NOVA School of Business and Economics From Ali Burak Serin

Ali Burak Serin
Aug 30, 2017
5 min read

About accomodation, does the university have any dorms for students or do students have to find accomodation on their own? If the university has the accomodation opportunity for students, is it easy to get into the dorms? If the student has to find on his/her own, is there any easy way to search it such as site, application or anything else.

In regards to accommodation, the university unfortunately did not have any student dorms which meant we students had to arrange our own. Despite that we were given a PDF of the places we could look into from the CEMS office, the language barrier sometimes made it difficult to communicate with the landlords. More guidance on this area could have been helpful, in matching the students with the right accommodation.

For students, in order to have no problem while they are going to university, which places would you recommend them to find room?

I would recommend them to be around the Sao Sebastiao and the Saldanha area which is where the school is. Both of these locations are on the red line of the metro and are close proximity to school. Despite that these places are half an hour away from the city centre, I would recommend students to be closer to university than the city centre because it takes a long time to get to university during rush hours from town.

According to classes in Koç University, do you think the university you went was harder or not? How many courses you recommend them to take to prevent any difficulty?

According to classes at Koc University, I would say the difficulty of classes are very similar. However, more emphasis is placed on teamwork for the majority of classes. I would advise students to limit their class selection to 4 classes per semester.

Do you think the campus utilities were satisfied? Why?

I was extremely disappointed with the campus utilities as I found them to be very unsatisfactory and below par. Before going to this university, I had the impression that this would be a campus university with facilities that would enable me to familiarize myself with the school surroundings as well as socialize with students. However, not only was there not even a gym at this school, the school only has 2 very poorly maintained cafeterias, an average library that has strict working hours and poor condition of classes which are often very small and uncomfortable. In addition, I have found it extremely difficult to find study rooms during exam times. Overall, very disappointing but I am hoping that all of this will be taken care of when students move to the new campus set to open in two years time.

As a student who live in the city that the university is located, how is the life around the city?

As a student who has the privilege to live in Lisbon for 4 months, I would say the city is very nice to live in which has everything you can ever ask for. Contrary to many contemporary European capitals, Lisbon I would say has remained very traditional with its historic architecture yet the capital has that artsy energy and vibe which makes it exciting to live in.

What do you think about students clubs? Did you join any of them? Which one is your favorite?

I thought the students clubs was very poor with exception of the CEMS club which was relatively okay. As a CEMS student, I joined the CEMS community and this has enabled me to get to know other CEMS students. However, not having any other student clubs in the university made it increasingly difficult for me to socialize with other students, especially Portuguese ones.

Could you tell us about the cafes and dining centers in the university? Did you find any Turkish Restaurant next to the university or in the city?

The cafes and dining centers in the university was very limited with only 2 cafes in the whole campus. Though meals were very cheap, there was not too much variety and the facilities of these cafes was poor.

How was the library? Is it easy to find a spot in average day or in the exam week? What kind of utilities has the library? If anyone wants somewhere except the library, what woulf you recommend them?

Though the library at the university is nice with a very high ceiling and traditional architecture, it is very small when compared to other universities which often made it hard to find a seat. However, the biggest problem of the library was the closing hours which was at 20:00 during weekdays. This made it super frustrating to study when students wanted to stay until late and study.

Does the university have any spor clubs? What kind of sports are famous and fun to play in the university? Is there any swimming pool?

I have not looked too much into sports clubs but even if there were, there was no real hype about it. I have not seen any swimming pool.

If anyone wants to play instrument, could they find any place easily? Is there any instruments that are taught during the semester?

I do not play a musical instrument so this once again was not my area of interest.

For the courses, do we need to buy books or is it any cheaper way to get it?

For most of the courses, there are mandatory core class textbooks which should be purchased my students. The library has these books but they have limited copies so the best option is to buy them online for cheap.

Is there any health clinics in the university? What can students in case of emergency or injury?

There were health clinics in the university with dedicated staff.

Is there any bank automat in the campus? What does a student do if they wanna have bank account? Does it necessary? Do locals in the university area mostly use credit card or cash? Is it necessary to bring some cash with us?

The school did not per se have a bank in campus but had a Multibanco ATM which makes it possible to take cash our without having to pay interest. I would recommend students to either use an international bank account or use local Portuguese banks as some restaurants only accept local cards.

During the Visa application, do you have any recommendations or something that is not easily found online that you may share with other students to help them out in this long process? Which parts do students need to focus on?

I would advise students to apply early for visa as the process may take longer than expected which may result in missing important classes in the beginning of term.