Study in Dublin Business School (2)

1. Information on the application process

Thanks to the help of MicroEDU, the application process has become very easy and straightforward. The MicroEDU staff were very friendly and helpful, and were always on hand to answer any questions I had.

English Program

There was a choice of a 2-week or a 3-week English course. I decided on the 2-week course and unfortunately I have to say that it did not quite meet my expectations. On the one hand, the level of the content was relatively low and, on the other hand, I thought it was a shame that predominantly Germans took part in the courses. It was almost inevitable that only German was spoken among the participants.

Courses

At the beginning of my planning I was told that it was important to allow for a certain flexibility in the choice of course, as it is always possible that some courses will not be held. With this in mind, I chose 10 courses that I could get credit for at my home university. When I arrived at the DBS, I was very disappointed. All master’s courses were restructured, course titles changed, number of ETCS points changed… After a month back and forth, I finally have my timetable ready.

The level of the Irish courses that I have taken cannot be compared with the level of German courses. The content is very simple and easy to understand. As a semester student, I didn’t have to write exams. I only had homework that I had to write for each subject.

My chosen courses:

Services Marketing (as a group): Analysis of the marketing strategy of a service company (2500 words)
International Management (alone): Pestel analysis of a country of my choice (2500 words)
Innovation and Change Management (alone): Business plan for a self-made innovation (3000 words)
HRM (alone): Comparison of the HR strategies of Microsoft and the Red Cross (3000 words)

2. Maintenance

In the beginning everything was very chaotic. This was probably due to the restructuring of the master’s courses. Besides me, many other students had problems with their courses and timetables. So the supervisors had their hands full. However, they always tried hard and tried to find a satisfactory solution.

3. Search for accommodation

After I got the approval from the DBS, I started to write to the student residences that were listed in the Accommodation Guide. Unfortunately, the dormitories were all already occupied or were over my budget.
So I started looking for private apartments, but I quickly realized that this made little sense. The housing market in Dublin is very fast moving, rooms are being hired today and some of them are already gone the next day.
When I arrived in Dublin, I immediately started looking for rooms. It turned out to be a little more difficult than expected, the good apartments were gone very quickly. After about 1.5 weeks I finally found a large room with a double bed for € 350 cold. I lived with 5 Irish people and one German. The house was in the south of Dublin.
Unfortunately the standard in Ireland does not correspond to the German one! Most of the apartments I looked at were in pretty bad condition (mold, dirt,…)

4. Public transport

It is possible to buy a bus ticket with which you can use the bus on 30 calendar days. I found it very practical because the days are only deducted if you actually use the ticket. The price is around 90 €. Unfortunately, the buses in Dublin only run until around 11.30 p.m., after which a taxi is the order of the day. I would advise against walking around alone at night, at least as a girl.

5. Free time and excursion possibilities

Dublin is a really great city and definitely worth the trip! There is a lot to experience and you never get bored. It is a vibrant city where the streets, cafes and pubs are always full!
The various places worth seeing such as Howth (especially beautiful!), Bray or the Wicklow Mountains can be easily reached by bus and train. Even more distant destinations such as the Cliffs of Moher or Belfast can be easily reached by bus and train. If you don’t feel like organizing the whole thing yourself, you can simply go to one of the numerous tourism points and book a guided tour. Read more student reviews on Andyeducation.