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Universität St. Gallen (UNIVERSITY OF ST. GALLEN)

Overall Reviews
3.96 / 5 based on 298 reviews
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Useful  |  6
Student s
Universität St. Gallen, Sankt Gallen, Switzerland
Economics, Graduate, Independent
Overall
I wish I had known...
Had to hire a lawyer against the university I see that my previous review has been removed. Thus I repost it. If it is removed again, then I will post it again. I will also post it elsewhere to make sure it remains visible. Enrolled in a full-time master, I had completed all the courses and the supplementary work and was on my way to complete my master within 2 years. After one year and a half, I was ready to start working on my thesis. I found a way to do a thesis for a company. The dean of the school of finance at that time accepted to be my supervisor. And the problems started. My supervisor never reviewed the subject that I was given by the company. He signed the thesis form without specifying any thesis title. I sent him an e-mail with the subject as given by the company, he never replied, he never commented. He would grant me interviews, but when I was going to his office he suddenly had to look at his calendar, had no time anymore and each time rushed the matter in half a minute. As a result, I resorted to only exchange with him through e-mails. His feedback was always "everything is fine, keep going". However, I quickly found myself in distress, because there was very little understanding of the requirements for a thesis at the company. I e-mailed my supervisor several times, but he kept answering me to continue and refused to look seriously at the matter. I shared several times with him that I had not enough material to write a thesis, but he always rejected my feedback. Meanwhile, his feedback was not coherent with the thesis subject. Later, I asked him for a change of thesis title, which he agreed. The thesis was now focusing mainly on accounting. Clearly, he is not qualified to supervise such subject. He clearly had no idea what the topic was about. He even told to follow the guidance of my supervisor at the company. I had no other supervisor than him. I was planning to complete the thesis in 5 months. But because I was struggling to get enough material and because I was facing the university' bureaucracy, I kept working on it for another semester. About to submit my thesis, I asked my supervisor what grade I would get. He told me "it would not pass". For 8 months, the supervisor had been telling me that everything was fine. And suddenly the thesis was not what he was expecting. Besides, I had been telling him several times that I was experiencing difficulties with this thesis, he never reacted. Discussing with him, he told me that he would grade the thesis with the minimum passing mark. But how do you want to trust somebody who is displaying such a fluctuating judgment? Upset, I went to my programme director. Previous attempts with the administration had been sterile, bureaucracy. Now, there are university regulations....
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In my opinion:
I loved it but I'm not sure everybody would.
Important factors in my choice
(1) Unimportant – (4) Very important
Academic reasons
3
Culture
2
Costs
2
Activities
2
Campus life
2
Party / people
2
Weather / location
3
Personal recommendation
University not serious, I should have gone to Zürich, administrative mistakes, poorly organised. Theoritical courses, difficult to apply, programmed supposed to be done in one year and a half, many students do it in 4 years, thus no difference between good and poor students
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During my experience abroad, I ...
(1) Never – (4) A lot
Became familiar with another culture
3
Traveled
3
Improved language skills
3
Met people from other countries
3
Became more independent
2
Partied a lot
2
Experienced a change in life
2
Advanced my studies & career
1
Final comments
If I were to do it again, I would pick another university
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Useful  |  2
Edit S
ISC - Budapest University of Economic Sciences, Budapest, Hungary
Management Science, Graduate, University Agreement
Overall
I wish I had known...
That usually they do not turn on the heating during the night, and it is quite freezing here.
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In my opinion:
Everybody loved it, you will too!
Important factors in my choice
(1) Unimportant – (4) Very important
Academic reasons
4
Culture
4
Costs
2
Activities
3
Campus life
2
Party / people
2
Weather / location
3
Personal recommendation
If someone is studing Finance it is a great place to go to. However they have been loosing some professors.
Read more >
During my experience abroad, I ...
(1) Never – (4) A lot
Became familiar with another culture
2
Traveled
2
Improved language skills
2
Met people from other countries
3
Became more independent
4
Partied a lot
4
Experienced a change in life
3
Advanced my studies & career
4
Final comments
Have a clear idea what you would like to achive with your exchange semester. There are a lot of Parties, ofcourse not as much as in a Country located Southern Europe. For skiing it is great but quite expensive. Travelling is better by car, train is also quite expensive. The Halb Abo (half price travelling) and after 7 travelling for free is worth to consider buying, but they are both around 150-200 CHF for a year. For a group of people travelling by car is better. However, watch out for the funny parking system in St.Gallen. It is better to find a house with a Private Parking place on the first place. Otherwise it is 26CHF/month in the district where you live. And it is not a definite parking place. It is only the Blue Zone.
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Useful  |  1
Doris L
Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien, Vienna, Austria
Accountancy, Undergraduate, Erasmus
Overall
I wish I had known...
no, i received enough information through my home university and the guest university
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In my opinion:
Everybody loved it, you will too!
Important factors in my choice
(1) Unimportant – (4) Very important
Academic reasons
4
Culture
2
Costs
2
Activities
2
Campus life
2
Party / people
2
Weather / location
3
Personal recommendation
don't take too much courses. most of them are difficult and studying is not the most important thing during an exchange semester
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During my experience abroad, I ...
(1) Never – (4) A lot
Became familiar with another culture
2
Traveled
3
Improved language skills
3
Met people from other countries
4
Became more independent
4
Partied a lot
4
Experienced a change in life
3
Advanced my studies & career
3
Final comments
although our kitchen was never clean, it was quite fun to live together with so many party people
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Useful  |  0
Peder S
Norwegian School of Management BI, Oslo, Norway
Business Studies, Undergraduate, Erasmus
Overall
I wish I had known...
Nothing. Things are more exiting when they come as a surprise to you
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In my opinion:
I loved it but I'm not sure everybody would.
Important factors in my choice
(1) Unimportant – (4) Very important
Academic reasons
3
Culture
4
Costs
2
Activities
4
Campus life
3
Party / people
4
Weather / location
2
Personal recommendation
Have a good structure to what you need to do, and then it will be fine.
Read more >
During my experience abroad, I ...
(1) Never – (4) A lot
Became familiar with another culture
4
Traveled
2
Improved language skills
4
Met people from other countries
4
Became more independent
3
Partied a lot
4
Experienced a change in life
4
Advanced my studies & career
3
Final comments
go some time before the school start. Then you get the opportunity to travel and experience the counrty in good time. after the school starts, there will be a lot to read.
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Useful  |  4
Peter V
Washington & Lee University, Lexington, VA, United States
Business Studies, Undergraduate, Independent
Overall
I wish I had known...
That everyone in the world knows American universities (Yale, Harvard, Princeton, Stanford) for a reason. They're simply better than any others. And that you had to sign up for tests in order to be able to take them...
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In my opinion:
Most people loved it.
Important factors in my choice
(1) Unimportant – (4) Very important
Academic reasons
3
Culture
2
Costs
1
Activities
1
Campus life
1
Party / people
1
Weather / location
4
Personal recommendation
I said most people loved it because most people did. I guess ignorance is bliss, because these kids don't know what they're missing in the USA. My first semester was quite an eye-opener. Not because of the normal occurrence of culture-shock (I've lived in Switzerland once before, for a year) or that I got to know so many people from different countries, but because I learned how DIFFERENT universities in Europe are than in America. Essentially, if you're a European student, you can ignore most of what I've said in this whole review; you'll probably love this place. However, if you're an American student, I'd think twice (and twice more, and twice more...) about choosing the University of St. Gallen.
Read more >
During my experience abroad, I ...
(1) Never – (4) A lot
Became familiar with another culture
3
Traveled
3
Improved language skills
3
Met people from other countries
4
Became more independent
1
Partied a lot
3
Experienced a change in life
4
Advanced my studies & career
1
Final comments
Hard to sum up. It's hard to believe that the university is much different than how I've protrayed it, since I don't think I was just unlucky about a thousand times. As I said, the quality of the courses at the university is good, and the area is pretty beautiful as well, but the whole time you'll be battling arrogance (whether it's the people themselves or the university), which is not conducive to a good academic experience. If you want to go to a place which will undoubtedly make you rethink your plans of living and working in Europe/Switzerland after college, go here.
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Useful  |  1
Meh, an okay experience but not worth it
Anonymous
United States, Graduate
, 2019
Overall
My overall international experience here was rather underwhelming. Have in mind that my experience is just one of the many at that university, so it's not completely damning of the place. 

