Category Archives: Nashville

My name is Klemens Anderl. I am Austrian and currently in the second year of my master program at the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration. I had the pleasure to come to Owen Graduate School of Management in the fall semester of 2012. Here, I will give you insights on what I experienced, how I learned to adjust to the Tennessean lifestyle and most importantly, how I fell in love with it.

Getting started

Students from all over the world come to Nashville for an exchange semester at the various different schools of the Vanderbilt University. As honoring and exciting as this may be it still requires students to leave their homes, friends, and family for a while. Luckily, the various institutions at the university and especially at Owen help the exchange students deal with these sometimes demanding changes.

During my undergraduate program I spent another semester abroad (namely in St. Petersburg, Russia). Therefore I knew before coming to Owen what would make life easier in the first couple of weeks. Students have to deal with issues like accommodation (was fairly easy here in Nashville but more on that later). Also, grade translations or other paperwork like health care details may turn into bureaucratic nightmares that last for weeks. Not so at Owen! One of the best things about Owen is its intentional smallness. The school emphasizes that it cares about each and every individual and by keeping the number of students fairly small this promise can actually be kept.