HEC Montreal Canada
About School
Academics
My Campus
Student Life
Surrounding Environment
Accessibility
About School

HEC Montreal

HEC Montréal is a French-language business school located in Montréal, Canada. Founded in 1907, HEC is the business school of the University of Montreal and is considered one of the most well-known business schools in the world. HEC hosts about 13,000 students.

School main website | International/Exchange Student Website 1 | International/Exchange Student Website 2

Academics

Minimum GPA requirement: 

No GPA Requirement

Language of instruction:

French, English and Spanish

Courses Catalouge:

For course descriptions found in respective college’s webpages, click here!

Language Courses
Only one language course (3 credits) per term allowed.
For more information on the language courses, click here!

There are 3 options for French Language Courses:

1. French Business Communication
3 credits / level 1 to 5
Offered at no extra charge during the semester
A placement test is required upon arrival
Additional information will follow by email after course registration
Included in the main university transcript

2. French “Break The Ice”
No credits / level 1
Fee-paying course offered before the Fall semester only
20 contact hours
Not included in the main university transcript, hence cannot be transferred back to SMU

3. Summer French Course
3 credits
Offered at no extra charge during the semester
Included in the main university transcript

Course registration process:

Students must register for their courses on the stipulated dates in the acceptance package sent by HEC. It’s an online application process with “first-come-first-served” basis

For more information on the course registration process, click here!

Attendance policy:

Subject to the professors, some do mark attendance while most do not.

My Campus

Campus Map:

HEC Montreal's campus map is avaiblable here. 

The Campus is made up of two main buildings: Côte-Sainte-Catherine building and Decelles building.

Selected facilities:

Sports Complex
Students and staff have access to the Université de Montréal sports complex known as the CEPSUM. There are facilities for racquet sports, rooms for martial arts, dance, yoga and gymnastics, gymnasiums for basketball and volleyball, an ice rink, an indoor pool and an outdoor field for soccer and football.

Library
Located in the Côte-Sainte-Catherine building, Myriam and J.-Robert Ouimet library takes up the entire second floor. It is a wonderfully calm place to study, in an atmosphere enhanced by nature, with a huge glassed-in bay extending over several floors.

Food on campus:

Le Cercle restaurant
Set at the top of the Côte-Ste-Catherine building, Le Cercle restaurant is divided into two areas with different purposes: the Montréal room and the Salon des diplômés (alumni lounge). The Montréal room is a dining room open to the public, with seating for 120, with purposes for business lunches or social occasions. In the evening, it can be used for cocktail parties and dinner lectures, in keeping with the School’s professional activities. The Salon des diplômés is a dining room reserved for distinguished visitors to the School.

Cafeteria
Located at Decelles building the cafeteria has seating for 232. Following recent renovations, it now offers full meals. Users can now enjoy hot meals there in a relaxed atmosphere, or study there.

Campus transportation:

There is no internal campus transportation.

Student Life

Orientation program:

Specially designed, HEC Montréal Orientation Day will give you a walk through the mandatory administrative procedures, learn about Quebec culture and provide some benchmarks for your first steps in the ''Belle Province'' and at HEC Montréal and meet incredible people. There will also be welcome orientation program for a week that include some activities such pub-crawl, sushi buffet and city tour.

Fall Orientation: Mid August

Spring Orientation: Early Jan

Do visit their website here for more information.

Buddy Program:

You can sign up for buddy program through the website here!

Student clubs:

Ice Hockey

University events:

Thursday night drinking on campus
HEC Montreal has drinking sessions on campus every Thursday. If you love drinking, this is definitely for you! 

Surrounding Environment

The campus is walking distance to a main street which has a lot of stores with food and groceries.

For food

There are many food stores and café on the main street.

For nightlife and entertainment

There are many night clubs around.

For daily necessities and groceries

There is a Chinese supermarket near Plamondon station. Many stores such as Pharmaprix, Dollarama and IGA are available around the city.

For shopping

Located just outside McGill station is a shopping haven.

Accessibility

Getting from the Aiport to HEC Montreal:

By Metro

The nearest metro stations to HEC are  Université-de-Montréal and Côte-des-Neiges stations on the blue line.

By bus
Bus services 51, 129 and 119 will get you to HEC.

Flying Chalks' tip: Buses 51 and 119 also brings you to and fro HEC Montreals two buildings!

