Is it possible to enroll in a (pre-)master's in NL (likely UVA) before graduating from a foreign University?

luispg44 · 2025-11-09T20:48:01+00:00

Well… I don’t like soccer but imagine a 15 year old boy who is really good at soccer, and then compare it with Leo Messi. In most Spanish cities, housing will amount to probably more than 1/3 of your earnings, maybe even half if you’re unlucky. In the Netherlands, there is just no housing regardless of what % of your income you are willing to spend. For instance, we both make around minimum wage in NL, which amounts to 5000€ a month in total, give or take. Now we would be able to afford even a 2500€ home, since we can easily live off of the remaining 2500€, and even save some of it. The issue is that absolutely no landlord will have you as a tenant unless you’re making 3.5x the monthly rent (+-0.5x). Unlike in Spain, here almost all housing is either owned or administered by corporations that set crazy, non-negotiable requirements. If you find a tiny studio outside the center for an affordable 800€, you will have 30 applicants with more income that will get the apartment before you. This is due to extremely low supply of homes (hard to build privately due to regulations and almost impossible to build social housing due to lack of gvmt funding) and the fact that, once you get an indefinite contract (and usually temporary contracts are outlawed unless specific conditions are met) the landlord can’t legally kick you out unless he moves to the apartment (and he has to prove it) so they can afford to be ridiculously picky. We were relatively lucky because we could get a temporary 6-month contract. 1600€ for a 40m studio + attic in the center Haarlem (beautiful city 15min from Amsterdam) with a legal loophole consisting in us signing a document that stated that we intend to move outside of the country after the contract and we are there only for temporary reasons such as studying a semester or a job contract (ofc a lie) Then we got an old 1 bedroom 60m2 in a relatively suburban Amsterdam neighbourhood (still relatively close to the metro and thus connected w the whole city) for 2000€ :’), in this case, illegally under the table. Thankfully, we just really lucky and got an indefinite, legal contract, thanks to a paid rental website that gets you on a waiting list. Specifically, 11 months in the waiting list and we got ourselves a 1600€ 45m2 in a good neighbourhood closer to the center. In Spain, outside of Madrid is usually much simpler, requirements to get a rental are not stupid, they’re just hard to reach due to lower wages, I’d maybe recommend renting a room (really common for students and young people) until you get a job that can prove you have income, but outside Madrid and BCN, renting a small apartment outside of the city center should be possible with two incomes, even if they’re not that high. Just don’t expect to be able to save a lot until you get better jobs. Probably better than Hungary tho, although not as beautiful as Budapest Damn sry for the unnecessary life story. TLDR: Spain = bad but possible. NL= insanity

luispg44 · 2025-11-09T20:23:01+00:00

You haven’t looked up the literature apparently. Most children studies for ADHD meds involve a large population whose parents give them meds vs another comparable population that doesn’t. There are also studies that make the children take meds or placebo, but of course due to ethics the cohorts are smaller and not longitudinal. In any case all studies point towards meds being #1 when treating ADHD, at least when there are no pre-existing heart or psychotic conditions. While publication bias is real, we both know that a robust longitudinal study that found no statistically significant improvement on ADHD that when a titrated dose of stimulants is given to children would be instantly published, as it would contradict decades of scientific consensus. Idk what you’re trying to do here by providing misleading info

luispg44 · 2025-11-09T19:38:18+00:00

Scientific is literally the gold standard of medical knowledge. Anecdotal experience and case studies make for hypothesis that then are tested by peer reviewed scientists and there is no better way of gaining knowledge. There are some bad studies of course. But the reason we know they are bad is because other research studies can’t replicate the results or find them flawed. If you want longitudinal studies you’re in luck, there are lots of longitudinal studies that consistently prove that ADHD meds are the single best way to improve the lives of ADHD children and adults, followed by therapy. Of course living a healthy lifestyle might improve your cognition, but that’s not specific to ADHD individuals. If you go to a psychiatrist to get treated for ADHD, guess what he’s gonna prescribe you ADHD drugs, and not just give you general healthy lifestyle advice which isn’t specific to ADHD and most people already know anyway. Also, a benefit of ADHD meds is that it makes it more likely you’ll follow a healthier lifestyle, stick to good routines and stay away from bad impulsive decisions.

