Badr comes from Morocco and is now a first-year Software Engineering student at Saxion. During his orientation phase, he joined one of the online open days, the Digital Discovery Day, to get an impression of what it’s like to study at Saxion.
Can you describe your process to choose a school?
First, I was hesitating between studying in France or in the Netherlands. I chose the Netherlands because I have family here and the relationship between students and professors is less based on the hierarchy than in France.
I made a list of five universities of applied sciences I wanted to join and was accepted to and eliminated a few depending on my criteria. These criteria were: a location not far from Amersfoort where I live, and a location close-by the train station so that I can just walk to my classes. After this first step, I started intense research on the remaining schools: it meant extensive search on websites, watching YouTube videos, following social media accounts, and attending online open doors. Saxion caught my attention thanks to the personal and informal approach to students. That’s when I joined the Digital Discovery Day, to learn more about the study programme I was interested in: the Software Engineering Bachelor programme.
This online open day helped me get rid of assumptions and feel confident with myself to choose my study programme.
What was your experience like during the Digital Discovery Day?
At that time, I was still living in Morocco, so the online experience the Digital Discovery Day offered was very convenient. I was very excited to discover my future school: What is the atmosphere like? Who will be my classmates? How is the contact with the teachers? It was very helpful to know what the atmosphere is like, but also to get to know the new country I would live in, and how the education system works there.
I could also have a peek into what the buildings look like thanks to Instagram lives. Knowing the atmosphere what very important to me, since it helps to project myself in the future: what my classrooms will look like, how it is to enter the building… I found Saxion’s buildings beautiful and could see myself studying there!
I felt safe during the livestreams. I listened to the teachers’ presentations and afterwards, I could talk with current students, and we even played games! I could ask the questions I had in my mind like: “Do I need to know mathematics to succeed in a Software Engineering programme?” Before joining, I thought that this type of programme would be too hard for me and that I might not succeed. But after talking with the current students, I realised that I have all my chances because they are just like me: they struggle and learn! It felt very good that they shared their experience in a realistic way, we all know that student life is a bumpy ride. This online open day helped me get rid of assumptions and feel confident with myself to choose my study programme.
