This article is dedicated to Rennes School of Business (RSB) and will cover student life, facilities, and classes. I know that I had many questions before I arrived at RSB, and so I hope that this article helps fill any prospective students/readers in on the different aspects of the school.
What is Rennes School of Business?
Initially founded in the 1990s as ESC Rennes (École Supérieure de Commerce Rennes), RSB is a grande école, an institution separate from the public university system in France. A good analogy for the French grande écoles would be the Ivy League in the United States.
Rennes School of Business has many global partner universities including UH Manoa.
In France, everyone is entitled to study at a public university, and there are no requirements for entry. That means that regardless of performance, anyone can enter the university system. Proponents will argue that it democratizes access to higher education for all French citizens. Still, critics will point to the 40% dropout rate, overcrowding, and funding issues as limitations or downsides of the public university system in France.
In contrast, grandes écoles are selective, and most French students will take two years of prépas (preparatory schools/classes) to have a chance at passing a competitive entrance exam and getting in. Given the English language and international dimension at RSB, I am told by my classmates that you also need to pass an interview in English and score a certain level on the TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) in order to be considered for entry. Almost all exchange students need to score a certain level for TOEFL/IELTS, though students from predominantly Anglophone countries do not need to take it.
What are the food options available on campus?
Unfortunately, RSB does not have a ton of food options on campus. There is the cafeteria, which serves a daily menu consisting of a main dish with the opportunity to add on a side/dessert, and a café, which serves a set menu (usually sandwiches, cookies, croissants, beignets, etc). This is in contrast to the University of Hawaii at Manoa and many other American universities, which may have dozens of food options on campus. That said, I found the lunch served at RSB to be of relatively high quality. When I first arrived in Rennes, I had the culture shock of eating a school lunch with a ceramic plate and silverware.
Since you are usually allotted 2 hours for lunch, you might opt to go to Resto U' Le Métronome, which is a large pantry/kitchen that provides relatively cheap (3.20 euro) lunches in Villejean (a neighborhood of Rennes). There are also some food options along Rue St. Malo. Grand Quartier, a large commercial center located in the nearby town of Saint-Grégoire has a variety of food options about a 15-20 minute walk away. You may even decide to take the metro (the nearest station is about a 10-15 minute walk from the school) and go to Saint-Anne (city center) which has various food options as well.
How are the classes/teaching?
Classes are taught similarly to American universities like UH. Larger courses have lecture sessions (cours magistral) where the instructor provides material and information and then workshops (travaux dirigés) where you work in smaller groups and discuss the material more in-depth. You participate in activities in both types of classes, and teamwork is highly incentivized through group presentations and other collaborations.
One thing that I needed to adjust to was how long the courses were. Most classes were 3 hours. So if you had 3 classes that day, you were looking at around 9 hours of classes (or perhaps 6.5 hours of classes if the scheduling team was feeling sympathetic).
Generally speaking, I found the classes to be of high quality and rigor. Oftentimes, you were challenged to consider your responses to questions and be more analytical when it came to building an argument. I also particularly felt that a lot of my Analytics courses were cutting edge, as we discussed marketing campaigns that happened 2 months ago, referenced new academic material that came in 2022, and used relevant analytics tools such as R/R Studio and SPSS. If you are an incoming senior at UH, then you will be placed in the exchange program level 4, which is equivalent to year 2 of the PGE (Programme Grande Ecole), a graduate-level program.
Aloha Square
Aloha Square is the Student Support Center. You can go into the office and ask any questions you might have or work on your schedule. The people that I talked with were very helpful and they are more or less fluent in English as well. If you aren't able to go in physically, then you can always email the office and they will get back to you.
You can contact them at aloha@rennes-sb.com.
Here's a pic of me posing in front of the square. I always found it novel how they called it "Aloha" Square.
Student Life
Although academics are taken seriously given the selectiveness of the school, students still have the opportunity to take part in different events. French YouTuber Inoxtag made an in-depth video on the different dimensions of RSB. I actually found it to be pretty accurate to the student experience and my Strategy Analytics teacher even features it briefly near the end of the video (51:57). He also shows certain classrooms and different scenes around campus. The school approved it for marketing use and he even mentions in the video that RSB was the only school in France that let him film. You can view it below if you wish (it comes with English subtitles):
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