Moving to Barcelona? Watch out!

So I'm starting to look for a flat in Barcelona, as we move there this summer. I look in various websites and send emails inquiring about properties.
Some of the answers are ok. However, most of them are a new (?) kind of fraud, whose purpose is to steal your "security deposit" money and disappear.

I managed to identify some recurring details that can be found in the fraud emails:
1. Very bad English, looks like an automatic translator gone mad
2. He speaks about him moving with his family to West-Africa
3. He asks for weird details about you and your family (do you party a lot, do you drink alcohol..)
4. He talks about god (!)
5. He says that money doesn't count
6. The rent price is very low

if you see these details in an email, watch out!


One of the emails I got:

Hello,
It is my pleasure that you are interested in my house.Thanks for your email and it is my gladness hearing from you.Thanks for the email and also Yes, I am Mr.John Movic. I owned the house and also it is situated at Address: 162 Provenca, Barcelona 08036, Spain.
Actually I resided in the house with my family such as my wife and my only daughter before and presently we had packed due to my transfer from my working place and now situated in the (West Africa) and presently my house is still available for rent for(600Euro per week) including the utilities like hydro,washer and security. Moreso Now, i went for a Work Transfer .Pleases i want you to note that,i am a kind and honest man and also i spent alot on my property that i want to give you for rent,so i will solicit for your absolute maintenance of this house and want you to treat it as your own, money is not the main problem but want you to keep it tidy all the time so that i will be glad to see it neat when i come for a check up, i do that once in a while.I also want you to let me have trust in you as i always stand on my word. And the below is the final question that you must answer to qualify for this the rent of my house? Moreso,Hope you have a nice working day and your lovely family,Infact i will like to meet all of you when coming to visit you soonest.A deposit of (500Euro ) must be made for the security deposit.It is also understood that if this application is accepted the security deposit shall be refunded to the applicant.Upon acceptance, this deposit shall be retained as the security deposit.. When so approved and accepted, I agree to execute a lease for ___________ months before possession is given and to pay the balance of the security deposit (500Euro)prior to the move in date. If you are not approved or accepted by me, the deposit will be refunded, the application hereby waiving any claim for damages by reason of non-acceptance which i may reject. This inquiry includes information as to my character, general reputation, personal characteristics and mode of living.Bellow is the tenant rent application form:


Address: 162 Provenca, Barcelona 08036, Spain

Also,Pls answer these questions below:


======= RENT APPLICATION FORM=======

(1)Your Full Name_____________________

(2)Present Addre(where you reside now &Phone#__________

(3)How old are you __________________________

___

(4)Are you married _______________________

(5)How many people will be livingintheflat_______________
(6)Do you have a pet_______________________

(7)Do you have a car ________________________________

(8)Occupation_________________________________

(9)How long are you willing to stay______________________

(10) 1 or 2 month deposit needed___________________

Looking forward to hear from you with all this details so that i can have it in my file incase of issuing the receipt in your name and contacting you.Await your urgent reply so that we can discuss on how to get the documents and the keys to you,please we are giving you all this based on trust and again i want you to stick to your words,We are putting everything into Gods hand,so please do not let us down in this property of ours and God bless you more as you do this,you can call me #(+2348035465664).
Regards.
Mr.John Movic.

I'm in!

Just received the great news from IESE, I'm in!

I'm so excited!!!! After having called family and friends, I'm off to the gym to run 10km in order to calm down a bit.

Updates

IESE - Interviewed this week, went OK I think, waiting for a final decision in about a week.

ESADE - Got an interview invite yesterday, will interview next month.

HEC - Waiting with sending the application until I know what's going on with IESE.

INSEAD ding

Got the ding from INSEAD.. What an emotional rollercoaster. :(

Anyway, I can't change their decision so no need to waste energy on that. I now need to prepare extremelly well for my IESE interviews, less than three weeks from now.

IESE Update

Got an interview invite from IESE :)

I'll be attending the upcoming open day (Nov. 24) and will have my interviews there.

IESE Application sent two minutes ago

After doing some last minute changes to my CV, cosmetic changes mostly, I sent my IESE app. Crossing fingers now.

On the INSEAD front, BusinessWeek MBA forums report that some candidates are already receiving interview invites (two weeks before official deadline for interview notification). I'm hitting on the "check mail" button as fast as I can, but no love yet from the Fonty dudes... THE PRESSURE!

Good Luck to everyone who applied for R1!

Why French Public Universities Suck

(A non-MBA related post for a change)

I've been studying for 3 years in a French public university. The institution in which I study is famous in France and is considered one of the best in its area in Europe. Because of that, the surprise that I had when I started attending the university was huge. The university is so badly managed, and the classes are so weak, that I wonder how any French descent researcher ever came out from this institute and others alike.

Let me explain why.

1. Student acceptance and success rate in studies: French public universities are "democratic". That means that anyone can just sign up to a university, the only demand is that he has finished his high-school education successfully. Let me repeat that: no entry exams, no application to send, no recommandation letters, no interviews, nothing! although this idea is great in theory, it sucks in reality. Students have to do zero effort before attending university, so a lot of them just attend default universities because that's what everyone else does. They have no motivation, and remain in their high-school state of mind. You can see them in amphis talking loudly with friends, or on the phone. They are there because they didn't know what to do in life after high-school, and it was so easy to attend university and make daddy and mommy shut up.

Beside the obvious consequence of having lots of teens hanging around without a real desire to study, lays a more dangerous one. Schools know that they have way too many students admitted than the industry and academy can absorb later when they graduate. A direct result of that is that they came up with a brilliant idea to filter students by making them fail in exams. The best proof is that according to a survey published last week by the OSEIPE (http://www.oseipe.univ-paris5.fr/IMG/pdf/TAB_doc_final_24sep08.pdf) only 21% passed from 2nd to 3rd year of Psychology undergrad. Let me rephrase: out of every 100 students, 79 failed to pass to third year. This is HUGE!

So you have a lot of failing students who lost 1 or 2 years of their lives, just because schools found a stupid method to adujst graduation numbers to available jobs post-graduation.

2. Teaching method: So you have the obvious lectures, boring and anonymous. Without student-teacher interaction whatsoever. And then you have the TD, or Travaux Dirigés (Guided Work) where you'd expect to see some reflexion and interaction right? well think again. The entire french teaching method, at least in my university, is based on boring lectures. I guess they never heard in France about group work, cases, projects etc.

3. Anonymous student and bad social life: In a French university, the student is completely anonymous. You'll never speak with the professor and don't even dream that he'll know your name even if you took a small class with 25 students in it. Don't wait to be invited to a students party or a university social event, these just don't exist. Of course the students could organize something, but the sad fact is that student in France attend the university closest to their parents' home, so they can live with them during school, and keep on seeing friends from high-school. The students social interaction is limited then to the casual "bonjour" to faces that you've been seeing for 3 years every day.

Maybe I'm just in the wrong French university, and maybe in other schools the situation is better, but from what I've seen in the last 3 years, French universities suck!