The Italian Guide to Studying Abroad.101

Now, turning to the more specific point of law:

As mentioned before, it is a generally conservative field when it comes to practice. Even within the EU, in spite of the lawyers directive which enables any European qualified lawyer to practice in all the other Member States, qualifying in the specific national legal system of interest is preferred to get access to top law firms. So, graduating from an English language LLB, I like all my colleagues, faced exactly this dilemma - should I qualify? and where?

I was not sure I’d want to be a practicing lawyer anyway, and since I simply adored to conduct research within my own field, I decided I would pursue that road, with a research degree in the Netherlands. This might either be a way for me to explore what kind of professional contexts I can get into after graduation, or a path that sets me up for a PhD, I am still not too sure which. But the point I want to make is that Dutch degrees are really really appreciated on the international academic platform. I got into all the law schools I applied to so far in the UK, including UCL, LSE, Edinburgh University, and a few more are still pending, but I could have not even fathomed to do so if my professors were not so helpful in writing my references and giving me academic and professional guidelines. I will most likely not go to any of these Universities (for now), since I prefer to conduct research in the Netherlands first, but it definitely boosts your confidence to see that your degree can lead to great things. 

The world of secondary education is constantly shamed of being disconnected from the professional world - how true is that for Dutch Universities and degrees in general? Here are some insights, based on (a) the field of your studies and (b) the professional language of your studies, (c) further qualifying requirements. (a) It all depends on your field:

some fields of knowledge are, nowadays, more employable than others. The job market in Northern Europe is particularly florid for sciences and research fields, when it comes to international students and perspective employees. This is also probably why Universities like Delft top the employability rankings, as it only offers science-oriented degrees. That being said, the Netherlands boots high employment rates, and I have not heard to date of a graduate who struggled repeatedly for many years to land a job related to his past studies (might also be that I just hang out with nerds..). Thinking ahead and maintaining contact with the employment office of your University (there definitely is one), is a great way to get head-started, and make more aware choices about applications. 

(b) the languages you know:

Most science degrees are ONLY given in English at Dutch Universities. This speaks volumes with regard to the fact that the job market is, for the most, also primarily English/international. Many other subjects are slowly converting, such as history, at my University, the University of Groningen, whose BA is only being given in English as of this year. Other subjects, such as Law, might be a little bit more conservative, although even within these fields there are huge international components (such as EU law or International law). Even if the job market in terms of firms/companies/government seems inaccessible, well paid research positions are always available for valuable and high-performing students (even if you are not the prof’s son, like in Italy).

It is fair to say that finding my favourite Italian produces has never been much of an issue in the Netherlands. The Netherlands is in fact a world super-power in the production of fruit and vegetables (yes, I was surprised too). Unfortunately, taste does not always hold up to the expectations, since the produces mostly come from green houses. So I advise you two things:

1. get your fresh fruits and vegetables from the Market. It is tastier, much cheaper (if you go right before it closes you might even get whole bags of fruit for free ;) and it has a much wider range of fresh products - especially foreign fruits and vegetables that I have never seen before.

2. Don’t buy pre-made Italian food. As much as it hurts to say it, restaurants are overpriced and not always (actually, often) quite bad and not really authentic when it comes to Italian food. Same goes for pre-packaged things in the super market like lasagna or spaghetti (bleh, you will see aliens like never before in this country!

Ending on a nice note, you won’t learn just more about how to cook Italian food abroad, but you will mostly learn about other cultures and cuisines. My repertoire of foreign recipes has broadened extremely much and I keep learning about new recipes and therefore cultures by the day. Excited to make new international friends? So should you be!

The Noorderplantsoen park (took me 2 years to learn how to spell it), is populated by many, v aggressive geese & ducks.

Continuing on chapter 2.1, we now turn to...

3. funding opportunities: researches should rely on you. Specific programmes (especially sciency ones) have specific scholarships publishes on the website of the University. Nation-wide ones are published here usually: https://www.studyinholland.nl/scholarships/highlighted-scholarships/holland-scholarship 

In spite of looking it up often, I never found anything available for me! but keep trying anyway. Other than that, the government gives the EU students the possibility of applying through DUO (https://duo.nl/particulier/) for a reimbursement of the tuition fees (2000 euros a year, so circa 167 euros per month of loan), which you will have to give back with a 0% (!!!) interest rate, only once you find a job. This is an incredibly generous offer! and if you work part-time, you can get a full loan of up to 1000 euros per month, + a grant depending on your parents’ income and free transport through the NL. So even if you are completely broke, there is always a way around... However,

4. finding a part-time job: this is necessary for the extended loan. if you speak some Dutch it may be easier, but if your studies are hard, and you don’t look around enough, it might be difficult for you to find one. I did work for a while in an Italian restaurant, but it was nerve-wracking, so careful in undertaking big commitments.

