Denmark » Student Comments

Overall Value of Experience:

Summer

“I had a great time and would love to go to Denmark again. The people were amazing, and the city was beautiful.”

“I learned so much and the whole experience was exactly what I hoped for. I felt like I was at home in Copenhagen. I actually made more friends in those 6 weeks than I have in the last year here at the UO.”

“It was rewarding to meet people from all over the world and make good friends. My mind is more open now to different ideas and ways of living. I also am more respectful of others and their ideas.”

“I’d do it again in a heartbeat.”

“I am so thankful for this opportunity and hope other people will take advantage of it.”

Fall

“Words cannot really describe how great it was. It will be the best experience of college, hands down. I made memories and friends that I will have for the rest of my life. I now feel that I have a ‘home’ in Copenhagen and that is a great feeling. There is something about the experience of being abroad that is incomparable to anything else I have ever lived.”

“I gained a better perspective on the world; made great new friends; gained a feeling of self-reliance; had an adventure; and my addiction to travel was temporarily fulfilled.”

“I met new people, saw amazing sights, and have gained an entirely new perspective on the U.S.”

“I appreciated the opportunity to meet new friends. I am so much happier and more confident.”

“I met amazing people, many of them from the States, but also from all over the world. It’s amazing how easily you make friends when you are forced to live with them, eat with them, learn with them, and even travel with them. I have already planned to meet some friends I made over spring break over on the east coast. You also get to see parts of the world that not many people get to see. You get to live in a culture different from your own, and when you leave you have a new sense of achievement and confidence. I have become more confident in myself in terms of being able to go somewhere different from what I know and live it to the fullest.”

“It was the time of my life, thus far.”

“I now have a network of people and good friends all over the world. That has been the biggest benefit. I also think I really have opened my eyes to what it means to live in the U.S. and to really understand its benefits and negative aspects. I also have really grown up a lot as well as realized how much fun there is to be had.”

Academic Program

Summer Program

(UG) “The CBS academic program was much more intense than in the U.S. with presentations, a tremendous amount of reading, and an oral defense evaluation system. This was a positive experience because it helped me to thoroughly understand all material.”

(UG) “I had two American professors, so that was a bit disappointing. However, it was amazing to be in a class with students from all over the world! The Danish system seemed to be very organized. The students were also very disciplined. The classroom was a much more open type. Students spoke whenever they had questions. There were also lots of group work/presentations.”

(UG) “In the U.S. professors seem more willing to work one-on-one with students. I didn’t particularly like how everything was group work with so few assignments to determine your grade.”

(Grad) “The academic environment was good. The teachers were actually both from the US so their methods were similar to what I was used to. The class sizes were fairly small. The Global Value Chain class had less than 20 students. Both of my classes involved readings and one also had case studies. The one professor arranged for company visits which were optional, but I thought they were of great value. That was one of the best parts of the class. I thought the grading and exams were appropriate for the classes. Both classes involved group work where they stressed groups made up of students of different nationalities. The Danish grading system is very different from ours and it might be helpful in the future for students to have a translation of what the Danish grades would be in our system. The best part for me was meeting a lot of students from all over the world. I learned more about international business from them than from my classes. By having groups of students from different nationalities, I was able to ask my group members more about their home countries and what it was like there. My only real negative was that it was the rainiest summer in Denmark in 134 years. I had a wonderful time and I was really wishing I had gone to Denmark for the whole fall term instead of just the summer.”

Fall Program

“The environment is different. There seems to be less discussion and more lecture. There is only one test at the end and no other assignments. The class environment seems relaxed in ways that classes were often cancelled, and then nothing much said about it.” (Fall 06)

Living in Copenhagen

The City

“It is an amazing city. Everyone speaks English, and everyone is really nice! They offer to help you if you are holding a map and will give great directions. Also there were plenty of stores to by food at, and stores to shop at! The downtown area was very lively and perfect on a nice night to go to the canals! The city was very conducive to students without a car, as bikes and buses were every where!”

“I completely enjoyed the city of Copenhagen. I was fortunate enough to experience all that it had to offer from the beaches and nightlife to the shopping and castles.”

“Amazing! The Danish culture is so vibrant, and Copenhagen is filled with museums, parks, cafes and beautiful water. It was a perfect place to study.”

“I learned my way around the city quickly by use of public transit and would almost daily just wander around, either with friends or on my own to figure out more of it. Just like every city, it has its hidden parts that once you find them make you feel like a true Dane. It got to the point that when I would return from traveling, I would get to the airport and feel home. I never thought I would get to that point, but it didn’t take too long.”