A bus fares can be paid in two ways, purchasing a ticket or provided an exact change for the fare. This paid bus or metro fare will entitle you with a bus-to-metro or metro-to-bus transfer with 2 hours validity.

Each bus/metro ticket entitles you with only one metro acces with multiple transfers between buses.

Details on Montreal's bus services can be found here!

STM Cards, equivalent to Singapore's EZ-Link cards or London's Oyster cards are available for Full-Time students residing in Montreal only. Application for the STM cards will require the following documents:
1. The electronic attestation OPUS card
2. Proof of identification: Student ID card, Passport, Health Insurance card, Birth certification OR driving license, etc.
3. Exact Change for payment (in cash): $15 (at STM photo studio) or $14 (HEC Montreal)

Once your picture has been taken, your OPUS card will be delivered to you immediately.

STM photo studio is located in the Montral Bus station, 1717 Berri (Metro: Berri-UQAM station).

By Taxi
You can get from the airport to the university via a taxi, safe, convienient and inexpensive.

Taxis can be be hired at these numbers: 

  • Co-op Taxi : (514) 725-9885
  • Diamond Taxi : (514) 273-6331
  • Atlas Taxi : (514) 485-8585

 Calulate how much your ride will cost you with this Montreal Taxi Fare Finder.

For more information on how to get to HEC Montreal, click here!

By Kenneth Tham
2016-10-24 06:03:56
Didn't go to HEC, but will leave some general thoughts about life in Montreal since I had my exchange at another university there. 1) Montreal residents are a mixed bag. For every decent person who treats English speakers with appropriate courtesy and respect, there is the Francophile who insists on being snobbish and aloof in the process of interaction. Extremely unacceptable if you receive treatment like this in shops. I have in the past refused to leave tips for servers who exhibit this sort of unwarranted attitude. 2) Food is generally overpriced and not worth the money for the quality you get. Now you know why most of these Westerners contract Yellow Fever when they head to places like Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Japan and Singapore. The only time I had something which I felt was actually bang for buck was a dinner at a fancy restaurant, but the bill set me back CAD$50 - phuck me dead! 3) City is pretty boring and pace of life is slow. Interesting architecture in some parts of town, but you'll get over it after your first week here. While it's not in the shitters like a Kingston, for example, you will find that the city doesn't have much in store for you unless you are a partygoer, or you like gambling. Casino here is not great shakes compared to Vegas either, as the rake at the poker table is insane. Would say that the strip clubs here are the best you can find in the world, if that is your thing. Overall I cannot with good conscience recommend someone to come here for their exchange. I almost never look forward to returning to Singapore while I'm abroad, but this is one of those rare instances. Fair play if you still want to come here, just take all the rave reviews about food and sights with a pinch of salt. Last words of advice: poutine is vastly overrated, and Montreal women are the best in the world lookswise.
By
2016-10-16 21:23:08
The city life and campus life are both very laid-back, and the people there are very friendly and open. Nightlife in Montreal is also quite exciting as there are many bars and clubs to visit. An added bonus is that it isn’t very dangerous at night. The whole city is generally very safe. I mostly got around by train. The campus is about 10 train stops from the city centre. I had lots of fun on my exchange, and had the opportunity to try many things. I also learnt about the culture and practices of living in a foreign country, especially through interacting with the people there. All in all, I would really recommend doing your exchange at HEC Montreal!
By
2016-10-11 19:23:53
Montreal has a slower pace of life that I really enjoyed. Even though winter was very cold, the nightlife in the city was still lively. The culture there was also very interesting as it was a combination of French and Canadian culture. However, the cost of living is very high, healthcare especially so. Overall, I spent almost twice that of the estimate given by the university. To save money, I shopped at Dollarama and The Dollar Shop, where groceries cost 1-2CAD.
By
2016-10-10 17:34:27
The city of Montreal has an interesting mix of historical and modern architecture. It is also imbued with culture. There are many galleries for you to visit or plays to watch. It is also very safe, as there are police patrolling at times. I didn’t have any fear going out at night or by myself. Something I had to adjust to upon arrival was that everything in Montreal was in French. I had to quickly adapt to this and learn to speak a new language in order to communicate with the locals. Campus life in HEC Montreal was vibrant. There were many activities organized by the student body. Class sizes were also quite small so we got to interact a lot with the local students and work together in projects and presentations.