Details

• Netherlands
• BaWiSo-23
• Undergraduate
• SoSe 2026
• Time spent at the partner university: 4 months
• Contact: Login to see contact information

1. Preparation

First of all, do not stress yourself. It might feel overwhelming at first especially when you have to prepare everything before you go abroad. However, because you are taking care of all your things before you go abroad once you can just enjoy it. I traveled by plain and by train and I did so with the other students who went to Amsterdam with me (I met them in the IKK course and it was so helpful because we were all going through the same experience and therefore it wasn't so overwhelming).

2. Accommodation

Regarding the accommodation I was very lucky because WU and the VU (partneruniversity) took care of most of the things. They emailed us everything we needed to know and reminded us. In addition, in the course IKK we were also confronted with the housing topics and we got to know students who were in the same university as we were the period before. They helped us a lot with the housing and what we needed to know. I was living in a student housing also with the other students from the WU. It was very good price wise and it also was very nice because just students where living there so it felt very warm and you did not feel alone. It was very safe and because I was in the Netherlands I did not panic about it as well. I am (normally) a very anxious person when it comes to safety etc... however at the campus I felt very very safe. However, it is important that you prepare yourself for not the most clean things etc.. and because I did that I was not suprised that it was not too clean etc.

3. Academic life at host university

So the campus was so nice and so beautiful, also the economic building was so cool. Funny enough I was a very good student abroad, I took extremely nice courses (Can recommend: Leading Organizational Change/ Global Marketing Innovation). However, I thought in the Netherlands the academic culture is like in Hollywood movies where all of the students come to the classes and are very eager to engage with everyone. This was not the case at all. I was one of a few who always attended the classes - The teachers were very very cool, they reminded me of the ones from the movies. Compared to the WU I have to say that they were maybe a little bit more engaged and motivating (but I just took fur courses there so I do not know how comparable this is).

5. Every day life in the host country

Public transport: in Amsterdam you can easily pay by card but I did not use it a lot. As you may have heard in the city of bikes you travel a lot by bike and I also did that. I can recommend "Swapfiets", it is a company who rents bikes and almost every exchange student does that, price wise it is also very good. Safety was very good as already mentioned, but I have to say I did not go out a lot. I enjoyed the sport center very much because it was right next to where I lived (like on the student housing campus) and also very very good for the price (just 100 euros for 3 months - and you were able to go to the gym and also take all kinds of classes like pilates or tennis etc...). I did have a few friends but I have to say I was spending most of the time alone and it was totally fine.

6. Testimonial

Honestly, my exchange turned out completely different than I expected. I thought I’d be partying every day, but turns out I only went out twice and spent most of my time in nature, at the sauna and trying out new hobbies. I also had so much time for uni that my “straight A” self from school came back, and our project was even chosen as one of the best 6 out of 250 students ^^ Even with a not-so-great roommate situation, I’m super grateful I did it, because we only have one life and I want to make the most of it!