Part 1 of The Ultimate College Guide

Picture me in a university!

Very much indeed. I’m on my way to entering college next year. Or, let’s rephrase this and say that I should be on my way to college and spend hours thinking about what I want to make out of my life. After having been pestered with questions about future and what it should have in store for me, I finally decided to utter my ideas about this topic publicly, so that questions related with college/university are covered. This is my Ulimate Guide to Philipp’s College Decision. Hopefully I will be able to create a series out of this sujet and tell you about the whole process of finding, enrolling at and experiencing the branch of study I will have picked by August 2008.

The System, Deadlines and Things I better get done

Before I go into detail about things I could imagine to study, I want to let you know about the Austrian system. This is the system I will start studying and I expectantly will go abroad from.

Universities that are state-run do not require any kind of acceptance process. You are admitted with an Austrian Matura (Reifezeugnis) or a certificate that qualifies you to study at a university level.

If you attend Austrian Fachhochschulen (FH) you have to apply with a letter of motivation and you have to meet requirements (good grades, confident presentation at an interview, language skills, general education, practical and written tests). You are filtered since FHs offer limited number of places each year. If you do not get into an FH, a lot of people try for a university alternative. FHs in general offer very specific branches and their education is practical in opposition to the university’s general and theoretical education. 

The application deadline date depends on what school you decide to attend. FHs have a strict date set while universities provide a larger time-frame for applications.

The WU (Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien, university of economics in Vienna) asks freshmen to enroll (online) from 16 June 2008 where the applicant receives a date where he/she needs to show up at the university to pay the tuition, show their Matura certificate and get other organizational things done.

The University of Vienna (all kinds of branches) asks people to enroll between the 1 July 2008 until 15 October 2008.

Initial application steps are usually done online. More information about how to start studying after passing the A-levels (Matura) at the main university in Vienna (uni-vie.ac.at): Student Point Studienbeginn nach Matura.

The Application Itself

So for an application at an state run university (unless it is medicine and some other exceptions), I only need to show my Matura certificate, my passport and I’m done. “Accepted.” That seems quite easy compare to the martyrdom of other countries (as in US college application cramps).

A semester costs about EUR 363.36 (plus an annual fee of EUR 15,86 - Studierendenbeitrag). This doesn’t cover books and other utensils that are required throughout the university year. Not even mentioning housing (e.g.: dorm room) costs.

My First Intuition

A good tip when a decision needs to be made is following your intuition. A brainstorming might help to express that intuition. After doing this brain storming I realized that the groups of Travel Abroad, Clichés, Media, functions (like marketing, hub function) and Office didn’t become apparent for no reason. What I forgot to mention and add to the groups was that there might have to be time for some kind of family at some point. I couldn’t express it in a more vague fashion.

The fields I want to work in: economics, PR, IR, politics, media (advertisement, internet,…), languages:

My tip if you’re in a similar position and also about to make the “decision of your life”, take a blanch piece of paper and some time. Point out your wishes, the clichés of the job you’re interested, the functions you will be offering and all that. It takes about 10 min. to come to a reasonable result.

Make sure you follow the I’m On My Way (the Ultimate College Guide) series because next week I am going to talk about the options of branches that result from this brainstorm and maybe, I changed my mind on some points. This series should support the decision progress/process.