Are there any American students out there who have any experience at any of the university colleges in the Netherlands (Leiden, Amsterdam, Utrecht, Maastricht, Groningen)? Is this a good choice?
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@Bigmacattack has a D who will attend one.
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And good choice for what? Seems like a liberal arts education at a LAC/honors college within a larger Dutch uni. Majors won’t be very specialized. Classes will be small. Student body will be international. Price will seem pretty cheap to Americans. Seen as prestigious by the Dutch.
I’ve had Dutch expat friends send their American-curriculum international school educated kids back to tbe NL to attend college. Their kids ironically had an advantage in their native country because a lot of the univerisity classes were conducted in English.
Yep. All the university college classes are in English, but they do want people who know foreign languages.
The University Colleges are viewed as quite prestigious in the Netherlands. Classes are very small and taught in English. Note that Leiden’s university college’s campus is in the Hague and is specialized in politics/IR.
Know that these colleges are intended as a stepping stone, generally, for graduate studies of some sort. The majors themselves are not specialized (I believe they’re just “humanities”, “social science” or “science”) and feature concentrations/focuses.
That being said they are considered pretty highly and a friend I have at UC Maastricht genuinely loves the curriculum.
I will say that Groningen and to a lesser degree Maastricht may not be the most exciting places in the Netherlands for an American student.
Does anyone happen to know if graduates of Dutch university colleges face difficulties getting into Master’s programs at Dutch universities?
Dutch university college students face generally no difficulties getting into masters programs at Dutch or other EU universities. Remember that they are essentially LACs partnered with the larger universities in the cities they’re in. Some programs do need extra remedial work though: medicine needs a bridge year and law and psychology need a more specific diploma, I believe. On Amsterdam’s university college they listed that their graduates have been accepted to masters programs at these universities: VU, the University of Amsterdam, Leiden, Utrecht, Duisenberg School of Finance, Oxford, Cambridge, London School of Economics, Uppsala…
I think your only issues would arise with regulated programs like medicine, psychology and law.
Note that classes in a particular subject may be limited at a university college but at least at AUC, a student there may take any classes at the parent universities. Likely the case at others as well. In that sense, there are sort of like a cross between a LAC and well-developed honors college.
OP, DD2 will be attending Amsterdam UC this fall, and we visited Utrecht and Roosevelt UCs. We liked all 3. Make sure you meet their admission requirements, they have minimum IB and AP levels you’ll need.
We restricted our visit to these 3 as they are the only ones in the Netherlands with a US FAFSA code. If you will be using 529 savings plan money, or taking out some kinds of loans to pay for college, the University within which the UC is administratively housed must have a FAFSA code. Otherwise, for 529 money you’ll pay taxes, and not even sure if you could get loans. So while Leiden, Maastrich, Groningen, and Erasmus may have great UCs, it didn’t make any financial sense for DD2 to look at them since we’re using 529 plan savings.
@Bigmacattack – congratulations to your daughter! May we request occasional updates on how she’s doing, what her impressions/experiences are? I think many readers would find it very interesting, and helpful. TIA.
I second this. It’ll be very interesting.
Bicmacattack: Good point on 529 savings plans, but just to clarify a bit, if you use those funds at a place that does not have a FAFSA code, you only pay taxes and a small penalty on the capital gains, not on the whole amount. So the impact is quite small, actually and, IMHO, may not be a reason to overlook a UC that otherwise might be a better fit.
I would not consider 10% penalty a small penalty, even if it is only on gains. And paying taxes kills it.