Necessary Clarification on ERASMUS Grant

This is it! I have always been postponing sharing my thoughts around my grant in France with you because I have been afraid they might not sound honest or just be justificatory. At the same time I did not want to go on with any other post before making it clear to me and to anyone reading it I was awarded ERASMUS grant by а completely unbiased committee. Yes, ERASMUS turned out to be a big crumb for most of my “friends”. They could not face the fact that I was selected rather than someone else. You might think that I exaggerate but trust me I have been pondering over it ever since it happened! Most of my friends shared with me there were more vacant positions than applicants!! On the contrary, I would like to state it here that this is the case with the Bachelor students – they had 65 something places to choose from all around Europe – Spain, France, Belgium, Holland, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Germany, Italy and not only a place or a city. DOCH! (as Germans would say) – Plenty of opportunities! And not enough applicants as it became clear because the committee pleaded all the other students to submit their documents even once the deadline had passed. Simply put, there were more open positions than candidates!

Master’s students – like me, however, had two places in a single French university and that was it! No matter are MBA students let’s say 200 of whom only 50 are eligible for this competition and let’s presume half of them submitted their documents, it is still a very very small percentage of vacant positions (only two – one, two) in contrast to the Bachelors. So in a nutshell, around 12 people struggled for one place. As all the other students I submitted my documents and was lovely surprised to see my name on the list! No cheating, no persuasion over the electing committee (as some suggested), no relative connections with anyone part of the commission as others guessed foolishly. Just a lot of dawn-to-dusk work and a bit of luck. This is it!!

It might sound like a foolish idea to someone that I have not posted anything between the last post and this but I really want to state firmly this is a result of strong endeavors from myself in all the two years of study. I really appreciate I was given this opportunity and hopefully will be enjoying it completely in less than 6 months!