Hallo folks!

It is 15 May 2025 and the preparation for the fall semester has already started. So I thought I would start writing this post from now instead of waiting till the semester ends so that I don’t miss out on any small details.

A short intro: I am part of the PGDM-IB program at MDI, which is a dual-degree programme between MDI and ESCP Business School, Europe. We spend one year at MDI, India and another year at ESCP in 2 different campuses. For general details of this arrangement, you can read this article, if you want to know more about academics of spring semester and internship details, you may read this one.

This post will solely focus on the academics and related info of the fall semester.

1. The ESCP-MDI Arrangement

The arrangement between MDI and ESCP is that we as exchange students need to do two semesters at ESCP. One semester will be a specialization-based semester (check this out), another would be a free-track semester where we just take a bunch of electives (and not specialization). Some of us got specializations in the spring semester (Jan - April 2025), so the fall (Sep - Dec 2025) would be a free-track semester for us. For some it is the other way round - where they do a free-track semester in spring and take up a specialization in Fall. Also note that the free-track semester is always in Paris, the specialization can be in ANY campus (based on what you choose and what you get, I had gotten it in Berlin campus).

Because my spring semester was in Berlin, there can be some details related to that here, but hardly any because I have ensured most of the details are generic and pertain only to free-track fall semester (which will always be in Paris campus).

2. VISA for the fall semester

I have a German visa from 01 Jan 2025 till 31 August 2025. I need to apply for a France visa for 4 months. I plan to do it once my housing for this summer is sorted. Post that this section will be updated with details.

2. Selecting free-track electives

Around the end of the spring semester (April 1st/2nd week), we got a notification that we will get an opportunity to choose the free-track electives for the next semester.

In our case, the selection portal opened on 12 May 2025 and was open for 2 days (until noon of 14 May 2025).

Unfortunately, we won’t be allotted whatever electives we put as priority, the allotment is based on several factors. We were told previously that allotment is based on MDI merit rank (with rank with which you got the PGDM-IB MDI seat, which is an internal rank maintained by MDI and probably handed over to ESCP, I am not sure of this though). In official emails by ESCP on the free-track semester, they clearly mention that the course allotment depends on the percentile and seat availability. I am aware that ESCP maintains the ranks/percentiles of every MiM student, so definitely even ours. And the spring semester results are already out, so we would also be present in the ESCP rank/percentile list somewhere. So it is very much possible that this can also be used for allotment.

Adding to that, it should be noted that the final placements generally start in October/November. So idea is to take the courses in such a way that we can go back to MDI/India in October/early November, so that we don’t miss out on any company.

A short note on the number of courses to take: Entire ESCP exchange year demands us to take 300 hours worth courses. In the specialization semester, one is generally done with 180 hours worth courses (120h of specialization, rest 60h covered through core courses). So in the free-track, we are to take courses worth 120 hours.

Here is a list of type of courses offered for free-track:

  1. 30 hour offline course (15 Sep 2025 - 19 Dec 2025): Entirely offline including examination
  2. 30 hour online course (15 Sep 2025 - 19 Dec 2025): Entirely online including examination
  3. 15 hour offline course (15 Sep 2025 - 24 Oct 2025 OR 24 Oct 2025 - 19 Dec 2025): Entirely offline including examination
  4. 15 hour online course (15 Sep 2025 - 24 Oct 2025 OR 24 Oct 2025 - 19 Dec 2025 ): Entirely online including examination

Add to that a clause which lets us to take only 50% of course hours to be online (that is a maximum of 60 hours can be online, rest has to be offline).

If we are to go back early November, it is obvious that we don’t take/get 30 hour offline courses because it ends in December, we need to take combination of the rest of the courses. As of now, I have chosen 4 15-hour offline courses and 2 30-hour online courses as my top preference and rest as substition choices.

This section will be updated post allotment.

3. Conclusion

There are a lot of details missing in this post, will be updated as and when time permits and I go through a certain process.

Cheers,
Adwaith