Course quality was probably the most redeeming aspect of this university, as the education I found to be top tier. Courses were hard but lectures and teaching methods provided the necessary tools to pass them. Examination was a bit whacky specially because of the whole sign-up process, but it was fine. 

Saint Gallen as a whole is a cozy little city, with not that much to do, so it's up to the students to make the most our of their experience. International students have to mostly do this on their own since locals go to their hometowns on the weekends, so the city is rather empty when you have free time. The BuddySystem works to an extent, but most of the locals involved don't really take responsibility for their assigned students, so it's mostly the core members of the system that you get to meet. However, the events are the saving grace since it's where international students mingle. It's recommended to look for University clubs that interact with other universities (specially in Zurich). I found myself mostly just going to Zurich in the weekends for parties with the people I met out of uni, or traveling. 

Students at St.Gallen are okay I guess. Most kept to themselves as Swiss people do and that is completely fine. Only ran into a few elitists that were quickly dismissed, the rest of the people were nice I suppose. I only made one significant friendship with a local student from the university. The rest were international students (which made the whole experience bearable).

My biggest gripe with the University was housing. Avoid the housing office at all costs. There's a Facebook group where you can find cheap and nice housing in St.Gallen and it will forever haunt me that I did not use it. The housing office was the biggest reason my stay wasn't as pleasant, since the other problems I mentioned had solutions if you were up for it.
The housing office claims they find the most affordable and fair apartments for students. However, their rent prices are insane and not justified. Most people were absolutely dissatisfied with the housing office, since it was crazy expensive, small, and not even close to the University. 
When comparing costs with the people that used the Facebook group for housing, we found out just how much we had been ripped off. They were living in apartments 2-3x the size, at half our rent. And they didn't even have to pay the expensive upfront 250 USD fee that the housing office charges just for finding you an apartment (they charge fees for absolutely everything). 
You'd think that with these ridiculous prices and such, at least the apartments would be in good conditions. Mine for example, was an absolute mess upon arrival, to the point we complained about it. Things were broken, and they either took the longest time to fix them, or just straight up never did. 
The housing office just takes advantage of the international students in every way possible, and it was very upsetting. I haven't even mentioned half of the terrible things they did, but I think I've said enough to get my point across. Just avoid it.

In general, the University of St.Gallen is a decent international experience. But I don't think decent should be the word used to describe something as significant as an exchange semester. I'd suggest looking for other universities if you want a more exciting and worthwhile international experience (and cheaper).
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Pros
Quality education. Lots of international students make for a good cultural experience. Plenty of traveling options.
Cons
Small party scene. Housing office preys on the naivety of international students.
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