Student testimonial
Ashwini Karathozhuvu Suresh
Personal information
- Age: 22
- Country of origin: India
- Current Residence: Delft, the Netherlands
- Likes to paint, play tennis and dance
Ashwini from India
Having lived my first 21 years in a city called Coimbatore in India, I was looking for an opportunity to enhance my perceptions and gain international experience from one of the best universities in the world. Previous holiday trips to some of the beautiful cities of Europe involuntarily made me look for a program in the European countries. A background in Electronics and Communication Engineering from India and a strong interest in Entrepreneurship got my attention to this unique Management Of Technology program at TU Delft. After carefully going through its courses, its structure and the career opportunities it offered, I was confident that this program was the best mix in terms of all my considerations.
I am now in my third quarter of my first year of the MOT Program and I do not regret my choice even one bit. The academic year starts with the Introduction Programme, specifically for the international students, where the students are put in teams and given fun activities to do for a week. This helped me make a lot of friends and simultaneously gave me time to set things up in regard to my house, bank and insurance. I recommend the internationals to participate in this short program.
Once the fun is over, the first set of courses begin. It was hard initially to get adapted to the quarter system as I was used to giving exams in a semester structure. I learnt that it is essential to begin studying as soon as classes start because otherwise before you know it, two months will pass and you may find yourself struggling to read all the material for the exams. Having said that, I think each quarter is structured well so as to distribute the workload between difficult and fairly easy courses. I personally did not feel stressed before my exams as there have always been sufficient study holidays for preparation.
The first three quarters covers courses like Finance, Economics, Marketing, Research methods, Entrepreneurship where some comprise of only lectures and a final exam and others have either an individual or a group assignment. I usually attend all my lectures to understand concepts better although attendance for most of them are not mandatory. All lecture materials and announcements are updated on a platform called ‘Brightspace’ where I also get to register for my exams and check my timetable.
Moving abroad has its own challenges for everybody. Although Delft is tailored to make the lives of students convenient by having supermarkets around every corner, well connected public transportation, and friendly people overall, I found it difficult to be able to manage my studies, groceries, cooking and laundry on my own at first. Fortunately, I live very close to the TU Campus and the city centre, so this helps me save time and money on commute. I definitely recommend finding a place on campus or near it if possible. Even if you are not able to, fear not, there is always the option of biking. Biking is the easiest and cheapest way to get to places here and buying one should be one of your top priorities as soon as you get here.
I am almost towards the end of my first year and I am looking at doing a free specialisation in Finance and Entrepreneurship in my second year and this would also be my direction for my thesis and my career. Whatever my future may behold, I am sure that I am in the middle of a very happening environment, in the midst of ground breaking work and bright minds and the MOT Program will certainly broaden perspectives for all.