THE PRE DEPARTURE PROCESS
Choosing the Right Destination
Before applying for my study abroad I knew that I wanted to study in Europe. I grew up in Malaysia so have been fortunate enough to explore Asia, and my family had already spent quite a lot of our time exploring the US during our summers. I felt a strong pull to want to study in Europe because it’s a place I hadn’t explored yet.
After deciding that Europe was the continent of choice, I delved into research on the Shidler College of Business partner schools so that it’d be easier for me to have my courses approved and transfer credits. The choices included schools in France, Germany, Denmark and a few others. Growing up I had a lot of friends from Europe so I had a little bit of insight into each school that I could have applied to. In France my friends said that I’d have a good time however not many French people like to speak english, even in major cities like Paris. On the other hand another one of my friends who temporarily lived in Denmark said that everyone there was extremely friendly, and that I wouldn’t have a hard time getting around. I did more research into each city and found that Copenhagen also had a community touch rugby team. Touch rugby is a sport that is an extremely important part of my life that I wanted to continue practicing when I was abroad. With this in mind, the friendliness of the locals as well as Denmark’s proximity to other countries in Europe, I knew that this was the place for me.
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MIX Application Process
The MIX application was quite straight forward. Your application begins approximately a year before you leave for your study abroad if you get accepted. The one main thing that I remembered in the application was ranking the schools you wanted to attend from 1-5 and explaining why you would want to attend that school. Make sure to do your research on each school before applying. I got my first choice, but it’s still possible to get one of your other choices and you want to ensure that you have the best study abroad experience that you possibly can.
Once I got my acceptance from MIX, they turned in an application to Copenhagen Business School. CBS eventually sent me login information inclusive of my email and my next steps in terms of residents permit application, course application, housing and more. I will go into more detail about this in the sections below.
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Residents Permit Application
For anyone that’s planning on studying in Denmark, one of the requirements is to obtain a residents permit once you arrive in Denmark. One thing that I didn’t know before applying for my study abroad was all the extra fees that I would have to pay. To obtain a residents permit we had to fill out and submit multiple documents that can be found on the VFS website to a VFS office on the mainland. I flew to San Francisco to get this done. Once arriving in VFS the process of obtaining our residents permit, doing our biometrics and getting approval was extremely frustrating. There were a few fees that totalled up to about $300 that I hadn’t known about paying before flying to San Francisco. In addition to this something that should’ve taken 15 minutes took 3 hours because some of the VFS staff didn’t know what documents we actually needed to submit and there were many misunderstandings. I highly recommend you do your research on what documents you do and do not need before arriving in VFS (call the headquarters beforehand if you need) because your personal knowledge on the documents will likely be more reliable than some of the staff who are dealing with visa applications for other countries in Europe on top of Denmark. If you’re an international student like me DO NOT forget your I-20 Visa sheet, they will ask for it. But don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any other questions about the residents permit application, I’d be happy to help.
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Courses and Accommodation
The course application was straightforward. I had a meeting with my DAP advisor beforehand to ensure that the classes I would take would keep me on path in University. I used the Shidler College of Business course equivalencies sheet with CBS that showed me a list of classes that I could take at CBS that would allow me to transfer credits easily.
There’s a list of the accommodation provided by CBS for students. On the CBS website you can see the different places of accommodation, the room sizes, floor plans and photos of each place. I applied for a single room at all of the dorms however got a shared room at the dorm Katherine Kollegiete.
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Travel Plans
I’m planning on arriving in Denmark on January 25th. I’ll make my way to Europe on the 13th of January, spending a little less than 2 weeks in England with some of my friends from home studying there, then only make my way to Denmark as Orientation begins on the 27th. I’ve got quite a lot of family and friends scattered around Europe so I’m excited to hopefully be able to travel around Europe and visit them during long weekends and school breaks.