I’m the Student Coach for Biotechnology

In addition to completing my Master’s and being on the board of ISOW I am also a student coach for biotechnology, so there is a good chance I have already communicated via email to many of you reading this blog. On the webpage for Biotechnology there is the option to message the student coach and I am the person on the other end. Hi, nice to meet you!

In this post, I thought I would share my experience with you so if you do need to talk to a student coach you can make it as productive as possible!

I receive between 5 to 10 emails per day from interested students all over the world. I really like reading and talking to these students and learning about their background and interests. Some students just ask a direct question, whilst others provide a paragraph explaining their life story and their goals before asking their question. Both methods are great but when I know more about the future student I feel that I can answer their question easier and provide them with more useful information. So, if you are messaging a student coach I would recommend you include as much detail as possible in your question as it really helps the person on the other end.

I receive between 5 to 10 emails per day from interested students all over the world.

Scholarships

I tend to get a lot of the same questions, for example, questions about scholarships and if the university offers any scholarships. The short answer is no, Wageningen does not have any scholarship programmes, however, the university does support and accept a number of scholarships from within and outside of the Netherlands. When I was first applying for biotechnology I too was looking for scholarships as every university in Australia has a number of scholarships for current and future students. When I discovered the university does not offer any scholarships I was a bit confused, but I don’t think many Dutch universities have a scholarship programme. So, if you are looking for a scholarship from WUR you are out of luck, but there are many great organisations in the Netherlands that may be able to help out.

Wageningen does not have any scholarship programmes, however, the university does support and accept a number of scholarships from within and outside of the Netherlands.

Be a student for a day

In addition to answering questions, I show future students around the university for the “student for a day” experience. We meet in the morning and they follow me around to classes and I give them a tour of the university. I have only been in WUR since February 2017 so I am not an expert on the university but explaining how our master’s programme works really makes me appreciate the university and the courses. This period I was taking Bioprocess design (the academic consultancy training course for biotechnology) which is 100% group work. I had a few students visit during this course and did feel pretty bad because all I could offer was watching us work (mostly behind computers in silent), but they didn’t seem to mind, they got to meet my group members who specialise in other fields and chat to them.

I really enjoy meeting future students and answering their questions and showing them our beautiful university.

Being a student coach is quite a bit of work but also a lot of fun. If you are reading this blog and can’t decide if WUR is the right fit for you, I would recommend contacting your student coach as they are all lovely and more than happy to help.