This Is the End

First of all I hope all of you had great holidays so far and enjoyed the Christmas days. For me that always means spending time with my family, seeing my oldest friends again and tons of good food :-) 

Now the year 2013 is coming to an end. Every year I wonder where the time went and every year it seems that especially the period after the summer until the Christmas break flies by faster and faster. Next summer I will be done with my Master. By then I will be hopefully working in my dream job (whichever that might be), or travelling around the world. But before that I have enough on my plate: Finishing my last courses, mastering exams and writing the Master Thesis. However spending time with friends, eating well, going out (concerts, exhibitions, parties), watching movies and travelling should also be part of the agenda. I believe if you are well rested and having other influences (next to your study) , which stimulate your creativity, you are able to concentrate and to perform better.

The end of this year also marks the end of my blog entries. A student from another study will take over this task. I hope you enjoyed reading these entries and if you got anything out of it, let it be insights, ideas or advice, I see this work as a success.

Good luck!

Jana

A Masters choice: Thesis Topic

During the last weeks I was busy coming up with a research topic for my master thesis and finding a suitable supervisor. Already at the very beginning of the Master we had a lecture about the procedure for the master thesis. Of course it is helpful to get these information as soon as possible, but at that moment you are more worried about finding your way around the university, getting to know fellow students and passing your courses. In general the idea is that you can hand in your own topic if you find a professor who supervises you. The other option is to choose a topic from a given lists from the university in around February. The deadline for handing in your own topic, was yesterday (17.12), so already around half a year before your actual research course, you have to think about it. 

The whole process for finding a supervisor can be very time consuming, so I say start early! In my case, I already had a supervisor, but unfortunately around 2 weeks before the deadline it turned out that I am not able to write under her supervision. So I had to start all over again: I asked my way around the professors I still new from my Bachelor study, but also approached some which I did not know. I would say the most difficult part is to find a supervisor, who has expertise in the area you are interested in and having an existing data set to analyze. Coming up with your own data might be too challenging for a Master thesis. I ended up with a research topic I am really interested in and I will participate in an actual lab research.  I will write about non-monetary incentives and their effect on corporate social responsibility.

So be aware if you start your master that soon enough you have to think about your thesis topic already. Don’t start too late, since complications can always occur and you need to change your plan of actions.

Career Day

 As you can tell from the absence of recent blog entries, the time-demanding requirements of my Master study hold me back from keeping you up to date.

The last weeks have been really eventful: There was among others the career day organized by ECU92, the study organization from the Economics faculty. The career day is offered to give you the chance to get in closer contact with a couple of interesting firms, talk to experienced employees and of course to network.

You had to sign up beforehand by sending in your CV and you could already decide what kind of workshops and lectures you wanted to visit. Furthermore it was possible to apply for personal meetings with the firms (e.g. ABN Amro, KPMG & SNS). The day started with a lecture by a young entrepreneur from Rockstart, which was a former UU student.  I thought it was great to hear the experience and advice from a very young person, who can relate to your situation. These kind of lectures are often very inspirational and can give you a better idea what is possible after your studies.

For the rest of the day I attended two workshops, one by a social entrepreneur and one from the “Belastingsdienst” (tax authorities). So you can shape the day according to your interests. In case you are not entirely clear on what you want to do after your studies, or if you are simply interested in meeting some interesting people, I definitely advice to attend the career day. And if that did not convince you, there is always a free lunch and nice goodies to take home J

A new stage of my life...

Hi All!

Not only am I new to University but also to blogging, since this is my first blog post ever. I am Bence Jenőfi, a 19 years old freshman at Utrecht School of Economics, studying Economics and Business Economics (how suprising :D) I am hungarian and I came here to study for 3 major reasons. I wanted to study in English, I wanted to study at a highly ranked University with a multidisciplinary approach, and last but not least I found Utrecht as a place awesome. I am living here since August and the last 3 month just made me more certain, that I did not regret my choice. The freshman week was unforgettable...(indeed I remember evrything :P )

As the weeks passed by, I got familiar with various economic concepts from different social scientist and also developed my optimizing skills in math. However, the midterm exams went reasonable well, I am still waiting for those crucial endterm results from 2 weeks ago. Cross your fingers guys...there is something at stake! Meanwhile I started my second period of studying this week with two brand new courses (Microeconomics and Financial Accounting).

One thing you should keep in mind is, that friendships come just as fast as bikes go by! (I meant here: bikes from your inventory) I also cant help but mention the two major types of Utrecht Universitiy social life: There are the ones who study hard and those who party harder!

I am really happy to mention that I am an active member of the ECU '92 study association both in the Relaxcie (party organising) and the Investment committe. There is an interesting project going on in both of them so I am not bored at all. Also, one of my great friends visited me this weekend who has never been in Utrecht before, so it was a fun time to guide her through the best places.

