Studying Multiple Degrees Simultaneously - #StudentStories Interview Series #2

  Samudraki's Saturdays

In today's interview I spoke to a final year student who took up multiple degrees at once and is about to start their thesis and wrap up their bachelor's. Read below to find out more about balancing multiple studies and having an active social life. 

Q. What do you study at university?

A. I'm studying my bachelor's in Astronomy, Applied Physics and Mathematics. Yes, I am doing 3 separate degrees together! 

Q. Oh wow! What made you decide to take up multiple degrees at once? 

A. So I actually started with Astronomy in the first year, but I thought it was not very challenging. I decided to take up another degree that will complement my studies and give me more in-depth knowledge about the inner workings of the universe. So I took up Applied Physics & Mathematics in the second year. Also, the government subsides the degrees if you pass them all at once so it was definitely cheaper and more time-effective instead of paying alot of fees for each individual degree one after the other and taking 9 years to finish my bachelors!

Q. So how did you find the experience of following such different studies? 

A. To be honest, crushing!!! But that's because of personal problems and I wish I could go back and reverse the damage done by procrastination. However, on the good side I will graduate with multiple degrees which will already make me an expert in my masters because my education is so broad that it gives me alot of room to be creative and innovative. It definitely is alot of hard work as you would assume since I'm doing three degrees which means triple the workload in the number of years it takes to graduate from just one degree. Luckily for me, these degrees had 3/4th of a year overlap in courses so initially it was manageable. Soon I will be starting my thesis and I'm nervous but excited to tackle three research projects at once. Hopefully I can find a nice overlap and do a combined project but look at the same problem from 3 perspectives.

Q. What's your daily routine like? 

A. So pretty much it's like a regular university routine - wake up, breakfast, shower, go to class and then home. The only difference for me is that most students come home and relax or spend time with their friends but I have to catch up on courses and lectures that I missed, coordinate with peers for notes and email professors and TA's for extra resources on top of the regular self study sessions in the night. So I sleep very late and wake up very early. 

Q. That sounds intense, do you even have time for a social life? 

A. Actually, I am pretty active in a few study associations, am part of a local sports team and even have a part-time job! Yes I know, you wouldn't think that I would have time for all these, but I guess you can say I have more than 24 hours on my clock! Just joking, I prioritise my work in such a way that I schedule in time for all these activities and never cancel them. I believe that being a student and having a student life does not just limit to being in the library with your books, or being a party animal. It requires a good balance to keep the mind and soul happy!

Q. Seems like you have it all figured out, so what's your secret to time management? 

A. So, you don't really realise how much time you actually have with so many courses to manage to be really honest. The one thing that seemed to work for me was that I would skip as many lectures as possible to get time during the day and study by myself and re-watch the lectures later or take notes from peers as much as possible. Since we anyways had to do self-study after the lectures, I just tried to self study the whole day and use the lecture slides as reference. In my classes the lecture slides were very informative and referred to the books alot, so I didn't feel like I was missing out much in the lectures. If I did feel lost I would just contact the professor directly or go to the TA's and ask them my doubts during tutorials. 

I've joined all the Whatsapp groups for my classes and I make sure that all my homework is done one week prior to the deadline because that is crucial to stay on top my game. This also gives me enough time to study for the exams because I could have upto 9 exams in one block and I couldn't afford to have any resit exams. This way I managed to study during the day, which would free up my evenings for socialising or sporting.

Q. What's a major drawback you have experienced? 

A. There are quiet a few drawbacks, the obvious ones being drowned in alot of workload, missing classes due to schedule clashes and multiple exams in one day but that's something I signed up for when I decided to these together. However, what I didn't expect was that it was quite a lonely journey through university because of the countless hours of self-studying, and making friends was extremely hard when you have new classmates in every course! So eventually depression hit me and I saw a drop in my grades which caused me some study delay later on in my university journey. It's all a great learning experience because now I'm so close to the finish line and I honestly wouldn't have done it any other way because I gained so much knowledge so quickly. 

Q. How would you say studying multiple degrees at once vs separately helps in gaining knowledge? 

A. Yes I did initially start off with just one degree, but in all honesty the first year was actually spent in trying to make friends at university so I didn't do alot of studying. Once I added the other two degrees I realised that I had to cut back on courses to have a balance and not have alot of backlog, but also be able to give my full attention to those courses and really immerse myself in the knowldege. Doing multple degrees at once teaches you that alot more exists than just the field you're in, and it makes you appreciate the work previously done by scientist to obtain the knowledge we have today. The best part you ask? It makes me very impressive and cool towards other students and on my CV!

Q. Finally, why did you choose to study in The Netherlands?

A. I come from Germany so it was the closest option to home. I definitely wanted the whole university experience and living independently thing, but I also wanted the option to come home whenever I want and not have to take a flight to a country across the ocean or outside the EU. Plus the languages and cultures are quite similar to my own, so it makes it easier to move without getting too far out of my comfort zone. Adding to that, the Astronomy program at my university was a top-ranking study and one of the best in the country as well as in Europe, so it was a no-brainer really.

I hope you liked today's interview and got to know a little bit more about managing social life and studies successfully. Let me know your experiences as a multiple-degree student studying in The Netherlands in the comments section. 

Do you have a story you want to share? Email me at samudraki.blog@gmail.com to be featured! 

XO, Samudraki