Admission notification

On 13 June 2007, on the date that the last-year students in the Dutch "middelbare school" receive the result of their exams, and five months after sending out my application to the Erasmus Munder Master Course in Space Science and Technology, I finally receive my admission for the master programme. In January they wrote me that I would hear from them early April, but after inquiry in April they informed me that this would be June. Rather late, if you ask me: what if I would not have been applied? It's too late to apply for something else. But now that I have been applied, the actual start of the Master (3 September) is pretty soon!

The Erasmus Mundus programme is a programme for students from all over the world. A number of European universities cooperates in offering a master course for EU and non-EU students. Non-EU students receive a scholarship for studying in the EU, and a selection of EU students receive a scholarship for writing their Master Thesis outside Europe. I will start in Würzburg for the autumn semester and will move to Kiruna, Sweden for the spring semester. I first heard of this master while I was an exchange student at Luleå University of Technology (LTU). This university is also the main host of the programme.

In the past months, I've done a lot to fulfill the requirements. I was asked to send a certified copy of my secondary education leaving certificate. I inquired with the university. "Ask at your school," they said. My school directed me to the IB-groep, who then redirected me to some diploma certification office. They told me to have it tranlated by a certified translater. They gave me the URL for a website where they are all advertised. Since the website did not have prices, I phoned every certified translator to ask for the prices. I sent a certified copy of my secondary education leaving certificate and finally received a translation for only €32.19. Less cheap was the IELTS-test: nearly €200 for a relatively easy test to prove LTU my knowledge of English.

Fortunately, my investments were worth it. There is a lot to organise now. I'm thrilled to go abroad: ever since I came back from Luleå, christmas 2005, I have been longing back to leaving my home country again, although I managed to get my life back on track over the course of the last 18 months.

World, here I come!