I started my university career studying International Business in Berlin Hochschule für Technik und Wirtschaft (HTW) in the fall 2017. I was mainly motivated to start this school in order to have an "excuse" to stay in Berlin. Of course, in addition, business studies are something useful for the future and additionally, the fact that this particular study program is in English was tempting. As a cherry on top, there was not any additional entrance examination as in Germany you apply with the high school final grades. So it was easy to apply - and I got in!
The HTW is a fine school. I've found most of my classes interesting and people are nice, althought the Finnish type suuper united university community is missing for sure. On the other hand, I really have enjoyed the German law which states that being present at the class is not mandatory, thus your presence or absence basically can not affect your grade. This rule allowed me to spend the second semester travelling abroad and only to show up in Berlin to take the exams... Naaaish!
Anyways, last fall i ran into some major issues with HTW and its inflexibility. I had intended to do the mandatory practical internship in the fall 2019 and the work had already started when i got the news that I had been accepted for the ERASMUS exchange semester in Spain. The spring semester in Valencia starts in late January like in the normal countries... But because the semesters in Germany are all messed up going from October to February and April to July - some scheduling issues came up. According the original internship plan I would have already been in Spain during the last weeks of my planned internship and HTW does not put up with that kind of slacking. According to them the internship needs to be 95 consecutive working days, eight hours a day, state holidays free but no additional holidays allowed. Period. They were not willing to allow working on the weekends, nor longer working days during the week to make up hours and finish the internship before moving to Valencia.
Yup no chance. In the end had to cancel the whole internship. Frustrating af!! This made my so annoyed with HTW that I was ready to give up on it and apply to some other schools. Byye bitches!
I had heard of a fully online International business program held by Turku University of Applied Sciences (TUAS) from my friend Muisu. The school is based in Finland but due to the fully online form you can participate from anywhere, like atm muisu is studying in this program while living in Canada. So yes sounded like a sweet deal! I also did some emailing with this program's study guidance councellor to check whether i can get my former studies in Berlin and Valencia credited, and everything seemed to be smooth - so i applied.
On the other hand, the Covid-19 mixed up the university application process across the Finland as most of the entrance examinations were cancelled to avoid masses of people in the crowded spaces... Instead of using those suuuper studious entrance exams, like literally people study for months to take them, the universities decided to increase the amount of students accepted in by their marks from the high school finals. Uh my time had finally came! I didn't study for those high school finals for no reason! So yes I took a chance and randomly applied for psychology program and also for other business/economics programs in Finnish universities.
The application times for English and Finnish programs were separated - and this allowed me to be approved into two schools: the online International Business program by TUAS and to the Aalto University's Master of Economics program.
Both of these options have their pros and cons. First of all the online school is, well _online_ and definitely provides some freedom. Additionally, after the talks with the online school study counsel he promised that I could get all my credit transferred which is lovely. Aalto university, on the other hand, is one of the most famous and respected universities in Finland and a degree from there is a big plus on the job market. In addition, the Aalto program includes studies till the Masters, which would cancel any additional master application process hassle. But in the contrary to the TUAS online program, Aalto only allows a half of the Bachelor degree credits (90ETC) to be credited from the other institutions. So basically, I would need to repeat a year... plz no :(
I wanna be done with Bachelors as fast as possible - so the online program it is! Pretty exciting! I have already started my thesis project and I am aiming to graduate by the end of the year which is like a semester earlier than I would have been done if I stayed in Berlin.
So far sounds like a winwin!!
Also my dear friends Kaksu and Krisu got in to school, andand me and Kaksu made the final school choice at the Mexican restaurant Yuca in Rovaniemi - and then we ate :) huhu happy!
