'Students are walking around in the hall of Atlas, either in small groups or on their own, to look at the elective options available for their program in the second or third year. Although he thinks that making your own choices is “always a good thing,” it’s still not an easy task for Marco van Wijk. It is not yet entirely clear to the first-year Electrical Engineering student what options are available to him outside his own program. Like most visitors at this info market, he has only taken nine courses so far. “I did look around online a bit, but I’ve been mostly focused on obtaining my BSA.” He walks right past the biomedical booths. “I’m more interested in automotive or renewable energy.” He thinks the event is definitely useful and heads off in search of people who can tell him what he wants to know.

What suits you?

“You can choose to specialize by delving deeper into a particular subject area, or alternatively, you can build a broader profile by combining several subject areas,” says ESA staff member Anouk van den Kerkhof, a member of the Check Your Match Team. “Students can also use their elective space for an honors program or a second-degree teaching qualification in secondary education. When putting together their bachelor’s program, they’re required to choose a fitting USE learning trajectory (15 ECTS) and complete 45 ECTS of elective space.”

Psychology & Technology student Isa van Herrewegen has already obtained five elective credits in an ICT track. For info on the USE learning trajectory Entrepreneurial action offered by TU/e innovation Space, she talks to Menno Laveaux. She could also have asked him her questions at home, for that matter, since they are roommates and he is her boyfriend, but that is beside the point. The brochure for the new USE learning trajectory subtly states that it is “Bachelor 2.0 proof”. This is because some of the elective packages are being offered for the last time right now.

Security

While waiting in line at the booth for the elective package Security, Lucas van Honk explains why he wants to ask questions about prerequisites, workloads or what a course assignment might look like. “I’ve always been interested in security. My profile paper at pre-university secondary school was also related to this field. I even emailed a professor of Security here at TU/e to ask questions. I’m not a hacker. It’s not about breaking in for me, but rather about building systems.”

First-year student Vera Verschuren is not yet as decided as Lucas. Like the two fellow Mechanical Engineering students standing next to her, she does not yet know what direction to look in. “Tomorrow, there’s another info market (different elective packages and USE learning trajectories are presented on the two days, Ed.) and I might also consult an academic advisor. We just received info on USE, which is already very nice.”