So, without further ado, here are a few, positive things to remember when the pressures of academia are making you question your very existence:

Become an Eindhovenaar

Depending on your need for connecting with your fellow human beings (no, you shouldn’t spend all of your time slumped over your computer), you’ll become somewhat of a local by studying at TU/e. In comparison to, say, British or American universities, Dutch institutions of higher education tend to offer less social societies. While that might sound like a negative, it can actually have a positive impact for making students feel more connected to the city around them. Social butterflies find themselves gravitating to off-campus groups such as the The Hub Eindhoven for Expats or to foreigner-friendly events such as the international quiz night.

We’re #1! We’re #1! (In the Netherlands…)

“I chose the Netherlands because TU/e is not only one of the best universities in Europe but in the world”, explains Industrial Engineering & Innovation Sciences student Santiago Ruiz of Colombia. And his choice was confirmed this year by the influential Academic Ranking of World Universities, also known as the Shanghai ranking. TU/e placed 49th in the field of Engineering/Technology and our Computer Science Department is in the top 100 - all of which means that we’re at the tippy-top of the rankings for all Dutch universities. Yay us!

Everyone speaks English

Most Dutch people have a solid command of English which means as an international student in the Netherlands, you can totally slack off and never learn a word of their language. (Though you should probably learn a few words, if for no other reason than to feel accomplished when you can master the Dutch ‘g’.) It’s an advantage that can be the deciding factor for many students when they’re considering where to study. Department of Mechanical Engineering alumnus Bobby Varocky says it was a key factor in his choice. “If you like cars and want to work in that industry, you immediately think about going to Germany. But when I was trying to make a choice about where to study, I started thinking about what would make my life easier. Knowing that people speak English here made me feel much more comfortable.”

Europe at Your Doorstep

The Netherlands is centrally-located and, as such, is the perfect launching point for your travels in the rest of Europe. You could be shopping in Paris after a four-hour drive, cycling Copenhagen’s streets after a 1 ½-hour flight or take a 7-hour train trip to slurp some beer in Munich. Bon voyage!

Foreigners Welcome

The Netherlands has historically been a model of religious and cultural tolerance and many Dutch people take pride in their country’s multicultural society. This deep-seated characteristic of Dutch life means that many foreigners feel immediately welcome upon arriving here for work or study. And this fact is reflected by the numbers of foreigners on our own campus and beyond in the city of Eindhoven - 18% of all TU/e students come from abroad and the city is home to over a 150 nationalities.

Het Stalen Ros (The steel horse)

American bachelor’s student Sarah Gebhard appreciates the quintessentially Dutch mode of transportation. “I love the biking culture here. It makes it easy for students to get around together.” Biking and the Netherlands are inextricably linked; you just can’t talk about one without the other. The country is flat, small, and hosts an amazing infrastructure of 35,000 kilometers of biking paths - which all means that your steel horse is the perfect way for you to get from point A to point B. That is, if you don’t forget to lock it… (Approximately 450,000 bikes get nicked in the Netherlands every year.)

Life is good!

In a survey released this past May by Dutchnews.nl, 84% of foreigners rated the quality of their lives in the Netherlands as good to great. Just seven people of the 1,300 surveyed said they weren’t happy living here. So, what makes for a happy life in Holland? For Ashish Yadav (Department of Mechanical Engineering) it was about finding the right mix. “As a student, your first instinct is to choose a good university with talented professors, with the freedom of choosing the courses you like. Second is to be in a place where you can find companies and international exposure and third is to have an English speaking community. Eindhoven provides me with all three.”

Small, practical and student-led  

Instead of large lecture halls crammed with a couple hundred students - a common occurrence in many other university systems - many classes at TU/e (and at other Dutch universities) take place in smaller groups. The professor is there to teach but also to facilitate discussions, prompting students to lead the class rather than sit back and simply absorb the information. The Dutch also tend to emphasize practical applications over pure theory which is one of TU/e’s greatest selling points, explains Department of Mathematics and Computer Science alumnus Hrishikesh Salunkhe: “It has one of the best relationships with industry and that was a really a motivating factor for me. I realized that I’m really motivated by working on something and seeing it end up in a product.”

And there you have it! Eight happy reasons why you’ve got it good in Eindhoven. Now tear this page out and tuck it under your pillow. You can always sneak a peek at it on one those rough days when you could use a little pick-me-up.