Business/Business and French?

I can definately recommend European Business. Warning: I'm bored at work, this may be long :pac: but hope it helps!

Firstly, it's a double degree. You do four years, two in DCU and two abroad - two years abroad is something rare as is, but here you study for the same length as any other course and walk away with two degrees. One from DCU and one from whichever country you choose to study in.

The course and DCU are apart of the International Partnership of Business Schools, an organisation which brings together some of the best business schools/courses worldwide in a double degree course. At present there are ten members;
England: Lancaster
France: CESEM in Reims (Very well known there)
Spain: ICADE in Madrid (Very well known there)
USA: NEU in Boston (Well known there)
Germany: ESB Reutlingen (Very well known there)
Italy: UCSC Piacenza
Mexico: Puebla
Netherlands: ASIS Breda
Poland: Krakow

So what does this mean? It's possible to do a double degree in DCU with Spain, France, Germany and the USA, other universities have other options, but every year there's an event called the International Business Weekend, all these universities come together in a resort, with the alumni, and well... Celebrate (~800 students + 200 alumni for 3 days..!) and network. So think of the IPBS and IBWE as a huge possibility to network, which can come in handy... Trust me!

Ontop of this you have two periods of paid work placement, one in Ireland and one abroad in the second half of your course. Not only fills the coffers before you go abroad, but gives you work experience in two countries and in your main foreign langauge.

As for how hard it is, it's like any other course - you're good at what you like, and need to work at where you're bad. Ontop of that, yes maybe the two years abroad may be hard, firstly it's all through another langauge and secondly your weekly hours jump up from 15 hours a week in DCU to over 30 hours a week in most universities, your workload increases and exams become that little bit more serious, however in fairness looking at what I wrote above, is it not worth it?

Quick summary: Two degrees, fluency in a foreign language (that an erasmus year wouldn't give), two paid work placements in two countries, an insane party/networking weekend and a tight nit alumni/student networking community!

Hope you enjoyed my gigantic essay, and hope it helps you decide!

Edit: If you decide not to do 4th year abroad, you do not get two degrees. Not sure about CESEM, but 3rd year is very, very hard in Germany while you spend the second semester + summer working, and 4th year gets quite relaxed. It makes no sense, at least for the German course, to go through this punishment then go home and forego the second degree.

Edit2: To sweeten the deal, you get two grants from the EU.

An Citeog wrote: »

If I was to do it all again, I'd definitely choose EB. I did IBL instead because I wanted to do 2 languages. It worked out perfectly for me in the end though, so I can't really complain.

Know a lot of IBLs, what languages did you end up taking/where did you go on Erasmus? :pac:

Yeah, it's irritating how you can't take two languages in EB, the foreign students study through English and can learn Spanish, French or German, but apart from Transatlantic EB, you can't.

Of course... Nothing stops you from just going to those lectures but, meh.

However, in your last two years it depends on your university. ESB Reutlingen offers Spanish ab initio, Italian ab initio and French intermediate.

I want to take French, but I can't due to the level, not bothered with Spanish, so that leaves me learning Italian. Which I'm already looking forward to, é buona!

Thanks for all the advice, it's my 1st choice so fingers crossed!
Thanks Liopleurodon and bella21!

No problem; good luck!