Erasmus University Rotterdam 2015/2016 Applicants

Hey guys.

I've applied for International Business Economics and got a conditional acceptance. Decided to start this thread up to see if there are any other potential students on here.

I applied for Economics and Business Economics, however, despite the fact that I am very keen on Rotterdam, the admissions office really managed to ruin my day today as they apparently do not accept my IGCSE English as Second Language and the fact that I do GCE A-Levels as sufficient proof of my English capabilities and want a IELTS or TOEFL test. I made the case today that technically I am at a British school since 4 years, therefore, I am meant to get exemption, but I am not too sure if they will be pragmatic enough to accept that. I will let you know if I do get a offer considering they accept my English situation because I am sure as hell not gonna go through the hassle to do a IELTS for them, even in the UK I would not have to go through this trouble so I see no point why I should start now...

On another note if you don't mind me asking, what does your offer look like?

You've got to be kidding me, bro. GCE A-levels should be more than enough proof. Heck IGCSE Second Language should be as well haha! I've done ig second language as well, however, I'm exempted from IELTS/TOEFL because I'm an American citizen.

Well they accepted me about ten days after applying as I applied literally the first day admissions were open. I'm doing two A-Levels and two AS-Levels (was doing three a-levels but the admissions office informed me that two AS can be taken instead of a full A-Level). I'm self-studying all these in one year so I'm not really expecting much..which is driving me crazy. As you know, Dutch universities don't have set requirements per say, yet they can revoke my acceptance if my grades aren't suffice I guess. It's a conditional offer, a really vague one at that. All they want is for me to obtain my GCE A-Level diploma..and that's it. So I'm not sure what'll be 'suffice' for them.

I wish I was kidding as it really annoyed me and still does haha, but the lady has so far not replied to my email so I hope that this could be a good sign that they are considering giving me my well deserve exemption after all...?

Yeah Erasmus has not been too entirely clear on what they consider a 'pass' for A-Levels. All other Unis usually see either a D or C as sufficient and usually if you do not meet your predicted grades it does not make much of a difference given you have passed, since this is usually the only condition of a conditional offer in the Netherlands.

it might be. let's hope that's the case..

And seriously man it's really ticking at me not knowing whether I'll meet the requirements or not. I've heard they're looking for at least B's from someone..but I'm not sure if that's entirely sure. I really hope it isn't :/

I truly do hope so because it would be shame to lose this option just because of a technicality, I shall keep you updated

I do know that for the IBA programme in their business school they require a triple B, however, I have never seen in black and white their minimum requirements for the IBEB programme. Have you tried perhaps emailing them yet for clarification because under these circumstances even once you get your grades around the 14th of August you won't know if made it in or not lol. Let me know if you do find it out it does intrigue me as well, I am still waiting for replies from Amsterdam and Utrecht as I got already a offer from Tilburg for Economics.

Yeah man, keep me updated!

I was just skimming through some old messages of when I was contacting the admissions office and this is what they told me:

ndeed, we would like to receive certified copies of your O-levels, your AS-levels and you’re A-level. The deadline for sending us those hardcopy documents will be the 1^st of August 2015.

"For the A-levels, we are willing to extend the deadline until 20^th of August 2015, if you will not be receiving your A-level before the 1^stof August 2015.

The above mentioned means that you will have admission on the basis of: 3 GCSE O-levels + GCE A-level mathematics, GCE A-level economics, GCE AS-level history and GCE AS-level psychology. The offer you received is a conditional offer. It will automatically turn into an unconditional offer once you obtained the above mentioned certificates. We do not request for certain grades on your final list of grades."

Do you think that means they'll accept me regardless of grades? Like if I screw up and end up getting C's? or a D or two?

Btw, I applied for Tilburg and got a conditional offer as well. I remember applying for Utrecht on studielink but they haven't contacted me since. Erasmus is my first choice regardless though!

Considering that they say that you only need to obtain the certificates and that they do not request for certain grades, I would assume they literally just need a pass being either a D or C, which then does beg the question how come and why it is different with the IBA programme where they request triple B's? Either way though it seems you and maybe I am soon in the clear on this matter from the looks of it.

Good luck with history btw that subject is making me want to cut my wrist at times. As for Utrecht if it makes a difference they want you to send them digitally scanned copies of all the documents required as well as then certified (by your college) hard copies of your existing diplomas and predicted grades, and then they will FINALLY start processing your application.

Erasmus is for sure my number one choice as well but if they do decide to bully me for my English then it is gonna be Utrecht, Amsterdam and Tilburg in the same order of priority respectively.

yeah, that's what I thought so too man! I think the only subject they're picky about is Maths? I'm fairly confident I can get a B in that though. And as for History I'll need all the luck I can get haha! Self-studying essay subjects are mind-blowingly tough. Hoping for a B though..

Btw, if you don't mind me asking, what A-Levels are you doing? Did you get a formal conditional offer btw? As soon as you do get one, you have a limit of two weeks to reply whether you are accepting the offer or not. I accepted. Does that mean that if I'm legally obliged to go to Erasmus then? And how is Utrecht's course? I haven't heard much about it. I mostly hear Erasmus & Tilburg as being the top dogs in terms of reputation with Erasmus ahead by a margin.

Yeah in the Netherlands for either Business or Economics or even both, they care primarily about Maths.

