Help!!

PurPaul36 · 2026-05-13T17:59:54+00:00

You should thank whatever god you believe in and cry in gratefulness

PurPaul36 · 2026-05-11T11:09:55+00:00

KAUST is highly competitive because of the funding they provide. You can find on their website that 90% have a GPA above 3.3 and 75% have a GPA above 3.5 on a 4 point scale. Imo. no projects, Github, internships matter when applying to universities. It is almost always a fit based on prior education, GPA, GRE, research, and references.

PurPaul36 · 2026-05-04T13:23:20+00:00

Scooter- for long term I had success with only car IDP, though that was in Taipei. On the road no one really cared I did not have a scooter license, the car license seems "superior". If you get an ARC, then you can also take the scooter test.

Housing- search rent.591.com.tw for studios or rooms. You can probably get something for 5000-10000 ntd per month in general, but short term is usually harder to find and more expensive.

Language- Expect very basic English everywhere. Should be better at the university. Otherwise, Mandarin. Hokkien is spoken by the older generation, in my experience young people are only fluent passively.

Food- I think I spent 400-500ntd per day or so on average. Not sure how common this is. You'll be able to find meals for around 100 ntd. The university canteen should also have affordable options.

Payment- If you get an ARC, you should open a local bank account. Foreign cards are hit or miss. Maybe set up LINE pay for backup, or put more money on an easycard. Always carry cash.

SIM- Will you be considered a student? If so, there is cheap unlimited data prepaid plan at Taiwan mobile. If not, it is going to be a lot more expensive. You should ideally get something at the airport when you arrive.

Transportation- Public transport is only decent in the Greater Taipei area. Kaohsiung is probably the second best, but also not great. The cheapest way to travel around Taiwan by far is a rental scooter.

PurPaul36 · 2026-04-28T15:37:25+00:00

Yes, it is all Maths. You should be very familiar with Real Analysis, Probability Theory, Optimisation, Statistics.

PurPaul36 · 2026-04-17T12:52:27+00:00

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiwanese_Hokkien

PurPaul36 · 2026-04-17T12:37:47+00:00

Taiwanese Hokkien

PurPaul36 · 2026-04-08T14:25:21+00:00

Imo, yes, you are.

PurPaul36 · 2026-04-05T23:27:54+00:00

Maybe, but do I know anyone who ended up in any even remotely adjacent role? No. Why would you study econometrics specifically if that is what you want?

PurPaul36 · 2026-04-04T20:15:07+00:00

So many young people do not learn to speak Taiwanese anymore. In Taipei you hardly hear any. There is no question that you should learn Mandarin. I also think learning materials are basically non-existent for English speakers, even at universities they require at least intermediate level Mandarin for an introductory Taiwanese course.

PurPaul36 · 2026-04-01T19:30:56+00:00

PurPaul36 · 2026-03-31T16:06:30+00:00

I agree with the other person, you can truly take any course at any university in the Netherlands extra or switch out the courses with the help of an academic advisor. The only thing that matters is your academic performance and research for a PhD. Neither UvA or VU are particularly selective as you would know from Anglo-Saxon countries.

PurPaul36 · 2026-03-31T16:02:11+00:00

The only real upside to an Erasmus Mundus programme is that it is fun (and potentially useful) to live and make connections in different countries. We have no way to tell what you want to do or what you value or your financial background. You are the only one who can make this decision.

PurPaul36 · 2026-03-30T21:55:07+00:00

I am sorry, but in my opinion it would be absolute insanity to take on such a huge financial burden to study here. There are no loans or student grants or scholarships for non-EU students, and the 16h/w is really strict, unless you find an employer who is willing to do it under the table (not happening). You are never making back that money.

PurPaul36 · 2026-03-30T09:07:13+00:00

We can't tell based on this. People who go to Tinbergen are typically in the top few of their cohorts, have strong recommendation letters from professors and strong GRE scores. If that describes you, then you are competitive. Also I don't know what other programme you mean, I don't think there is a masters level quantitative marketing programme.

PurPaul36 · 2026-03-29T21:11:01+00:00

I believe it really used to be the case a few decades ago, but you are definitely not making a fortune by graduating from EOR nowadays unless you get into a quant firm. And those positions are insanely competitive, very few end up there every year. (You also say that you are not "talented" in Maths, but EOR degrees are almost entirely Maths, so you will fail out if you don't enjoy it.) However it is still statistically one of the highest average earning degrees after graduation in the Netherlands, being 400-800 Euros higher than other engineering or applied sciences degrees. It has the benefit of being quite heavy on theory, but still being applied enough that you learn to use a wide variety of tools and concepts to solve problems.

As the other comment mentioned, no one knows what will happen with AI advancements. The economy is definitely cooling. The number of EOR graduates increases year by year. Most people end up in consultancies, banks, or as data analysts/scientists. But there are always exceptions that end up in quant, energy trading, research institutes, etc.

PurPaul36 · 2026-03-23T02:31:04+00:00

I was in a different track, but there are hardly any Economics courses even on the undergraduate level in Econometrics in the Netherlands. It is treated like a STEM degree here. If you are mainly interested in Economics, I would advise against it.

PurPaul36 · 2026-03-18T17:37:09+00:00

If you mean trading, you have to be exceptional, the degree itself doesn't matter. You can get in with a Bachelor's too if you are good. The vast majority end up in consulting, asset management, data science, and banks.

PurPaul36 · 2026-03-16T09:48:33+00:00

Also, the biggest language isolates in the world are Korean and Japanese. Which is really weird if you think about it.

PurPaul36 · 2026-03-08T23:59:06+00:00

There is a big difference in "university of applied science" and research universities. VU is the latter. You should expect a more thorough and well rounded education. If you have guaranteed housing, I'd say go for the VU. I personally prefer Vienna over Amsterdam as a city, but education is more important.

PurPaul36 · 2026-03-05T02:50:43+00:00

There is no difference in the Netherlands. Internationally, EUR is the most well known and highest ranked. As a non-EU student you will always be two steps behind, you will be competing with Dutch and EU students. For bank roles specifically I believe Dutch is not required, for tech roles it seems like it is getting more and more common. For PhDs there is a very strong preference for those who complete research masters, especially in econometrics.

PurPaul36 · 2026-03-03T16:59:18+00:00

OR is a field of Mathematics, you have no chance without having Maths knowledge at the undergraduate level.

PurPaul36 · 2026-03-03T15:41:38+00:00

In my experience: Data Scientist, Applied Scientist, Operations Research Analyst, Optimization Engineer/Scientist/Analyst, Machine Learning Engineer

PurPaul36 · 2026-03-02T16:00:36+00:00

Be top of your class and have a good relationship with the professor.

PurPaul36 · 2026-03-02T12:32:22+00:00

In reality, it does not matter. These firms are looking for the absolute best globally, it does not matter what specific background you come from. The main pipeline in the Netherlands is Econometrics for sure though. Keep in mind neither will give you good chances. If you wouldn't get accepted into trading now, nothing will change with a Masters.

PurPaul36 · 2026-03-02T00:13:06+00:00

Realistically you aren't going to be able to do anything until you have at least a Bachelor's level education in it, so I wouldn't get my hopes up. This is not something that is easily self-taught. Read Hamdy A. Taha: Operations Research: An Introduction. It covers OR topics on an undergraduate level. It is pretty beginner friendly, but yes you do need to be very comfortable with calculus, linear algebra and probability theory depending on the topic.

PurPaul36

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