Written by MBA student Michael Foster.

In the fall of 2014, I had the opportunity to study at IE Business School in Madrid. I recommend to anyone doing an MBA at USD to consider going abroad for a semester as the experience is invaluable to your studies and networking opportunities. The Ahler´s Center makes the transition almost seamless.

IE is ranked as one of the top business programs in Europe, so it attracts extremely diverse and talented students. The professors are a mix of academics and business professionals. Classes often have guest speakers that offer great insights into the European markets. Most recently we had speakers from Realza Capital and MasterCard.

View from Mike Foster’s balcony in Madrid

Living in Madrid has also been a great experience. It’s very pedestrian friendly with a great public transportation system. Gone are the days of sitting on the 5 to go a few miles. Madrid is a world-class city with a rich history. The architecture is amazing and the museum options are incredible. If you attend IE, I highly recommend living in either Malasaña or Chueca. Both these neighborhoods are centrally located and only a few metro stops from the school.

A big advantage of living in Madrid is that flights abroad are cheap. I had the opportunity to spend a week in Morocco. The culture in North Africa is almost the complete opposite of Spain’s, so it was a real eye opener. I spent a few days in Marrakech, Casablanca, and Rabat.

USD´s IE students in Morocco

If you are considering going abroad for a semester, I definitely recommend IE Business school. The courses I took while in Madrid were: Applied Corporate Finance, Private Equity and Financial Statements, Trillion Dollar Challenges, Bootstrapping for Startups, Corporate Governance, Bottom of the Pyramid, and War, Sales, and Marketing.

MBA Student Michael Foster