Typical colonial housing in Groningen, NL - housing prices for students range from a minimum of 275 euros p/m, to a maximum of 600. 

We turn to a delicate part of our discussion: finances. As a preliminary point, I must admit: the Italian government was wildly unhelpful (and still is) towards me in terms of funding my studies. Chances are, it will be with you anyway. I looked everywhere where I could get a scholarship (borsa di studio) or other types of funding, but in vain - most require you to have done your undergraduate in Italy first, to then more abroad for your masters, and even these are very very selective (and stink of nepotism and corrupted allocation practices). This section will discuss: 1. Housing, 2. Living costs, 3. Funding opportunities (scholarships and loans), 4. part-time jobs.

1. housing prices range from around 275 euros per month + fees (what I pay) to 500/600 if you have your own apartment. Generally speaking, the city of Groningen is cheap compared to virtually any other place in Northern Europe.

2. Living costs: coming from the South of Italy, Naples, I have to say some things are cheaper there (vegetables, fruit, eating out, clothing) but some are surprisingly cheaper here (special foreign goods & spices, meat, fish, milk, bread). Additional expenses vary depending on the lifestyle of a person, but I can tell you this: 1. GYMS AND SPORTS ARE DRASTICALLY CHEAPER. I pay 140 euros per year (!) for an amazing gym that gives me access to every studio in the whole country with that brand name and 2. PARTYING IS CHEAPER: the culture of clubs here is: you get in a club for free, you leave, you go next door, you go to another, until you are sick of going around. there is no such thing as paying 20^ euros *just* to get in, or renting “a table” and super-expensive alcohol. You can basically have an amazing night and pay 5 euros tops. 

The cherry trees in my street always blossom in Spring!  🌼 🌸

The academic culture of this country is a sensitive topic for two main reasons: 1. it is very easy to generalize and presume that everything works in a specific way and 2. they eyes of a foreigner might still not tell the whole true story. However, the account of a fellow Italian is pretty much all that matters here :) 

As I have previously hinted on the blog, Dutch academic culture is generally anti-competitive (the so called  zesjescultuur), but this might really (really!) not be the case in an international degree programme. For a starter, sometimes even staying afloat in your degree might be difficult - never mind achieving very high grades (such as a 9 or 10 on the Dutch scale)! This is the case mostly because professors will award an 8, or exceptionally a 9 to outstanding exams, but won’t even phantom a 10. So being really ambitious might be hard sometimes: getting a cum laude (distinction) in the Netherlands, for example, requires you to have a non-rounded off GPA of 8.0/10.00, and, most importantly, to never have failed or gotten a 6 in either an assignment or exam. Any can be distracted, mildly sick, or just unlucky in an exam: the system will not make an exception for you most likely, and this might mean you lost your cum laude (about which, unsurprisingly, nobody cares anyway beside a small clique of internationals in English-taught degrees).

It is no mystery Dutch people love to have fun!  🎆

On the flip of the coin, a culture that does not constantly push you to the edge of mental health, and allows you to grow and learn more than what you would just to get-that-9 is somehow comforting, relaxing. It makes you part of a learning experience in which you can casually approach your professor (who will, by the way, be amazingly friendly, ask you to call him by first name, and smiley), to ask anything, without that deferential fear for the authority. It is not stuck up, in other words, and this is something that might make most Italians giggle, because our culture is at the polar opposite. 

Photo: Groningen during winter is majestic ! 💕

It is sometimes the cases that a few lucky ones of us have a preternatural conviction that they will pursue a specific career from a young age (hence, knowing exactly what to study when it comes to choosing University); others, the majority, tend to focus of the whereabouts of their study first (Italy vs Abroad), to then procrastinate the choice of the programme. For those of you that belong to the latter category: what do study? and in which University? This becomes the cogent question - which I will attempt to answer to in this post, with particular regard to the Dutch institutional system.

Saying that this is a choice that ultimately lies in your own personal interests is, of course, stating the obvious. But there are a few aspects that you nevertheless need to keep in mind..

The first, is that you should draw a distinction between those subjects which are highly “vocationally”-contextual to the Netherlands, and those that are instead less specifically connected to a given country in terms of job market. To the former category belongs, say, law and medicine, as the most obvious outcomes would be to qualify as a lawyer or doctor in the Netherlands, both of which require you to know Dutch. To the latter category belong roughly all the sciences (Chemistry, engineering, IT..) as it might very well (very, very well) be the case that you land a job in the Netherlands even if you only speak English! This rough distinction reflects in the evidence that most of the science Bachelors (and definitely Masters!) in the Netherlands are only taught in English - both for Dutch and Internationals, whereas law remains a subject that tends to have still a more conservatively domestic market. SO, the motto is: take into account the professional outlook of your programme.

