If you are reading this article as a high school senior, in the suspense of the Baccalaureate exam, with dozens of formula sheets and essays, or perhaps as a parent who feels helpless and uninformed in making a decisive decision about your child's education, this story is certainly helpful. I feel compelled to expose the experience of taking heart and leaving 2000 miles away from home, from everything you hold dear in the world, from friends and family, from the pleasant and not so pleasant experiences that have shaped you into almost the adult you are today. And when I refer to today's adult, I mean the high school student who dreams of studying at a university totally different from what he has known so far in the Romanian educational system.
Good, you've made the decision to submit your file. But where do I submit it and to which college? What next? Who helps me with all these decisions?
Until the middle of the 12th grade I lived in a constant polemic between the choice to stay in the country and study at the Polytechnic University of Bucharest in Automation, or to follow my dream at a university abroad. As syrupy as it sounds, you are at the age where you don't want to regret later the chance you were given in exchange for the comfort of proximity to family or friends. I've always known that I wouldn't want to waste the opportunity to take that big step, even though it came with a ton of fears, insecurities and compromises. Of course, it's not the same for everyone, but if you have the chance and opportunity to do it, why not take it?
My journey has been a pretty whirlwind one, from choosing education consulting services, to assigning you to an appropriate counselor who directs you to colleges in your area of interest, a ton of research and separate in-depth study about each institution's curriculum, tuition fees, the stress of student accommodation crisis and much more. If you don't have enough time or expertise to go through all these steps, choosing an advice agency is the best decision. That's how I did it, and afterwards, the journey was made much easier for me and so I had much more time to inform myself about essential things like the budget of a student in Amsterdam, what studying in the Netherlands really means and pretty much what the "deal" is with the land of bikes and tulips.
The platform where you apply for college is called Studielink and the maximum number of applications a single person can make is 4, except that you can only apply to two Numerus Fixus Programmes - These undergraduate programmes have a limited number of places and often involve a number of requirements that the student must meet, from minimum grades in compulsory subjects for selection to entrance exams.
After I applied, life somehow went fast forward to the second I saw myself saying goodbye to my puppy, the house and yard where I lived most of my childhood. With an emptiness in my stomach the size of a basketball I arrived at the airport and later in Amsterdam at Schiphol. It wasn't my first time in the Netherlands, but still, the feeling of arriving here and not returning home anytime soon are totally different from what you may experience as a student "back home".
Once in the NetherlandsI rushed to the municipality to make my famous burgerservicenummer (BSN) or citizen service number, a kind of Dutch CNP that guarantees your status as a resident here, tax payer and more. Moreover, it is important to mention the need for health insurance or rather the obligation you have as a student here to have one. Lack of it can lead to fines or full payment for medical services. I even changed my phone number, the subscription for unlimited internet in the Netherlands and mobile data being somewhere around 32 euros per month. Of course, it's not a necessity, but sooner or later you may run into the various problems of Romanian subscriptions not working after two or three months abroad.
Returning to the study, the faculty where I chose to apply, namely the Faculty of Computer Science at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, or The VU as it is abbreviated, organised a whole event for new students called "Intro Week". In short, it's a series of activities and parties organised by the faculty and student associations here where you can meet your future colleagues in your department and beyond. It's somewhat of a tradition to have so-called freshman parties, moreover, it's a great opportunity to get to know the city, the clubs and the famous fun areas, as well as make a ton of friends. If partying and nightlife aren't your forte, student associations do a great job of setting up study sessions, movie nights - at ours they do them in the college cinema, game nights, book clubs and more. The easiest way to get acquainted and get involved in social activities is to attend as many of these events as possible, socialise, be open to as many opportunities as possible and of course, be yourself.
Faculty aside, I couldn't promise anyone reading this article that at the end of the rainbow, here in the Netherlands, lies the so-called bag of gold, the big jackpot or the ideal life. Certainly not. I dedicate this paragraph to a reflection on reality, on moving here, especially as a student. There will be hard, uncomfortable moments, you will miss home, friends, family. You will miss learning in Romanian, speaking Romanian, seeing the license plates of cars with RO numbers, seeing a Romanian flag hanging from the sill of a communist block or reading the city signs in Romanian. You'll miss the food - probably. You'll miss the Romanian prices, the stability you probably felt at home, the security of being in a city you've always known.
However, the myth of the Romanian international student is as true as it gets, it is fascinating and scary at the same time, hard and fun, exhausting and invigorating, a ton of feelings that are butting heads. The only advice I can give is to experience for yourself what life is like here and what things are like as far as the land of tulips is concerned.
An article by Ambra Mihu.
Ambra is a young student in Amsterdam in 2022 studying Computer Science. Favourite activities include taking a telescope to the park in the middle of the night to look at the stars, cooking, hiking, reading and travelling. PS: She is a curious nature who loves to debate on everything from food and fun to quantum physics.
