Politecnico di Milano

This technical university is one of the best in the world. All the professors are highly qualified and are more focused on practical learning experience. Best university to study mechanical engineering in the world.

I am a chemical engineering masters student. The university offers a challenging chemical engineering masters program. The program is highly theoretical. Being a graduate of this university increases the probability of employment.

PoliMi seems like a great university; my only problem is that the classes too theoretical. I wish the courses would be more practical and there would be more labs. I am only in my first year though so maybe in the coming years that will change.

Do not choose this university based on its international rankings. They are just numbers, and have little to do with the quality of the teachings, the opportunities and the environment you will find at polimi. It is a frustrating experience, that will most likely leave you empty handed. 

Classes are structured in frontal theoretical lectures, in which professors just read slides. One could do that on his/her own. The whole didactic method is over reliant on group works, not because it is a good learning method, but because professors lack the resources to individually attend to all the students present in class. This means that there is barely ever an individual assessment on one's capacity and learning outcomes. 

The professors will say that peer learning makes the difference, but if you peers are idiots and do not care about actually learning, what is the point? Also, do you choose a university because you will learn from other students, or from the professors? You can check before hand who the professors are, what they did, and so on. But what should I learn about design from a Chinese girl who can barely tell me what her name is? Come on... 

This creates an environment where how much and how well you learn, how you put it into practice, the grades you get, are dictated mostly by how lucky you are when the project groups are formed. In Graduate courses, almost half of the class is formed by Chinese students who cannot speak one word of english.

This leads to scenarios in which italian students who already know each other will always work together. If you are not part of these groups, you will have to work with a bunch of brain dead asians who are unable to communicate, nor perform any kind of group work. And one cannot opt to work alone without facing opposition by the professors, who will decide to ignore you during project reviews or give you poor grades. 

I could go on forever, but to summarize the rest:
- Milan is not a nice city. Everything is expensive, everything is dirty, everything is fake and superficial, finding a room without getting scammed should be made an academic achievement 
- from a knowledge standpoint, the school doesn't teach anything valuable that you couldn't learn on your own. Design is about attitude and forma mentis, and you will not find anything that encourages it here
- when doing your mandatory internship you will realize how little you actually know and how useless your 2 years at the masters have been. That is, if you land a good internship. If you land a poor internship, you will realize how meaningless working as a designer is. Oh, and it will be unpaid. 
- the facilities themselves are more keen to a third world country. Noisy rooms, desks breaking apart, laboratories with outdated equipment. There is nothing to suggest this should be "one of the best design schools in the world". BECAUSE IT IS NOT. It just sells itself very well, but if you have just some critical thinking skills you'll realize it's all smoke and mirrors. 

My suggestion is to look elsewhere for your Master's degree. This place is a scam.

Politecnico di Milano is an exceptional institution that fosters academic excellence and innovation. In these two years I have had the opportunity to meet and learn from enlightened professors.