Are you still doing your Bachelor’s and would you like to know whether life as a Master’s student is similar to your current routine? Or are you maybe just curious how busy a student from a different faculty is? Then you have come to the right place.

My name is Sander and I am currently in the final stages of the MSc Marketing Management at the UG. This programme is part of the Faculty of Economics and Business with classes taking place at our Zernike campus. In this blog, I will take you along and show you what a typical week looks like for me from start to finish. Bear in mind that every week is different and that I can only speak for my personal experience and my programme, but I will try to give a general insight into my daily life as a Master’s student.

Monday: A relaxed way of starting the week

I started the week off with some running in the morning. The weather was sunny and cold, perfect for a morning run. Don’t worry, I won’t be one of those model students who exercises every day (little disclaimer: this was literally the only real exercise I got this week).

For my study, I only have to write a thesis in the upcoming months, because I already passed all of my courses last year. Every two weeks, I have to hand in a first draft of every part of my thesis. We started off with the research proposal, which is meant to give your supervisor an idea of how you want to structure your research. That way, they can give you feedback on whether or not you’re heading in the right direction. Once your proposal is approved, you can get to work, starting from your introduction and gradually moving on to the other parts of the thesis. This week, I had to hand in my introduction and a literature review, which requires reading a lot of different articles on my thesis topic. To be honest, I like the way my Master’s thesis is structured, because I feel like I need some structure to keep me focused. Whenever you hand in a chapter, your supervisor will provide your work with some comments. You then discuss this feedback in a thesis group meeting a few days later. 

My Monday was mostly spent reading a lot of summaries of different articles to gather information on my topic. Once I had done that for several hours, it was time for some dinner. I then spent the rest of my evening watching some series and called it a day.

Tuesday: Work work work

On Tuesday, I worked from 9:00-17:00, so I got up early in the morning and hopped on my bike to get there on time. The convenient thing about Groningen is that you can go everywhere by bike. A morning bike ride is the perfect way to start your day. It doesn’t really matter whether there is sun or rain, both scenarios will wake you up (although the former is definitely more enjoyable!). I work as a student assistant for the university’s International Marketing Team focusing on social media content. I do this for 16 hours every week. The job is flexible so I can schedule my hours around my studies. As part of this job, I create the content you see on our different social media channels, which includes our Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, LinkedIn and these blogs. Everything from writing captions to creating fun videos and coming up with new ideas is part of my job.

After my work for the day was done, I changed outfits at home and cycled to the house of one of my committee members. I am part of the Buddy and Integration committee of ESN (Erasmus Student Network) Groningen, which organises events once a month for international students to meet new people and have some fun. ESN Groningen is a big international student association that stimulates friendships between international students and Dutch students through a bunch of different activities. There are a lot of different committees, where you can organise dinners, sport activities, movie nights, excursions and more. 

The reason I joined ESN Groningen is because I want to help international students feel at home in a new city. I know from my personal experience, when I studied in Porto for six months, the feeling of coming to an unknown city and knowing nobody. The Buddy and Integration committee organises events from a pub quiz to playing pool in the hopes of making students feel at home here and give them the opportunity to meet new people. 

As a committee, we meet up once a week at the house of one of the committee members to have meetings combined with a dinner. Aside from organising events, the fun part of being in a committee is the fun you have with your fellow committee members. Most of the time, a committee consists of five or six different positions, for example a president, a secretary or someone in charge of promotion. My position is, unsurprisingly I’m sure, the PR manager. This means that I am responsible for creating the promotional materials for our events. Most of the time, events are being promoted via social media, so I create Instagram Stories or Facebook banners. This is also where you can find more information about the activities if you’re interested.

After having dinner together, we went to our organised event: playing pool with international students. We played pool for two hours with a group of around forty international students. The event was a big success, because a lot of international students went for some drinks together after the event had finished.

Wednesday: Work work work 2.0

The next day it was time to work again! Our team consists of 7 full-time staff members and 10 student assistants from different study backgrounds. We all work together at our office, which is great after working from home for so long. One of the fun things of being a student assistant at the UG is that you are able to do a lot of different things, so every working day is different. 

After sitting at my desk for a few hours, I need to stretch my legs, so we usually go for a walk through the city centre of Groningen to get some lunch. However, I often bring my own lunch consisting of sandwiches that I prepare in the morning in order to save some money (Dutchie alert!).

I had to walk to my work today, because my bike needed to be repaired. I picked up my bike when work was done and got some groceries for dinner with my roommate. The menu of that evening consisted of orzo with some vegetables and meatballs. If you’ve never had orzo before, this is your sign to try it! Orzo is quite similar to risotto but its texture is softer. During dinner we watched a series together, but I couldn’t do that for too long because I still needed to work on my deadline as well. That’s why I then spent two hours reading different articles and summarising them.

Thursday: Summaries everywhere

Thursday meant that I had exactly one day left before I had to hand in my assignment, so there were still some things to be done for this. As you can imagine, I spent the day studying as best as I could and read countless summaries from morning to evening. I realised after a few hours that my attention span was gone, so I took a break to make some lunch and walk in the Noorderplantsoen. I really live close to de Noorderplantsoen, so whenever I realise my focus is not on point anymore I will go there for a short walk. I got some coffee at the cafe in the middle of the Noorderplantsoen and listened to some music. About an hour later it was time to get back to the grind to finish the last things for my assignment.

Today, I had a committee meeting at 7:00 pm, so I didn’t have to get groceries for dinner. We had a brainstorm session about our upcoming events that we want to organise. We decided that we want to do some outside activities, for example a treasure hunt or a Crazy88. When I came home, my girlfriend and my friends surprised me for my birthday, which was the next day. They brought drinks and cake to celebrate, so that was great.

Friday: My birthday

After hitting snooze way too many times, it was time to wake up. The assignment needed to be handed in before noon, so I got up, made some final adjustments and handed it in. The weather was really nice and sunny, something us Dutchies love to talk about after all of the cold months. I packed my stuff and took the bus back to my hometown, something a lot of Dutch students do on the weekend. Together with my girlfriend, I went to visit my parents. I try to go to my parents during the weekend every once in a while. I have only been living in Groningen for half a year now, so before that, I used to take this bus to go to university. In the evening I went to a restaurant with my family, which was something we haven’t done in a long time due to the pandemic.

The weekend: Fun times

The weekend had officially started, so it was time to do some fun activities! After a relaxed Saturday morning, I went back to Groningen by bus. In the afternoon, my friends and I decided to go for some drinks in the city centre. What I like about Groningen is that the city is really vibrant. No matter where you are, you will see a lot of students around you. As people say: Groningen is truly built for students. 

On Saturday night, we went back to my house to take some time to relax and play some video games. The next day, I just chilled the whole day watching some series with my girlfriend. To catch a break from relaxing, we walked to the supermarket to make my favourite Sunday dinner: homemade pizzas with vegetables. You probably already guessed it, but we watched a romantic movie together to end this weekend in style.

That’s it, this was my week! I’d say it’s a nice mix of studying, working and enough time for social activities with friends. How does your typical week compare with mine? Busier? Less busy? Have I got it super easy compared to you? Come and tell us about it!