Quick Introduction

Hello! I am River Uittenbogaard Murase, a half-Dutch, half-Japanese student, and a freshman at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. I was born and raised in Tokyo my entire life, studying at K. International School Tokyo from first to twelfth grade. This is where I completed the IGCSE and DP courses, receiving my DP Diploma.

Why did I choose the Netherlands?

My main reason for studying abroad was because upon hearing about the Japanese university system briefly from my old classmates and some graduates, I believed it was not made to fulfill what I wanted to do, including the slight lack of English courses in my intended field of major which is psychology. Moreover, because I had been living in the same environment and going to the same school for practically my entire life, I had a desire for a new start in a new environment after completing the IB diploma program.

My father’s family in the Netherlands also offered me support if needed, helping me feel comfortable about moving there despite it being an entirely different continent. My Dutch citizenship also allowed me to access some government student grants, motivating me to choose the Netherlands. Specifically, I chose Utrecht University because as a city, Utrecht is known to be very student-friendly, with many young people in both universities and colleges living there. It is also quite a small city, making it cozy. Specifically for University College Utrecht (UCU), one of the advantages they explained was the interconnectedness and close-knit community of college students, which I sought because of having a very close-knit community back in high school.

How does the Dutch Application system work?

I applied to the University of Amsterdam and the University of Groningen for a Psychology major, as well as the University of Leiden for an Urban Studies major. The applications for Dutch universities are only limited to four, with a maximum of two being numerus fixus (meaning that only a limited amount of students are accepted). The application is also through a website called Studielink, where Dutch and international students can make an account. I was accepted into the University of Leiden and the University of Groningen (along with UCU), however, I did not make it in the rankings for the University of Amsterdam due to the entrance exam results. The essays in the Dutch university application systems are a bit different from what people may expect upon hearing from the US and UK applicants. I wrote two essays, which we call Motivation Letters, which essentially was about expressing my passion and enthusiasm for the majors I had planned to pursue. For the University of Groningen (applied for Psychology), it was a ‘maximum 1500 character’ (not words) text about why I wanted to pursue psychology, in which I wrote about my exposure to abnormal psychology in my middle school years that grew to a stronger passion leading me to take IB psychology. For UCU – which is a college system where you can pick and choose your major as you go along the years – the motivation letter was more about what you would expect yourself you pursue as a potential major and why. I had (and still have) a huge interest in both psychology and environmental studies, where I explained my interaction with those fields in earlier life and some other things about the field, where I mentioned two especially impressionable films.

Although there was the option, I decided not to apply early application, instead mostly from late November (when I started applying) to March (which was my last entrance exam for the University of Groningen). For the University of Leiden, it was simply sending my predicted grades (including some transcripts of previous grades). As for the University of Groningen, it was my transcripts, motivation letter, and entrance exam, and the University of Amsterdam required transcripts and entrance exam. UCU requires a motivation letter, an online interview, and a recommendation letter from a teacher, in addition to transcripts. Lastly, I do not remember in much detail, but I also required a CV (curriculum vitae, like a resume) for some applications. Overall, despite it sounding like it took a long time, the motivation letters were quite short, only requiring some changes after asking for some feedback from my university counselor. The CV was also very easy to make with a template used, with some feedback. The two entrance exams (for psychology) were a little intense, with the study period (one week) overlapping with some of my mock exams for school. However, overall it was not too time-consuming in my opinion.

Extracurriculars

My extracurricular activities in high school were mainly of services. I was a long-term member of the Rainbow Project – an LGBTQ+ alliance service for the advocacy of queer people and history – as well as Green Team – a service focusing on the environment. I was also tutoring younger students multiple times, teaching mathematics and English mostly. Needless to say, I was not a very athletic student at all, not doing any clubs that required more physical activities.

Cost of Living in Utrecht

I do not have scholarships or financial aid specifically from the university. However, as I am a Dutch citizen, I am granted some student financial grants (studiefinanciering) from the government of around €300 per month. The application of this was through DUO. The government grant of €300 is enough to live for a month, especially as the housing cost (including water, gas, and light) is included when paying for college tuition and as part of ‘campus fees’.

Each university had a non-refundable application fee of €100 each, which totaled €400.

Student Life at Utrecht University

I have not yet declared my major, being part of the university college system. However, I am heavily considering psychology, with perhaps an inter-major or minor in environmental studies or linguistics. The college tutors/mentors encourage us to explore our interests in the first year before declaring a major later on, and these interests are explored through level 1 (beginner level) courses. This makes it less stressful and more interactive because not everyone has prior experience or knowledge, allowing me and others to get newer ideas and opinions. I have chosen to explore psychology, linguistics, cognitive neuroscience, and environmental studies.

The academic workload has been very manageable, especially in comparison to the IB DP times. My college expects us to take four courses per semester, where we would have two classes of each course per week. This is very different in comparison to the six different subjects and six periods of classes I had during the IB DP. These four courses may have different expectations for how ‘prepared’ you are for classes, where some professors expect students to read parts of the textbook prior to class or extra reading material, whereas some professors teach most of it during class and expect you to review some things separately afterward. The more major assessments like essays were relatively easy to complete with how the IB had prepared me to write long academic writing, making it less straining for me, at least in the first semester so far. With only two classes for each four courses, I had many days of the week with an open afternoon, along with my Fridays being completely free for my first semester. This made the work-life balance very easy to regulate, also allowing me to have more time to adjust my life by taking care of myself, like cooking, laundry, shopping for groceries, and cleaning the house.

Social Life at Utrecht

My official first week in the college was more of the introductory week, where we were assigned ‘families’, with ‘parents’ (currently 2nd and 3rd-year students) and ‘siblings’ (who are also first years or coming for exchange). We do many activities as these ‘families’, making the adaptation process much more smooth than going into classes with no one to ask for support if needed. The activities were more about entertainment, as academics had not started yet, making it also very casual and unstressful.

Unfortunately, I am not that much of a social person so I do not go to parties, despite the existence of the college bar, or committees. Since we live on campus (mandatory for first and second years, optional for third years as a 3-year-course), I tend to spend more time in my own room, or talking to my fellow unitmates, who are the people I share the kitchen, living room and bathrooms with. Occasionally, I spend time with my friends in college, going to their units (houses) or in empty classrooms where we can project movies and bring in snacks.

In my experience, I was very worried about making friends, since I had not really made new friends outside of my class in high school, which many of my friends I have had from primary and middle school. Although I felt a little out of place in the first week or two, I was able to find people with similar backgrounds or interests who I consider my friends. I am unsure if this is a helpful tip, but finding groups of people who are of similar backgrounds – for me, fellow Japanese students – was helpful to find people who I could relate to and talk to easily. Moreover, it was very nice to find people from college on social media, especially Instagram, and find people with similar interests, who I could talk to online but also in real life in the college as well.

My Future Plans

My current plan after graduating from UCU is to find a master's program in my major, which I expect to be psychology. The reason for this choice is that the certificate I will receive from a Liberal Arts & Science College is not monodisciplinary (specific to one field) which would give me a Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Science instead of a Bachelor of Psychology, for example. By hopefully taking a master’s after the bachelor course, I would like to more specifically study in the discipline and educate myself further for my career as well.