During my first master’s, which was mostly computer-unrelated, I had started to code and discovered that programming gave me access to all this power inside of my computer. I started with simple scripts and taught myself more and more, slowly moving on to more difficult problems. But in the end, I felt that my approach had been somewhat chaotic and that I lacked knowledge about, for example, conventions, efficiency and libraries.

When the end of my former master’s came closer, I started looking into jobs but also potential studies. I felt I was not really done with university and hoped to find something where I could learn about programming in a much more organized way and improve in the areas where I felt I was lacking so far. When I stumbled upon the Computational Science master’s, it appeared like a perfect amalgamation of the natural sciences I have been interested in for all my life, and my newly-found interest of programming. This was what I wanted.

Since I was a self-taught coder, and the math I had in my prior studies did not exceed the high school level, I was worried that I might be unsuitable for this master’s. Nonetheless, I was accepted and was told which areas I should work on to be ready for the start of the studies. They even provided a list of reading material to do so. While some of these links were sadly outdated, the remaining ones gave me confidence that I could start this degree. 

This also meant that I had to start looking into housing, which was a really dissatisfying and stressful experience. Especially as an international student, who didn’t know any of the sites and only very few people here in Amsterdam, I worried that I could not find anything affordable. Luckily the university helped out with this and got me something for a year. It was somewhat far out, and not necessarily the nicest building I have ever lived in, but I am very thankful nonetheless, since it gave me time to find something new.

With the housing settled, I was set for starting the studies, and since then, I have really learned a lot. My coding has improved massively, and even more so, my understanding of mathematics. In the beginning, it felt like there were many things I was expected to know but simply didn’t. While these things were not taught in the lectures, I was not left alone either. A math tutor was available with whom we could meet up once a week and discuss everything from the most basic to the most complicated questions. With him, we would always discuss the lectures and concepts we hadn’t fully grasped. I found this incredibly valuable. On the coding side, my fellow students were my biggest asset. We all came from different backgrounds and had different kinds of knowledge; we were always willing to help each other out. Group works were quite common, and I have learned many new concepts from them.

I also really appreciated the social life during the master’s so far. The weekly “Seminars in Computational Science” were conveniently positioned just before the drinks of our study association, so students could go there together and get to know each other more. A pub quiz was organized for us. We had monthly free drinks to meet other first and second-year students but also university staff. We were encouraged to make a WhatsApp group for our year. Projects were often done in teams. All these things contributed to getting to know many of my fellow students and build some close friendships, which made this year a very enjoyable experience.

Living here as an international poses almost no problem. Almost everyone speaks English, and learning the basics of Dutch is also not too hard. The student life is great, and Amsterdam is a beautiful city. The bureaucracy is sometimes a bit hard to understand since some forms only exist in Dutch, but your fellow students will always be willing to help you out on those. The housing situation is an obvious downside, but I don’t think much can be done about that.

My main concern about the master’s CLS can be summed up under the term “Communication”. It was sometimes hard to come by information, and, more than once, already announced things were changed because there had been some miscommunication. This, however, never became a real problem and was annoying at most.

Overall I would definitely recommend these studies. I would recommend the Netherlands and Amsterdam, but I would also recommend looking into housing as early as possible, and preparing well for this degree.