Unique Processes and Procedures

Before I get into the different types of processes and such for different countries, I want to address a few words you might see and might be confused by.

Slide 1: Admissions Processes

So before I get into the different types of processes and such for different countries, I want to address a few words you might see and might be confused by. 

Slide 2: Nostrification/Legalization/Apostille

You might see nostrification, legalization of documents, or apostille certificate. You'll often see these words sort of in combination with each other. They're all sort of related. So let's go through what they mean. 

So sometimes you're going to be asked to get the document legalized. And then you're going to need to find out their definition of “legalized,” what they, as a school, and generally a country, accept for legalization. Sometimes it's a notary, and sometimes it's an apostille certificate. 

So notary, of course, you just find your notary. I usually use the UPS store for notaries because it's super easy. Apostille is kind of a step above that in terms of authenticating documents. So it sounds kind of intimidating. But because the US is a member of The Hague Conference, it's really not so bad. Basically, it's a certificate that says that the documents that you're submitting are valid and legal. And the Secretary of State's office provides this. And there is a link in this lesson with the different places where you can go for this. So when you call the Secretary of State's office, they're going to absolutely know what an apostille is, and be able to advise you about how to get your documents there and get their certificate for it, so you'll be all good. 

So nostrification is a little bit more complicated. In most countries, you don't have to deal with this. The place where you will most often find this is the Czech Republic. And if you're applying to a Czech private university like AAU, which I know a lot of people do, you're going to want to listen to this part. Again, most places, you do not have to deal with nostrification. Most countries. However, what nostrification is, is it's the verification that the country does. So we're just going to use AAU and the Czech Republic as an example. So when you get into a university, they have to know that your high school diploma is the same as their high school diploma in order to grant you admissions to receive a Czech diploma. So the Czech Republic makes this just really complicated, particularly for private schools. So sometimes, especially for private schools, this might mean that if they required, let's just say physics, and you didn't take physics in high school, you would have to sit for an exam in the Czech Republic in order to get your degree nostrified so that you can get a Czech diploma. 

So let's talk about AAU for a minute. They have American accreditation and they have Czech accreditation. So if you get into AAU, you can say, “Hey, you know what? All I want is the American diploma. I don't want to deal with this nostrification stuff. So just issue me the American diploma. I'll be on the track for that.” Same curriculum, same everything else. It's just you wouldn't get a Czech diploma. 

The other issue there is that the kind of visa you will have, for the Czech Republic, if you're doing just the American diploma, is you will have not a student visa, but something called “Other.” So you're still able to stay there. But the problem is, is that you can't work with a visa under Other. So that's one of the main issues there. There are also benefits to getting a Czech diploma like access to the labor force even after you graduate. So because of those things, a lot of people do decide to go through the nostrification process. 

So what happens is AAU lets you in, and then you have to get your diploma and your transcripts and apostille certificate for them. Sometimes this is difficult because you don't have an official diploma or you only have one copy of your diploma and you have to give them that original. So start planning for that. But so you get those apostilled and you have your counselor fill out this thing that says how many hours you've spent over the four years in all these different classes. You send that in to the Czech Republic, and the Ministry of Education kind of arbitrarily decides yes, this person, their high school curriculum is the equivalent of a Czech high school curriculum. And so, they can be in school in order to receive a Czech diploma. It's a pain, just gathering everything's a pain, and then sort of waiting is a pain. It's something that we're doing, a lot of members are doing, and some have had to sit for the exams, and others haven't. It's just sort of arbitrary.

But just so you know, nostrification is the process of verifying that your high school diploma is the same as a high school diploma in their country. And that this is particularly difficult — no, difficult is the wrong word. It's mostly a pain in the butt if you're looking at private Czech universities. Further, you're not going to have to deal with this until after the application process is over and you're already admitted. So don't worry about it yet. I think it's important that you know what it is, you have an understanding of what it is, but you won't be dealing with the nostrification and such until after you're admitted. 