I have so far completed A-Level German (Grade A, I am a native btw) and AS-Level Business Studies (Grade B, which I chose not to disclose as I am really annoyed at the fact that I got in one unit 96/100 while in the other 60/100 meaning I was roughly 4 UMS away from an A also decided not to continue because Business and Economics are not always accepted combined) and currently I am re-taking and doing because of my bad experience last summer due to problems at the school and personal circumstances the AS & A2 units for Maths, Economics and History for which I am predicted AAB respectively, although I doubt history ha!

Personally since I have nowhere seen anything else on the matter, I see it this way if you accept the place you do not have to do take it, because you can choose not to pay and/or simply not send in the certified hard copies of your results in August, which if you do not do they have to dismiss you anyways so I highly doubt its binding in any form or shape, unless of course Studielink automatically withdraws your other options which has not yet happened to me. I think it merely serves for them as a indicator that you actually are interested in the offer they gave you and that they can count you in, hence when you apply to a numerus fixus lottery and you draw for example 350 out of 300 places, you still have a chance to get in if 51 people have decided to decline or not show up which then means you could still get your spot.

Erasmus obviously takes the cake in reputation and ranking (although Utrecht is not far behind), also the Utrecht course is very similar and exceeds Tilburg ranking wise. Although Tilburg has a good subject ranking for business and economics, their university ranking as a whole is around somewhere in the 400's which is kind of a turn off for me to be honest.

Oh! What period in history are you taking for History btw? And what board are you on for your A-Levels? AAB sounds great bro, hope you get the grades you want/deserve. I think I'll get a B in Maths as P3 (C3 +C4) is killing me. Economics at AS is fairly straightforward but Micro at A2 can get a little tricky with the graphs and not having a teacher around to support me. Still hope I can get an A though.

And yeah, logically, like you said..I haven't payed plus I haven't sent hard copies..etc. Also, I never asked, but what gave you the idea to study in the Netherlands? What prompted you to apply?

The exam board for all my A-Level exams is Edexcel. History for I take; Unit 1 Russia in revolution and Stalin's Russia, Unit 2 The experience of warfare in Britain, Unit 3 Superpower relations and Unit 4 I did the 100 year German depth study for my coursework. For Mathematics I still take the 2008 specification so my core exams are on separate papers and to be entirely honest core maths is all about practice and not being stubborn about the concepts and then you should be fine, while statistics is my personal nightmare especially S2 as at this stage I know S1 of by heart, but I hope it will go all okay and I wont suffer anything below a B as well Yeah Unit 3 economics gave me a heart attack at first as well with the graphs but it is literally as well all about applying them a few thousand times and then you will be able to do them in your sleep!

Actually to be completely honest the Netherlands was at first a backup plan of mine in case lightning does strike on the same place twice, so I did my UCAS application as well. However, ever since I have started to actually like the idea of the Netherlands for reasons such as the fees, lower entry requirements, relatively good reputation, proximity to Germany, environment (getting stabbed ain't as easy as in the UK) and greater focus on the individual in the courses. The only two downsides I see in the Netherlands is the inability of networking with the industry (financial in particular) as easily and the whole thing about the binding study advice and the first year pressure, but to be completely honest on my UCAS I only got Russell Group unis as I would never pay 9000 GBP for a no name uni, so if I do get my predicted grades and some decent offer I might re-consider the UK. However, right now I am pretty confident about the Netherlands asides from the two previously mentioned points that still bug me.

Hey there,

I applied for IBEB too! I got my conditional offer around a week ago. I'm doing the IB and got a predicted grade of 36 (its out of 45), My university councelor insisted that a 36/45 is what Erasmus is pretty much looking for when accepting students, however they have accepted students at 34/35. He also told me that to basically make my offer unconditional it would not require a simple pass because Erasmus Economics is pretty well known (it's 9th best economic school in Europe according to QS) so apparently I'd have to reach around a 30, which seems easy considering I feel my predictions were abit harsh. Unfortunatly I don't know the equivalent grades in A-levels. But either way I know that if you got your conditional offer, the offer is not as harsh as in the UK (where you need to get your predicted exactly or have to call begging them to let you in), they are more lenient with that.

Hey! nice to see fellow prospective students! Where are you from?

And yeah, I agree now with the predicted grades and all. Seems exactly how the Netherlands is. Is Erasmus your first choice?

I'm from Monaco (that tiny principality in the South of France) but I'm Russian.

Erasmus is indeed my first choice, though I may apply to University of Amsterdam. Though I like the feel of Rotterdam more. Though I'd be content with studying anywhere in the Netherlands, I love the country. My parents immigrated here in 1989 (ran away slightly before the Soviet Union collapsed) and i only managed to live here for my first 3 years before moving. Spent 15 years wanting to move back. Which i can hopefully finally do

Oh, that sounds interesting! I was doing A-Level History at first but I switched to two AS afterwards as it is MUCH MUCH easier. I'm doing my exams with CIE, for History I have Modern Europe from 1789-1917
(French Revolution up to Russian Revolution pretty much) And yeah man, I really hope so! I really want that A in Econ! And it's actually quite the opposite with me in terms of Maths, Stats seems to be my stronger side.

I hope you get in wherever it is you want to go, bud!

Yeah man I am sure you will get there with economics!

I will keep you updated how my Erasmus application turns out regardless, so far since Wednesday I have recieved no more messages from them...