Don’t know what do after high school? Your parents annoy you and you think you cannot handle the pressure anymore? You wanna go abroad, but at the same time you don’t want to waste a year/half a year? There are so many options that you can choose from nowadays thatit turns out to be really hard and complicated to choose..
All those questions were in my head after finishing secondary school in Germany, thus I wanted to share my experiences with you to give you some input to consider when studying in the Netherlands.
As I’ve been to Canada for one year when I was 16, I’ve already experienced to live far away from home in another country where they speak another language and no-one understands your way of thinking as you simply come from somewhere else.
I would really advice you to go abroad for a longer period of time ONCE in your life, and if NOW isn’t the best time to do that, then tell me when will it be?
Thus, why not studying abroad and doing an extra semester abroad instead of only doing one simple semester of a few month abroad? I chose the Netherlands and this is what I’ve experienced in my first year so far:
First of all, to everyone who might not know how and where to contextualize: It’s one of the small countries next to Germany in Western Europe, right next to the sea.
What I like the most about the Netherlands in general is that it’s quite small. If you’d wanted to you could cross the country from North to South and from West to East in only one day. This is very handy if you want to travel the country: go to the beach for a study break and visit all the bigger cities such as Amsterdam, Rotterdam or The Haag. Due to the good infrastructure that would be very easy to plan and put it to practice. Also for bicycles, you can actually go wherever you want with your bike and no-one would ever look at you in a weird way because you do not have your own car or wanna go by bus. Going by bike is totally normal in the Netherlands and this way, you even help to slow the global warming.
Another reason why I don’t regret my decision is the breath-taking architecture. You don’t really have those big ugly and ‘dangerous’ districts in the city where you wouldn’t like to live or go through. Simply because the houses are so nice and it’s clean in general, you feel save and good.
I am happy to live here and I love those little small houses that may be narrow, but high. It’s a cozy atmosphere and that’s what’s also given in the very big cities such as Amsterdam.
On top of that, the Dutch people are very helpful and friendly. When I first visited some apartments to choose one for my own, I couldn’t find the right address and who ever I asked was pleased to help me and there was even a woman that called someone in order to get me to my appointment in time.
Furthermore, everyone(!) is able to speak English, and that on a really high level as almost every movie in the cinema and a lot in the Dutch TV is shown in the original, English version.
Concerning my studies, I can promise that the education level is quite high in comparison to other European countries and that they also have a good reputation abroad. The universities are highly rated with an high amount of practical assignments. Also the requirements to enter are way easier than in my home country Germany. A mentor of the Arnhem Business School even said once that the school welcomes especially German student as they normally pass a lot so that the average percentage is higher at the end of the year. So go for it 😉 There is usually no numerous clausus like in Germany so that you can also easily apply for psychology or medicine, if you don’t have the possibility because of your grades.
If you want to find out more about our study place check out the Arnhem Business School.
In the Netherlands, grades don’t count as much as in Germany, the people here pay more attention on you as a person and your personal skills than to numbers written on a piece of paper.
In contrast to all those positive aspects about this country I also have some negative aspects that you’d need to consider:
First of all, the living costs including apartment and food is more expensive then in Germany but still lower than in Scandinavia or Switzerland for example.
Secondly, there is a lack of available flats or rooms, which is actually normal in bigger cities, but still it is very hard to find something that fits the German expectations. The Dutch are usually dirtier than the Germans ( which might be not that difficult regarding the German fussiness). But still, many many flats look terrible from the inside and the people here don’t seem to care a lot about things like that, they simply pay attention to other things.
Remember: Other countries, other customs 😉 Try to accept it – which doesn’t mean you need to adopt yourself.
I really hope that I could help you considering your choice of study or how your life after school could go on. If there are any questions on your mind which I didn’t cover, let me know, I appreciate your feedback and will be pleased to respond as quick as possible.
Stay tuned for more to come, we’re planning on writing a new blog post only about Arnhem, the city where we are studying right now. So in case you’re interested, comment below and we will tell you the places to go, and other insider tips you might want to know. 🙂
Love, M
LIMESJOURNEY 