I dont know the policy about making advertisements :D but guys, if you want a really nice experience besides drinking only, look up De Belgie and Olvivier. These two places are unique in their own atmosphere.

And now...I have to go back to my studies. Hopefully you will hear from me again after I got my endterm results...

Exams!

Do you know this accelerating feeling of just having finished an exam, you feel like the weight is taken off your shoulders, the sky seems a bit bluer and you feel like the world is your oyster?
(Please sense the overdramatic touch here).

Well then the feeling that follows should also be familiar: „Dang, this was just one out of three exams for this week and I actually have to continue studying- like right now!”

If you can connect to this situation, then you have an idea how my day was. I told you that I would report about my studying efforts for exams, but surprise! I was too busy studying instead of writing this blog. This was my first exam (International Business Ventures) of the master and it was comparable to a Bachelor exam at USE. Well we actually had only two hours time, while normally almost all exams are three hours. But the amount of content and questions was of course designed for two hours, so overall it was not a problem to finish writing within this time constraint.

Now I have to start studying for a theory exam on Wednesday of Empirical Economics and after that there is one more on Friday (The STATA (statistical computer program) exam). After I am done with the study marathon, I hope to get back to you during the weekend after I caught up on enough sleep.

Graduation Ceremony

During the last three weeks the Bachelor and Master graduation ceremonies took place. They were held at the beautiful academie gebouw (academic building) in the heart of Utrecht, right next to the Dom. There were small-scale ceremonies each night and I was happy to hear that I had mine on one evening together with some of my closest friends.

Already a couple of weeks before the actual event we had to hand in our CV, a short description of our thesis and some personal information on which the individual speeches would be based.

On the day itself I was quite excited about the evening, since my parents and my grandma would come from Germany and my grandma has never been in Utrecht so far. Also two of my best friends from my Bachelor studies, who continued their Masters in different countries, came back. Therefore I am glad that USE is one of the fewer faculties that actually still offer traditional evening ceremonies at one of the most beautiful locations that the University has to offer.

On the evening we first got our cap and gowns and had to line up, while our guests already took place in the hall. It is a great feeling to enter the ‘Senaatzaal’ (senate hall) surrounded by your fellow students, who you got to know well over the last three years and your family and close friends awaiting you. Shocked by all the flashlights (yes, even video cameras) it was almost a celebrity-like moment, even though the big, black gown made you more feel like a Hogwarts student.

All the graduates took place in the first row and when your name was called, you stepped in front to receive a more or less personal speech followed by the signing of your Bachelor diploma. The whole ceremony took around one hour and afterwards more celebrity shots were taken, while there was a reception with drinks and little cheese (what else?) snacks. Some people took a bit too much advantage of the open bar and you would expect that especially students, who can be excused due to lacking financial means to be overly excited about anything offered for free, were the first ones in line for the drinks. However often they were beaten to the punch by a thirsty grandma or professor.
The reception was also the moment when everybody met each other’s parents, which was entertaining; since resemblance was often so striking that there was little doubt to whom everybody belonged. Some guessing games were already played during the ceremony before you were officially introduced, next to finding the only three ladies on the paintings in the Senaatzaal (which was quite a challenging task, since they were all wearing long-haired wigs).

In case you are concerned about your outfit, I can only say: Choose your shoes wisely, since that is more or less the only thing which is still visible underneath the gown you are wearing for the ceremony.

Now I am going to dive back into my study books and I will soon report about my current exam preparations: Exams are coming up!

Utrecht University: Good choice!

Welcome and hello to all of you out there!

In the upcoming months I am going to share my personal Utrecht Experience with anybody who is interested and willing to give up some precious minutes reading my blog. I hope to compensate your time by offering you insights into the exciting live of an international student at Utrecht University.

My name is Jana, I am 24 years old! (!yes I do feel old around here, but later more on that)  from Cologne, Germany. I am following the Master at the Utrecht School of Economics (USE) in „International Economics and Business“ and I decided to specialize in „International Management“.

Before I started the one year Master Program, I already completed a three year Bachelor study in “Economics and Business Economies” also at USE.  The questions I hear the most when I tell people that I am from Germany are: Why did you come here? How come that you decided to study in Utrecht?

Well, let me explain once more: After an High School Year in America, I realized that I want to follow a study completely taught in English. However, there are not many English Bachelor studies to be found in Germany and having been staying abroad once before, going again seemed appealing. Having been so far from home for already one year, this time I wanted to keep it close. Well, it ain’t getting much closer than going to your neighbor country. I like to have the option to be home fast and relatively cheap, while still being in a foreign country and “doing my own thing”.  Of course the academic aspect was not unimportant either: Dutch universities always score top positions at international rankings. After considering Maastricht University (with around 60% Germans, I felt that there are more German ‘Bier’ drinking habits and ‘Schlager’ songs than a small city and its citizens can handle), Utrecht University proofed to be the right choice. 

Tot snel! Bis bald! Talk to you soon!

Jana