Why, then, do I study law in the Netherlands? For a number of reasons: law really does open doors that transcend the profession of “lawyer”, and I duly and carefully made my research about the alumni of my programme, and the fact that they did not qualify did not seem to have any impact on their careers, whether in a company, academia, or even firms and NGOs. Sure, maybe it made the choice less obvious and therefore more daunting, but I was armed with some genuine optimism and now that I turn to the end of my bachelors, it looks like it was a good choice!

Another aspect you need take into account is the public perception of each institution when you are choosing a pogramme: the University of Delft is globally unchallenged in sciences, although unfortunately it does not offer many bachelors in English. Leiden, Groningen and Utrecht rank high for humanities, social sciences (and therefore economics and law). Amsterdam and Rotterdam.... well, they are nice cities. But they usually rank well, so they can’t be as bad as people claim! While this is a careful process, bear in mind that this is not the UK or the US. In other words, the fact that here there is no Harvard or Cambridge does not mean that Universities are mediocre, quite the opposite: while the anglophone neighbours have a averagely low quality of education (which is highly privatised, and super expensive), in the Netherlands Universities are public, of incredibly high quality, highly cooperative with each other and inexpensive. This is a point which I also referred to in the previous post and that will come back on the post about the academic culture of the country: Universities here shape the citizens, and want to make a social impact. They don’t select few bright individuals with deep pockets. They prefer to make you show your worth during the degree, rather than upon applying.

Noorderplantsoen Park - Groningen, The Netherlands

The topic of entry requirements in Dutch Universities does not usually generate the same amount of distress as in other European Universities. It is a simple truth that, for most undergraduate and postgraduate degrees, it is fairly “easy” to get in. it The reason for that is purely based on a sort of policy objective of the country, rather than on the idea that quality is inferior (quite the opposite).

The vast majority of Universities in the Netherlands are state funded - as such, they tend to move forward a rather social agenda: while you chances of getting in are close to a 100% if you fulfill the minimum entry requirement (unless it is a numerus clausus programme, that might entail some superficial selection), selection is done in due course during the programme, as evidenced by the following factors: tougher grading system and the binding study advice system (which consists of a minimum amount of credits you need to gain in the first year to get access to the second). The cumulative effect of both brings about considerable drop-out rates.

The situation is strikingly opposite to prestigious Universities in, say, the UK. I am currently on exchange at the University of Edinburgh, which has an acceptance rate of only around 10%. However, a “pass” in this University is a 40%, while a 4 is a pretty bad grade to get in the Netherlands. As a consequence, students hardly ever fail classes here (the whole concept of resit is close to alien) while in the Netherlands taking a resit is like drinking a glass of water: it might happen to the best. Even in terms of difficulty, grades in the first year of Undergrad in the UK are irrelevant for the final mark, whereas in the Netherlands every grade counts towards the final, and since the very beginning you might be pressured to perform well to get in the Honours College or get a cum laude. Neither of these two strikingly different scenarios is either “good” or “bad”, as they just shift the selection either at the entrance stage of a programme or in the course thereof - I personally favour the latter, as it gives at least a chance to every student, without the need of denying the possibility of education to so many of them, who qualified but were not relatively good “enough” :) 

(Italian text below) - this is a picture of Groningen shot from a friend’s balcony :) 

By the time I had reached the penultimate year of my high-school, it was already pretty clear that I would study in the Netherlands. In defiance of the well-known anglophone tradition of applying to 10100 Universities to then cherry pick amongst those that were silly enough to offer a place, I committed myself to just one, the University of Groningen, and, given that a) I liked the programme and b) I was accepted early decision, I saw no reason to further struggle with Studielink (the nation-wide University application engine, aka the smaller, dumber brother of the English UCAS). 

This chapter number 1 of my blog will give an overview of 1. application procedures, 2. entry requirements, 3. choosing programmes and, last but not least, 4. the academic culture in the country. 

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Questa è una foto di Groningen dal terrazzo d’un’amica :) 

Quando raggiunsi il penultimo anno di liceo, era già abbastanza chiaro che avrei studiato nei Paesi Bassi. Contro la tradizione anglofona che consiste nel fare richiesta a milioni di University per poi seleziorne una tra quelle che sono state così sciocche da offrire un posto, mi sono dedicato ad una soltanto, l’università di Groningen, e, siccome a) mi piaceva il programma e b) fai accettato presto, non vidi alcuna ragione per continuare a fare fatica con studilink (il motore di richieste universitarie nazionale, aka il fratello piccolo e scemo dello UCAS inglese).  Questo capitolo numero 1 del mio blog (interamente in inglese!) darà un impressione del 1. processo di applicazione, 2. requisiti d’ingresso, 3. come scegliere un programma e, ultimo ma non meno importante, 4. la cultura accademica nel paese. 

Today: Applications !

There are two very important things Italians must know about applying for University abroad: 1) you must start early. 2) you must be ready to do things (like a CV) that you have probably never done before.

