MERJ NAGYOT ÁLMODNI
Studying abroad was a very "last minute" idea for me because before that I didn't even know what I want to study. During one of my visits to Vienna, I got the idea of studying in a foreign university but still close to my home country.
The problem started when I was learning English since elementary school, and I studied German only as a second language in high school and I wouldn't even say it as intensive learning either since at that time English was the most important. As far as, Austria wasn't in my plans, until the last minute, I've focused on improving my English - by the end of high school, my aim was to get the C1 language exam. Regarding
My plans for further education were all around English. I swear, you all know the situation when you have no idea what you want to do with your life, but one thing is for sure: you don't want to work yet! Well, so was I. I was already under the pressure to decide on what I want to do for a living! To be honest, I still have no idea!
But there was still something to choose from, so I was convinced that since I have been studying English for a while and it's an important factor in today's world, I'm gonna learn something in which English plays a major role. Then I considered different professions, for example, the translator but then I found out I need to study for at least 5 years to become a translator and I don't even want to translate. And finally, I realized that I need a direction where the barriers are looser, and I can study more languages.
For the first time, I fell in love with the world of media, known as media and communications. To be honest, I didn't have any serious plans regarding media for the future. I only knew that I'd like to work online. Then I got the idea I could study marketing but I had really low chances to get accepted for the two faculties mentioned above because of the high popularity of them. On the other hand, finding a job in the profession is not easy at all. So, one year before the recruitment period, I had no idea what's next. Then, half a year before the admission period, I was wondering to study tourism, as I have been interested in it for a while, however, I had the same difficulties here to get in as it's also a very popular field (just a hint to understand Hungarian educational system: we have a point system; so we got points after our grades, studies, etc. and if we are talking about popular courses they have really high requirements in terms of points and if you don't reach them you have to pay huge amount of money for your education what you don't want).
So let's go back to my stay in Vienna when my friends put a bug in my ear to study in Vienna. I started to search for the possibilities offered by the University of Vienna (Universität Wien). Unfortunately, I couldn't find any marketing or tourism-related courses. However, there was one course that I liked, it's like communication and translation-related. I was very happy and wanted to apply when I had to face a couple of problems.
I would have been admitted if I had completed a half-year German course before starting my studies held in German. And at the end of the first semester, I must have taken a serious exam ("STEOP"), which determines whether I can stay or not. Can you imagine to study in German half a year after learning the language itself?
I sought the opinion of a student there who didn't recommend to choose that course. Her arguments convinced me and I was a bit disappointed. I didn't find tourism in Vienna thought in English.
That's the time when the name of the university came along where I am studying right now. The girl, who didn't recommend the course in Vienna, said she had a friend who was studying tourism. Although not in Vienna but in English! I contacted her and applied for the university!
In the next part, you can read about the application process!