Slide 3: Processes/Procedures

  • Entrance Exams
  • Studielink in the Netherlands
  • Pre-enrollment in Italy
  • Coordinated enrollment in Sweden and Denmark
  • Entrance Exams

The next thing to look into are whether entrance exams are required. And if so, the specifics around them. You want to check about whether or not they allow any other tests to substitute for the exam. So even if it doesn't say on the website that they do, you can always ask. You have nothing to lose, and then you might not have to take their entrance exam. So sometimes taking the test may require you to travel either within the US or to the actual location of the school, or to arrange to have someone at your school proctor the test. There's this one school I encountered. You know, we talked about specifics before and silly specifics. So this school allowed students to arrange to have the test proctored within the US at their own high school, but it had to be on a certain day of the week. So that seems silly, but it's necessary to know about ahead of time. 

  • Studielink in the Netherlands

So let's talk about the Netherlands because there are so many English-taught programs in the Netherlands. We have a lot of students applying to school there. So they use what's called the Studielink system. And it's not a coordinated admissions process. But what it is, it’s like the first step in the application process, like basically the Dutch student registration area. So what you do is you enter your data into Studielink to create an account. You choose the programs that you want to apply to. And then Studielink will send information on to the admissions program at those schools, and then they contact you about the next steps in the application process. It's not always immediate. It's not always like in the same day or whatever. But if you don't get something from the school within a week, then you should definitely follow up and see what's going on with the process. 

So important things to know here, you can only apply to a maximum of four Dutch programs. And only two of them can be numerus fixus programs. It will say clearly in Studielink whether they’re numerus fixus or not. Further, you can only apply to one physiotherapy or medicine program. Also, the Studielink process is notorious for being confusing and having glitches like asking for English proficiency, even if you're an American who’s a native English speaker. But the most important thing to do here is to check your email at least once every single day, as there will likely be follow-up questions, there might be some of those glitches I talked about, they might need different forms. These questions might come from Studielink, and then they'll also be coming from the school about the next steps in the application. So be diligent about checking email. 

  • Pre-enrollment in Italy

So let's talk about Italy, because it has one of the most confusing admissions processes in all of Europe, and maybe all of the world. So what you have to do is first you do this pre-application to the school in January. And the school gives you a letter, which is called a pre-acceptance offer if you meet the designated criteria. And so, most schools are non-selective in Italy in that if you meet the admissions requirements, then you'll be accepted. So they give you this pre-acceptance offer if you meet the criteria. And then you have to take this pre-acceptance letter and all the official certified documents to the embassy. So you actually have to go to a physical embassy or consulate, and they legalize your qualifications. And this is called pre-enrollment. And it's done at a set time each year, usually for about six to eight weeks in the beginning of March. So basically, pre-acceptance means that so long as the embassy determines that the documents you submitted for pre-acceptance are valid, then you're in. After pre-enrollment at the embassy, you accept the admissions offer and pay a deposit for your spot. And then in September, you bring all these documents, including final transcripts and such, and get your final enrollment offer after submitting those forms. So once you're actually there. 

So the biggest hassle there is not only going to the embassy or consulate at one specific time, a six to eight week period of the year, but it's also making sure that you know exactly what you need to bring in there, besides the pre-acceptance letter. Exactly how they need your diploma certified, or what to do about the transcripts. All those things, we talked about in the last video. You're going to want to make sure you know for sure, because you don't want to have to be taking another trip to the embassy or consulate. 

  • Coordinated enrollment in Sweden and Denmark

Now, on the other side of the spectrum, we can talk about a much easier process, which is in Denmark and Sweden, because they do use coordinated countrywide application processes. So it's a good thing and a bad thing because you really have to know the order of programs, if you're applying to more than one. You know, your order preference. Because you will only get an offer for one. So for the Danish process, it's called KOT, the coordinated enrollment system, and you can apply to up to eight programs. And then you rank them in order of preference. And if you qualify for the first one on your list, you get your highest choice pick. And then if you don't, they move down to the second one. And if you don't get an offer there, they go down to the third. But either way, you won't get accepted at more than one, even if you meet the qualification for all of them. So you do really need to know when you apply that yes, this is my first choice. 

The other thing there is that — the problem is that you don't hear back till June 1, which is really late in the game to be making plans and such. So good and the bad thing is similar for Sweden as well. 

So these are sort of the different processes and terms and stuff that you will likely see. And what we're going to do in the next videos, we're going to talk about some of the glitches that you may encounter and how to handle these as you go along. See you then.