Put the cool in School

Many have shown an interest in the specifics of our schools. Hence I will give a synopsis of both programs.

Tessa is going to attend the University of Barcelona (UB) and study Spanish. She is going to take a full course load and all credits are transferable. She is enrolled for the entire year and classes begin around the end of August. She has never taken a Spanish course before but has been told that one year of studying Spanish all day should get her pretty fluent. The plan is to take Spanish courses the first year then do a masters degree while we are here our second year. Almost all masters degrees here are taught in Spanish. UB has 70,000 students and was founded in 1450. It commemorated its official foundation 555 years ago in 2005. The school has been moved several times but has been housed in the same buidling for over 135 years. Pictures of the building are below and a history follows if you're interested.







History of the Building
In the 1860s work began on Elies Rogent's splendid new building and 20 years later the building which houses the University today was completed. The first lectures were given in 1871. The clock and the iron bell housed in the tower in the Pati de Lletres - the Arts Court - were installed in 1881. Parallel to the building work, sculptures and paintings were commissioned either directly from artists of repute or awarded in open competition. The architectural work and the quality of the building's works of art meant that it was declared a national monument of historic and artistic interest in 1970. Yes it pales in comparison to Scottsdale Community College but its nice...if you like that sort of thing.


IESE: University of Navarra


Only one picture as we were not at the school long and the campus is actually quite small. Unlike UB's size of 70,000, IESE (pronounced like saying the letters "E" "S" "A") has only 440 students. Our campus could fit under one of UB's big arches. Our class is made up of 220 first year students and the same amount of second years. IESE is a Master's of Business Administration (MBA) school. No other degrees are offered.

Classes are given in Spanish if one is fluent, those not fluent take courses in English during the first year with Spanish language classes everyday from 3:30 to 5pm. Each month we are tested in Spanish to see if we should move up to the next level. Level 1 is for absolute beginners and those who complete level 12 can test to receive a bilingual degree. I've been told that if level 12 is completed by the end of year 1, I will be able to take courses during 2nd year in Spanish, if not, I will continue taking Spanish language courses every afternoon. The benefit of finishing the Spanish requirement is more free time every day + a number of our elective classes 2nd year are taught in Spanish. Only those fluent in Spanish may enroll in the classes.

Our schedule is quite intense as we have a group meeting every morning at 8:30 where we discuss the day's cases. Classes from 9:30 to 3:00, Spanish from 3:30 to 5pm, then we have to prepare 3 cases each night. A case is actually a case analysis where we study a 10-20 page synopsis of a business and what is occuring at the business then put together a summary of what we would do in that situation, why we would do it and have to back up our rationale with financial justification.

IESE is ranked the #16 MBA program in the world by The Financial Times (The international competitor to The Wall Street Journal). Outside the US, only 6 schools rank higher. In the US only 9 schools rank higher.

Here is the profile of last year's class:

Number of students 216
Average age 27 (Age Range, middle 80%: 25 - 31)
Average years of previous 4
work experience
Average GMAT 670 (GMAT Range, middle 80%: 620 - 750)
Percentage of women 25%
Percentage of international students 77%
Number of countries represented in student body 55
Countries most represented Brazil, Germany, India, Japan, Mexico, Spain, UK, USA
Average number of languages spoken by a student 3.8

Spanish courses start at the beginning of September. Academic courses begin in October.

Classmates arrive everyday and Tessa and I have been joining them for dinner, drinks or at the beach. Some very interesting people so far.