As far as deadlines are concerned, while competition isn’t as fierce as it might be somewhere in the UK, and while the deadlines here might not fall as early as in other places, you definitely cannot wait until the last moment to apply. Ulike Italy, where you can enroll in a Law programme until the second month after the start of the actual degree (madness!) - forget these jokes, here you need to know what you want in life at the very least 6/7 months before the start of the degree, worst case scenario. Deadlines, however, vary per programme. For undergraduate studies, they usually fall around may, by which time you must have submitted references, English language results, letter of motivation, CV, a proof of graduation (I still get seizures if I think about it), transcripts of grades (in English) and for specific programmes additional evidence (like a GMAT for Economics).  Regarding the preparation of documents you have never dealt with before, it’s really needless to be concerned: while the letter of motivation is highly course-specific, the CV just needs to highlight your academic achievements or all of those things which you might not otherwise include in the letter of motivation. Good luck, on the other hand, with the letters of reference! My English language teacher was so proud that at least 1 of her students would study abroad that she not only refused to write me a letter of reference (busy woman) but also later refused to sign it, for a comma was missing (rigorous, principled woman), forcing me to rewrite and print the whole damn thing. Similarly, the secretariat of my school is in the habit of issuing the actual signed diplomas some 3 or 4 years after students graduate. Since in Italian Universities you needn’t exhibit proof of high school graduation until you actually finish your degree (this is beyond me), and since I was just one weirdo stubbornly asking them a piece of paper that proved my graduation, I remember spending several days in the middle of August, in my high school, sobbing for an A4 that stated proof of graduation  -otherwise, I said, I simply won’t be accepted in my programme! It took the school chief and some genuine Italian shouting to finally produce one, which I then had to translate: luck smiled at me, and my English teacher was around that day, and agreed to certify the translation, under the condition that I would translate it. So I hid in a room, translated it, and she then brought the document to the secretary for the stamp of the school - it was around the beginning of August, and some days later I would have flown to the Netherlands to start my degree.

The bottom-line of all of this is: the process per se is *simple*, in every other country, students take a week or two to get together all the documents and apply. In Italy, chances are, it might take you some months - so the responsibility is on you to get ahead of the system and start early. Your Italian professors / school administrators are not always just voluntarily getting in the way of you and your future: most of the times, they simply have no idea about what you need, how to help you get it, and are very unfamiliar with the procedures. So make it clear as soon as you can and demand what you need.

This blog (Italian text below) is aimed at providing support to any High School or University student from (the South of) Italy, who, in the dark of his/her cluelessness, is considering or already in the process of applying for University abroad (in Europe), whether for Undergraduate or Graduate studies.

My name is Giancarlo, 21, am originally from Naples, about to complete my Bachelor’s degree in Law at the University of Groningen, in the Netherlands and currently on exchange at the University of Edinburgh, in the United Kingdom. Why help young Italian talents make their overseas academic plans more concrete, you ask? Simple! Because nobody was there for me 4 years ago, when, having never ever ever left my country, I was so resolved to study in Northern Europe. Nobody to tell me “I’ve done that! Look, it is not impossible” – I’m telling you, not even the slightest encouragement of “I don’t know the how-to of studying abroad, but this is a brilliant idea!”. Quite the opposite: in spite of being on top of my class in high school, in a very respectable and uptight Liceo Classico, all my professors just loved to stress how much better education would be in Naples. While I trust they did not have malicious intents and that they genuinely believed University was better in Naples (*cough*), I was convinced otherwise. Accordingly, I embarked in a still ongoing North European adventure whose juicy details will be constantly oozing out of my fact-dense posts.

So, don’t know where to start looking for University matters? Brace yourself, that’s where I step in.

This Blog is divided in two macro-sections: The first concerns primarily all the nitty gritty Academic Aspects of studying abroad – as in, requirements, language, where-to-best-study-what. The second addresses Cultural Differences, as perceived by me and will thrive on stimulating conversations and questions and contributions that you will (hopefully!) pose.

While I will be more than happy to relate my personal experience (naturally), beware: this blog isn’t centred around me – but rather wants to help people who plan to study and ultimately live abroad, even if this thought just crossed your mind and you never bothered look up anything concrete. My experience will only be the lens for my (bold) claims about Northern Europe.

I am warmly hopeful to see some wildly overly excited young, bright, ambitious Italians, to remember how it first felt – the day I headed to the airport for the Netherlands without a return ticket to show everybody at University the irreparable damage (yet, the life-long teachings) that a Liceo Classico can inflict on you.

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Questo blog intende fornire supporto a qualunque studente liceale o universitario italiano (specialmente dal Sud), che, nel buio del proprio disorientamento, considera o è già nel processo di fare richesta per l’università all’estero (in Europa), sia per una triennale o per un master.