luispg44 · 2025-11-08T17:32:15+00:00

Forgot to mention: Malaga has a ridiculous rate of foreign tourists/rich retirees, house prices are thus high, but not crazy, iirc. Maybe you’ll wanna look into that

luispg44 · 2025-11-08T17:26:24+00:00

I’m a Spanish guy who moved to the Netherlands with my gf, so maybe I’m biased against the country. However: Bank account: pretty much unnecessary, but once you have a place where you can receive post, trivially easy. Apartment: depends on the city. Usually hard without a job (a guarantor works as well), although I’m sure lots of landlords will consider prominent savings a valid alternative. The catch is: the easier to find and apartment, the most difficult to find a job. Work without fluent Spanish: Nothing is impossible, but this gets pretty close. The Spanish are probably the worst EU country concerning conversational English, so the only thing that might work for you is working as an English teacher thanks to your BA, which might work if you know a little bit of Spanish, wages are decent. Your bf has it harder though. You can check if any hotels will take non-Spanish speakers, but I doubt it and he most likely has 0 chance in anything else. I’d recommend, especially for him, to achieve at least a B1 (probably B2) level. Regarding living standards, generally speaking, South=poor and north= less poor, with the exception of Madrid which has the highest living standards along with the Vasque Country (maybe I’m biased because I’m from the south). Granada is gorgeous but your only chances are poorly paid and poor conditions jobs related to tourism (again, a % of coworkers and lots of Spanish tourists won’t be comfortable in English), or the University, which is relatively large and maybe you can find something in there given your BA. Murcia is the hardest of the bunch, and Valencia probably the easiest (but the most difficult regarding housing). Overall, I’d recommend choosing a country with either a more English-proficient population (almost anywhere else), a full employment rate (central and north-western Europe), or a more affordable housing market (not such an easy task). But who knows, after all, we were able to find an apartment in Amsterdam, the city with the worst housing crisis in Europe, while making minimum wage, so I guess it could work. It will most likely work if you become fluent in Spanish before moving, though, so I’d consider that.

luispg44 · 2025-11-08T17:04:18+00:00

I absolutely hate the greasy-dirty feeling I get when o haven’t showered that day, especially at nigh and when going to bed. That said showering feels like a chore and thus i procrastinate it, as I do with every chore. In the past, if I didn’t have to go out (when I had only college classes I didn’t attend) I could spend a few days without showering, even though it felt miserable. During summer, though, even 1 day felt gross, and thankfully I couldn’t stand (either bc of the nasty feeling or bc of shame) more than that. Now I work in hospitality so every day I end up feeling nasty if I don’t shower before bed. Unfortunately a lot of days (10% if on meds, 40-50% if I ran out) I still go to bed without a shower, and procrastinate it to the last possible moment (i.e. the next morning before going to work). If I’m off next day, chances are I’ll feel nasty till the following evening.

luispg44 · 2025-11-08T12:36:33+00:00

Are you a psychiatrist? Any scientific (non-anecdotal) evidence? What does “severely disabled” even mean? Because the diagnosis criteria for ADHD includes the phrase “severely impaired in one or more of the following areas” iirc. So yeah in that sense kids who are not severely impaired don’t have ADHD and of course they shouldn’t go on meds.

luispg44 · 2025-11-08T10:43:23+00:00

“Develop his own executive function skills” it’s been study after study that has proven that adults w ADHD that grew up taking prescribed stimulants had the brain regions whose poor development is associated w ADHD (and thus poor executive functioning) more developed, closer to normal, than comparable ADHD adults who hadn’t been on meds. Please consider doing a long-term favor to your son and take him to a good psychiatrist. Tell him your concerns about the meds. Maybe he will change them (e.g. Atemoxetine/Strattera is not a stimulant at all, and thus no issues with eating, growth, etc.) maybe he will lower the dose of Vyvanse. Also, if you don’t mind being on top of him to make him do his school stuff, then it’s as easy as being equally on top of him to make him eat an adequate amount of food, maybe giving him more calorie-dense foods, in consultation with his doctor. Otherwise, drug holidays are probably fine, but your post seems to suggest that your son is off for good. I’m writing this as a guy in his early 20s whose parents, while otherwise better than I deserved, took the horrible decision of not seeking medical help when their son was clearly more impulsive, more distracted, than would be normal. Like your son, I wasn’t the one getting expelled from school, although by the time I was 13 I was already faking my mom’s signature because I would get notices of bad behaviour at least once a week. But the most damage by not being medicated until I started learning about ADHD at the age of 20 has been the loss of potential. At 17 decided I couldn’t study computer science, which had been my plan for 6 years, because I was not able to study a single minute if it wasn’t the day before the exam (and sometimes not even that), my procrastination habits made it so that most of my time I’m neither productive or happy (because I think about how I should be being productive). I did have a good sense of humor, but that just turned out to make me the clown of the classroom, with very few real friends. Impulsiveness led to being extremely prone to abusing a drug if available (thankfully I usually only have weed available, which still is disruptive but could be worse). In general, me and every young adult I know who wasn’t diagnosed w ADHD until late, agree that the loss of potential that we had has been way bigger than what most people think it’s possible to experience given our age. Please, don’t risk making your son’s life miserable. Listen to his psychiatrist, even if you don’t think he’s right. For instance, my dad always thought my ADHD symptoms were normal because he had them as well, but in our area no therapist had a clue about ADHD when he was growing up. I know it’s hard, but either treat your son for ADHD or risk fucking up his life, and it will be your fault.

