Suzan Blommestijn is a Dutch alumnus with a BSc in Psychology. She directly continued with a research master’s in Psychology. Having almost finished her master’s, she decided to switch to the Master of Computational Science. She wanted to learn more about modeling en programming as she only touched upon this in her previous studies and felt she did not want to pursue a career in the field of psychology.

She first worked at KPMG as a consultant in the forensic technology team and will now start as a data scientist at Data Science Lab. She chose to change jobs since she felt that KPMG was more focused on developing soft skills, whereas Suzan is more interested in improving the technical skills that she developed during the master’s.

The most important skills she learned during the master’s degree are programming in Python as well as the analytical manner of thinking. The way students could explore new subjects in practically any field using their acquired skills was valuable to her. “I learned that you could do almost anything. If there is something you are interested in or something that stands out to you, you can pursue it and work on it.” When asked what she would have seen differently, she would have preferred to have more support in mathematics.

Suzan is very happy with the choice she made by doing the master’s because she learned a lot and gained a lot of confidence. Moreover, some courses have made a large impact on her because of the enthusiasm of the professors. The thesis that she wrote at KPMG was also done with a lot of fun.

She noticed a large difference between the courses at the VU and the UvA. The classes at the UvA were more difficult, but the teachers would be more engaged in the teaching, whereas, the level was lower at VU, but the teachers, with a few exceptions, would not be very involved in teaching the students.  “As a consequence, I think that my grades were better for UVA courses, despite the much higher level. I put more effort into it because the teachers motivated me.” The classes at the VU are larger as well than at the UvA. She likes the idea of the joint-degree, but it was difficult to combine courses at both universities.

When asked about the balance between practice and theory, she did say that the master’s program is very theoretical. However, most courses have some form of projects which are often made with students from different backgrounds, which allow for complementary skills to be utilized.

The atmosphere in the master’s program is very pleasant, according to Suzan. The teachers did have preferences in terms of students and did not always accord the necessary time and energy to the weaker students, which she regarded as regrettable.

All in all, Suzan highly recommends the Master of Computational Science.