If you are studying a program or even selective courses at LUSEM, you might have thought about what to do during your fifth semester. During this period, students are relatively free to study or work with something of their choice. But being free with unlimited possibilities could also make one feel lost. What should I do with this opportunity? What are my interests? To find your way out of this jungle of paths and choices, keep on reading this little guide!

Go abroad

The first alternative is to go abroad.  If you are studying your second or third semester, you might even be about to apply. The application period is open between October 25-November 15th. Lund University has exchange agreements with over 500 partner universities in around 70 countries all over the world, which is both amazing – but also gives you a lot of work to do in investigating all your alternatives! Speaking as one with a stressful experience, I strongly recommend you to start your research in good time for November 15th.

Dreaming of a special school or country could also be a good motivation to raise your grades if you are a student doing your first or second semester – with good grades and a well written letter of purpose, your chances increase to get applied. In January, a lot of my friends will go on an exchange semester to places such as Canada, Amsterdam, Barcelona and Australia. I was going to study at McGill (Montreal) but decided not to go. Instead, I applied for an…

Internship

Doing an Internship is your second alternative.As mentioned, I applied to go abroad. I did all of the paperwork almost one year ago in October 2022 during my second semester. Some weeks later, in December, the results arrived – I was accepted to go to McGill! I jumped up from my chair in Studiecentrum and danced around with my friend who also had found out that she was going to Sydney.

Fast forward to June 2022. I was not that sure if I wanted to go to Canada anymore, and had started to think about doing an internship. Since I’ve studied without a break since I started preschool, I was curious about the real working life. After several interviews, I got accepted to a really interesting internship in Stockholm where I will work from January till March. If you choose to do an internship within Ekon.kand, be aware that you only can do 15 hp (half a semester) if you stay in Sweden during your internship. The remaining 15 hp you will have to take courses. However, if you find an internship abroad, you can go for a full semester (30 hp). And if you are studying your fourth semester right now, there is still time to get your internship. The last day to apply to the internship course (FEKH01) is december 14th. 

Selective courses

Your third alternative is to take courses of your choice. And there are lots of interesting ones! You could do something more crazy and read Rhetorics or maybe or maybe German, but you could also keep on developing your economic skills and study something such as Statistics, Brand Management or read about Development economics.

To sum up, your fifth semester gives you a chance to study or work with something that you are really interested in learning more about. To find your own way out of this jungle, you need to sit down and think through which path you want to take. Like an explorer in the jungle, you need to investigate and lastly choose the path you believe is right. Unlike in a real jungle, I’m quite sure that everyone will find their way out in the end – but make sure to take this opportunity and choose a path that you find interesting!!

OBS:

• I cannot 100% guarantee that the dates above are correct.