at HEC, I am fine. Every student speaks English and I won’t feel like “Lost in Translation”. Well the problem is that the administrators and Chef and most non MBA staffs don’t speak English. So, you have similar problems at the Campus.

As I just plan to stay in Campus for one month and spend the second month in Paris, I can’t stay in Residential. Now I have to talk to a guy whose English is as bad as or worse then my French. My communication with him will make a good French comedy and is worst than you can imagine. I call 14 (my room number) dix quatre instead of quatroze and he has similar English issues.

I am allotted to a building that is the worst undergrad building in the campus, as this was the only one left. I don’t even have a vending machine in my building and have to walk about 75 meters to other building. Each room has a bed (smaller than full size in US) a table two chairs and normal shelves and armoire. There is free High Speed Internet in all rooms. The HEC MBA building has WiFi.

Residential apartments were like Hotel rooms, bigger and much more luxurious. We have common toilets. I share my shower with the person staying next to me. It’s like shower is between two rooms.

The courses at HEC are totally different from typical MBA courses at any US MBA School. Just look at my final list.

· Business opportunities in Crises economy: It’s a course taught by Dean of an Argentina Business School. A guy was in the Argentina government during the Argentina debt crises, devaluation of Peso, hyper-inflation (200% in a month means the prices doubled in a month) and was involved in initial negotiations with the bondholders.

· Indispensable Asia: a course about all the Asian countries North & east of India. A guy who heads the Asian studies at The Eurasia Institute in France teaches this course. He has traveled extensively in Asia and speaks many languages. He admits that they don’t focus on India because the economy has yet to open up and has asked me to present a 5-page report on behaviors or Young Urban Indians.

· Geopolitics & Developing Markets: A course taught by the ex Indian Ambassador to Franch. She doesn’t like George Bush and her husband loves him. There we have almost the US voters representation in their house :) I told her “ I told her that you must have great dinner time conversations now a days:)”

· Expert Views on Marketing: Taught by real experts in the field.

· International Negotiations: Yet to start

· International Perspectives in Executive Power & Negotiations: Yet to start

· French

We are supposed to take five courses including French and I am taking total seven as I like the courses and don’t want to miss them:)

Don’t get me wrong. Chicago has a number of great Industry Professors. We have Nobel Prize winners offering courses. I also took a course offered by Eric Gleacher who was the best guy on the Wall Street and was involved in the biggest LBO ever – the 1987 RJR Nabisco transaction. In fact, his role was also there in the movie or book on that transaction “Barbarians at the Gate”. But, the courses here are non traditional. They are focused on world rather than just one country.

I think that is due to the student body here. The class that joined this Jan has a total of 64 students from 27 countries!!! The September intake had 105 students from 48 countries (approx). 80% of the students are international compared to approx 30% in most US schools.

The campus is different from Chicago. In fact, it is closer to IIT Bombay campus with a lot of trees and buildings in between. The lawns are perfect. The campus has an unstructured look compared to the clean, manicured or sleek look in Chicago.

The student body is very small about 170 every year compared to 450 at Chicago. Thus most students know each other and students in adjacent batches too. As most students stay in the same building, they have a better community than Chicago. In fact, student body is pretty active. Students organize party with 1 E wine, beer or 50 cents for coke at a piano bar at Residential Expensial every Wednesday and Saturday. Also, there is a bigger party organized by the HEC (there are other programs apart from MBA) with light and DJ every Thursday night. They have normal clubs and other activities.

The sports club is pretty good. They have rowing, soccer, rock climbing and a whole lot of sports and aerobic classes. Most classes are Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday afternoons – the days I have classes. I am planning to join some evening classes.

The MBA is pretty unstructured with the same course classes held is different rooms every week. I think this is because they don’t have the right infrastructure. France is socialist country and Alumni here don’t have a concept of giving back to the School. The attitude is I paid for my education. The School is recognized in Paris because it is one of various Grand Ecoles (Higher Learning) centers created by the French for each department of study.

The food is very French and not it’s not French you have in America. In fact, I liked French food in America and didn’t like the food served in Dining place at Campus. I craved for a pizza till such a place opened the second week here. In Paris, you have much wider choice of French food and this is not a problem.

Over all they have done the best with the resources they have. One important thing - the campus is almost dead on the weekends.