My name is Maya Cornelis, I am a Dutch student from Zeeland, and I started studying at UCR (University College Roosevelt) in spring 2023. Straight away, a lot of people started asking me: “Why did you start in the spring? I did not even know you could do that” And to be honest, I did not even know I could do that until right before I did.
Personally, I had several reasons to start in February. What happened was, I finished middle school and signed up for studies in Amsterdam. Sadly, as we all know, finding a place to live as a student, or anyone for that matter right now is not an easy task, and I ended up having to unsubscribe from my studied in Amsterdam since I could not find a place to stay and traveling up and down would be impossible. For a few months I stayed home, did some relaxing, had a little job, but soon got bored. So yes, you will have to wait a few months to start studying as you cannot start at UCR while still finishing middle school. I was already looking a bachelor to start the next year, which is when I remembered UCR. I had attended an info session by them in middle school and I had been super interested in them prior, so I started looking into signing up for next year. Which is when my mom said: “Just start in the spring.” Of course, I had no idea what she was talking about, but then I started looking into it. It was so perfect for my situation. I would just start studying in February. I was a bit confused on whether that meant I would be joining in the middle of an active school year; does that mean I am already falling behind? But since UCR works with semesters that is not the case. You could start your first semester in the fall (September) and have your second semester in the spring (February). Then, four semesters later you graduate in the fall. Or like in my situation, you start your first semester in the spring (February), have your second semester in the fall (September) and then graduate four semesters later in the spring.
Looking back on it all now that I will be starting my third semester, I am glad things turned out the way they did. Before going to University I was nervous about all the things that I would have to give up, which for me included living in a close knit community, having small classes in school and personal relationships with your teachers, Coming from a town with roughly 4000 citizens total, moving to the big city was an actual nightmare, which is why living in the medium sized city of Middelburg came as an unexpected blessing. Since all students live on campus, you can visit your friends whenever you want. We all look out for each other, which is why I am grateful for the close-knit community UCR provides.