Dear potential University of Helsinki student,
Application period starts 1 December 2016 already. That is in two weeks!
If you are planning to apply not this year but later, this post may still be of some use. I may be such a boring person to advise to plan your admission in advance and probably will resemble a university professor demanding from you to start preparing for exam from the day of first lecture. However, early preparation will give you a chance to discover your new strengths and interests, meet new people (even though still through Internet until you arrive in Helsinki) and just gain inspiration! For me, starting a process in advance made me feel content with my own efforts and saved much resources (all sorts of them). Just and example: IELTS examination is held only a couple of times per year in my home town and I decided to pass it already in May, to calm myself with the thought that if something goes wrong I still have a time to retake it before actual application period starts.
If you are applying this year, probably some of my tips will encourage you!
You should have such a patience to read the whole story of my admissions, and most likely I don`t have patience to write it all down! But here come some main points I want to share with you.
1. Ask, ask, ask!
It is not only about getting clear answers to clear questions: there is always a high chance that you will get some other information, which may inspire you/make you change your mind/calculate risks/remind you about upcoming deadline. And I mean asking not only international ambassadors: ask your professors, your friends and colleagues for their support and advise, they know your strengths better than you when you are stressed and tired. I recall how many mistakes I have made in my motivation letter despite holding a degree in English-Russian legal translation, just because I was worried – luckily my friends were with me to patiently proofread my writing efforts and reassure me that it “would be crazy not to accept you as a student”. This has helped me to calm down and carefully rephrase unsuccessful phrases. And for sure, in any moment of doubt, don`t hesitate to contact admissions office – the more clarified admissions procedure is in your head, the better it is for your wellbeing during these nervous times!
2. Mindmap.
You know yourself, but you are just so used to being yourself that it is not easy to systematize your strengths, competence and experience in a short and concise motivation letter. Just google online mindmaping tools and use it! It is a kind of strange to picture yourself a map or a strange graphic schemes, but in my case it helped me to recall all my activities, projects, volunteer experience and certainly my future goals and plans. Then I just looked again to pick up most important and persuasive experiences to mention briefly in my motivation letter.
By the way, the draft of my own mindmap is attached to this post – not the actual one I used though, the original draft was quite messy:)
3. Don`t be afraid to change your mind.
For a long time I have been planning to enter other specialization in law that one I am studying at right now. I am extremely happy to be majoring in international business law, and I remember how I started writing my motivation letter and suddenly realized that I cannot form my arguments clearly. I took a piece of paper and started to express my motivation for another specialization in international law programme and ended up even with sharing ideas on future master thesis! That is how my intuition helped me to choose a right path – probably if I started preparing documents at a last moment, I would not have enough time to consider such changes of a planned subject.
4. Be specific.
I am not a member of admissions committee (probably, at a later stage I will be – I dream of working in the university, and I will do my best to update this blogpost when I get insider knowledge), but I believe that communicating your clear plans is what shows your motivation best. Precise details may include your planned topic of master thesis, long-term research plans, planned involvement in Uni. Helsinki student associations, courses of special interest. By deciding in advance, you both have a chance to acquaint yourself better with what university offers you (check https://weboodi.helsinki.fi/hy/ for the list of courses taught at the University of Helsinki).
5. Calculate the risks.
This will save your money, time and energy to start your studying. Calculating your risks does not mean stressing all over the time over things – just making the list of possible problems likely to arise will help you! University of Helsinki website describes procedure clearly, but still some aspects may make you worry. For instance, when you are a potential international student from far away, mail delivery may last a long time, or be too expensive or mail send even by courier may exceptionally and unexpectedly arrive one day after deadline. In this case, you can consult your fellow friends who often send correspondence abroad or international affairs coordinators of your home university – they will advise you how to do it best! Probably, admissions process also includes interviewing stage – doublecheck the time difference, readiness of your device and comfortableness of place where you will make a Skype call.
There are hundreds of posts on getting admitted to the university of your dream, and my advice surely does not sound original and surprising. It is just my attempt to sum up the main important things you are going to face. I wish you good luck and hope to see you in Helsinki!
