Daniel Freire, Ecuador

I heard about HSE University from my father, who does business with Russia. He did a lot of research about universities in Russia and strongly recommended HSE, so I followed his advice. I started the HSE Preparatory Year after finishing high school in Ecuador, and now I’m enrolled in the bachelor’s programme in Economics and Data Science. The programme combines a lot of things that are important for the future. There are more and more jobs related to informatics and data, and it’s essential to be able to work with these areas today.

My mom is Russian, so my conversational Russian is alright, but I decided to go for the Preparatory Year to improve my writing and reading skills. My experience in the programme has been phenomenal: I met incredible people from all over the world, I don’t have any regrets and would repeat it again if I were able to.

The professors were amazing—they were some of the friendliest people I have ever met. They helped us to feel at HSE University like at home

I have always been into history, so I enjoyed the history course on the Preparatory Year. And even though I have applied for Economics and Data Science and I like math, it doesn’t come easy to me. Russia is very strong at math. It is a powerful school renowned across the world, and I had a bit of struggle there. But with enough perseverance, I have been able to make it through.

When I arrived in Russia, the big change seemed a bit scary, because you are going from something familiar to something completely unfamiliar. But as I mentioned, the teachers were incredible and helped to ease this tension.

Moscow is an incredible city. It’s very modern and diverse

It is one of my favourite cities thanks to its incredible atmosphere that can’t be replicated anywhere else. I managed to survive the cold winter with a lot of hot tea and sleeping in warm clothes. I had no issues with transportation in Moscow; I fell in love with the Moscow metro. In the current political situation, there are certain problems with money transfers and international travel, but they can be solved. It’s not like the country is closed.

After getting my bachelor’s degree, I would like to continue my studies at a master’s level, but I will see what my experience on the bachelor’s programme is like. Then, I’ll decide whether I want move towards economics or data science.