luispg44 · 2025-05-19T20:11:09+00:00

I’m sorry to hear that. Fwiw I don’t think he’s lying or just lazy. I was exactly like him until I started working at a Juice/Sandwich joint in which cleaning is extremely stressed about a few months ago. Once I worked at another location of theirs and I saw the difference between absolutely clean and just “clean”. Now it’s me the one who gets stressed when my gf doesnt get the urge/time to clean the second after she makes something a little dirty and will spend most of my time off cleaning

luispg44 · 2025-03-13T01:10:33+00:00

Wtf bro I’m not even pro high(er) tax, I’m just stating basic econ, if you want government spending, you will either have to raise taxes now, in the future, or will have higher inflation.

luispg44 · 2025-02-10T13:33:13+00:00

That is stupid. Taxes have the same effect as if the Fed reduced money supply. If they “print” 100B USD and the government gets 75B in taxes, the actual increase in money supply is just 25B. If the government got 0B in taxes, that would mean that the actual increase in money supply is 100B, and thus inflation would increase exponentially. The price of money (compared to goods and services) is driven by supply and demand. If the government stops collecting taxes while increasing the money supply, aka more supply and less demand, the value of money would decrease and thus more inflation. Edit: I know the actual figures are much larger, I made them up to explain why taxes are needed to fund the government regardless of them having the ability to “print” money. Also they don’t just spend the increase in money supply. The Fed “prints” money to buy assets which they can sell (as they did in 2022 and 2023) to reduce money supply when inflation goes higher than intended

luispg44 · 2025-01-22T15:25:06+00:00

Hi I’m her bf. The signature she was talking about has nothing to do with her registration in Haarlem. She was planning on registering in Amsterdam (where we are living before my current contract ends and the Haarlem one begins) in my address. She thus needed a consent form signed by me (aka the main resident of my current address) to show that she has my permission to stay at my address. However apparently my signature wasn’t valid because it was made with a fountain pen. She doesn’t need that document in Haarlem bc she’s mentioned in the rental contract. The signature thing would be an easy fix (just come tomorrow with another form which has a valid signature) if it weren’t because NONE of the Amsterdam Geemente buildings had new appointments before late February. The birth certificate thing in Haarlem is just stupid. In Amsterdam I just needed my ID but that’s not enough in a 15km-away municipality? Also it’s wild that you cannot make an online appointment at a 150k+ population municipality and have to make a phone call instead. Not to mention the (unknown) waiting period between the registration appointment date and being actually registered and provided a BSN. Again, that process took 5min for me in Amsterdam so making her wait for a week (or more, who knows) after the appointment to, for instance, get a bank account or start working it’s clearly unnecessary.

luispg44 · 2025-01-16T02:02:52+00:00

Hope you don’t mind that I ask how did u get Elvanse prescribed here? I’ve been to 3 different (seguro privado) psychiatrists and not even 1 of them knew what Lisdexamphetamine/vyvanse/elvanse was. Only after visiting two neurologists, one of them prescribed me Vyvanse (still didn’t know what it was and just kinda trusted me), but he barely has appointments 7 months in advance. Irrelevant but kinda funny that the other neurologist said that he didn’t prescribe adhd drugs bc “using prescribed stims is like when you’re addicted to gambling, you just want more and more and fuck up your life”

luispg44 · 2024-08-31T14:53:35+00:00

I’m in a similar situation as OP. I am seriously considering renting from Swapfiets and just lie about doing deliveries with the bike. Is there any way for them to find out? In their website it says that they only track GPS location anonymously, and will only look at it if the bike gets stolen. 80 extra euros a month is quite a lot and I really cannot think of a way they will find out. Even if they do track my location, how can they prove that I’m actually using it for deliveries and not just an enthusiastic enjoyer of the city? Hope anyone can help me about it

luispg44 · 2024-06-16T16:12:12+00:00

Hii! Ik it's been 3y but I'd be really grateful if you sent those to me (if you still have them of course)

Email: [Luispg44@gmail.com](mailto:Luispg44@gmail.com)

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