“Copenhagen was a great place to study and after traveling around Europe, I think there are very few cities that would have created a better experience. The city is big, but not too big, and it has an amazing night life. There is an excellent public transportation network which makes it easy and relatively cheap to get around. I always felt very safe in the city, although it is a big city and has some of the normal problems. It is a very expensive city since the U.S. dollar is not very strong and they heavily tax everything.”

“Copenhagen was a great place. It is a very safe city and Denmark is a very internationally focused country. CBS had a big focus on international studies, especially for their summer program. About half of their students at any time are not from Denmark. It is a very good place for international studies.”

Accommodations

Summer

Holger Dankes Vej: an apartment building with single and double rooms like dorm rooms. Shared bathrooms with the next room or with your roommate if you were in a double. Shared kitchens on each floor. I would recommend it to anyone! There was big courtyard with picnic tables and BBQ’s. Also the rooms were pretty good size and really nice. Furniture was good too. Kitchens had everything we needed to cook. Also really close to school - just a 10 minute walk – and close to the metro to get to downtown.”

Apartment on A Boulevard: Nice location - 10 minutes to downtown by Metro. Really dirty though and the area had a lot of crime. If the apartments were maintained better it would be much more enjoyable.”

Porceleanshaven: “I really liked where I lived. It was clean and well organized. It was also very close to where my classes were. I had my own room with a kitchenette. It didn’t have an oven and if I were there longer, I would probably have liked to have an oven in my kitchen. Some of the other dorms had shared kitchens which other students said they really liked. For the most part, the dorm I lived in was pretty quiet. It felt very safe there and I did not worry about people trying to break in.”

Fall

Holger Dankes Vej: I lived in a residence that is much like an apartment complex with all CBS students. There were about 60 students (10 Americans; 50 international students). I shared a bathroom with a guy from Spain and one from India. 12 people shared a communal kitchen. It is fun to see how people cook, when they cook, and what they cook. It makes for good conversation, and it was a chance to practice my Spanish, as many Spaniards shared my kitchen.”

Svanevej: Noisy, dirty, in the worst neighborhood in Copenhagen. Our rent was 2x normal market rate. I would not live there again. The internet malfunctioned almost every night and was slow.”

“Living in a dorm atmosphere was a challenging adjustment in the beginning until I found my niche.”

Katrine Kollegiat: “I had basically a small studio apartment but it was set up like a dorm room. It was outstanding because it allowed me to meet a lot of people and the rooms were very new and very clean. My living arrangement really made my stay in Copenhagen so much better and it really created a great opportunity to socialize on a regular basis. The big negative was the fact that it was extremely expensive.”

Extracurricular Activities

Summer

“The social program was very neat! They had activities every week and sent out reminder emails. They had things from soccer games to day trips to weekend trips. It was really cool, but you had to pay to get a pass to go to everything. They also had nights out at bars, and dinners.” (Summer 07)

“The social program at CBS is fantastic. There were activities to museums, cities, Viking ships, gardens every week. This kept me so busy.” (Summer 06)

“The school arranged for a summer social program that involved various activities: A midsummer party with a bonfire, a tour of Copenhagen, a canal tour, a visit to Christiania, folk dancing, a movie night, an international dinner night, various trips around Denmark, and even a trip to Berlin. There is a lot to do in Copenhagen. I didn’t have any trouble finding things to do. The social program was great and I found I was making friends with people I kept doing events with.”

Fall

“I found it hard to get involved through the school, but outside of school, we managed to put together soccer games with many CBS students. It is fun to play soccer and be the only American on the team. I recommend bringing soccer shoes if you have them and plan on participating.”

Finances

“The city is very expensive! You have to be careful how much you spend, because you don’t realize how much everything is until you keep running out of money!”

“Copenhagen is very expensive. Plan to pay $5-6 for a coffee.”

“At the time I was in Copenhagen, it was the third most expensive city in the world. The second night made me realize that when I had to spend about $9 for a single beer. You had to allocate your money at times and go a cheaper route if you could. I made most of my own meals, which saved me from spending money going out for food, but other than that, you get to a point where you feel you need to just suck it up, because you will never be there again.”

“It was a very expensive place to live but there were probably cheaper ways to do things. I chose to fly everywhere I went which added cost to my traveling.”

On-Site Support

Fall

“I didn’t have many problems, but the staff in the CBS International Office were always helpful if I did. They also did a lot to make sure that everything went smoothly through the whole process.”

“I couldn’t have done it without the CBS International Office, plus they had all of these amazing activities which helped facilitate interaction and meeting people.”

Campus Contacts

Click on the name of your University for contact information.

* Also serves as the program Coordinator/Assistant.

Downloads

• Program Application
• Denmark Program Handbook
• This is Something Else
• Denmark Slideshow

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