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I did my M.Sc. in Electrical (Power) Engineering 2018–2020 batch. I will give a detailed experience broadly classified as study experience, living experience, money expenses and suggestions to incoming students.In the beginning, I thought why the person specifically highlighted the experience for an ‘Indian’ student and not just any student or any generic international student. But then, perhaps since the education system, lifestyle and cuisine varies from country to country, the answer is expected such that it covers the transition of someone with an Indian background to that of an international one.Study Experience:My background: I did my Bachelors in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from India. In TU Delft, I was in the program - Electrical (Power) Engineering where I chose compulsory courses from both Smart Grids track as well Power Electronics and Machines track. But my final year project was in Power Electronics and Machines track where the thesis was about design, modelling and optimization of machines.Work load: Unlike India, where the semester system (6 months) is followed, a quarterly system is followed (3 months). Considering time interval for exams, results and some holidays, 1 quarter lasts 2.5 months during which you have to study 3–4 courses. Usually lab courses are part of the main course. So overall, I felt that there were too many courses. For instance, a semester system might have 5 main courses. A quarter system for the same duration now has 6 to 8 courses. Some of the courses I felt were too irrelevant for the program. For instance, a course on measurements was mostly about calculating and eliminating noises in micro electronic circuits which is completely irrelevant to power engineering students. Overall, I felt that 15 credits worth of courses (which contributes to 3 months of study time) were totally not useful for my program.Quality of courses: Many of the courses are of high quality. You will end up with remarkably higher skills and knowledge after you finish these coursesStyle of exam: Exams are of the following types (for the courses I undertook or know from another person). In all exams, the faculty member who taught you evaluates the exam. Which means it is not going for ‘external evaluation’ like state public universities in India. Sometimes, teaching assistants also evaluate the exam. But in case of dispute, the final authority rests with your faculty member.Closed book descriptive exam: This is same as the exams held by most colleges in India.Open book descriptive exam: You can take the book with you. But that is for exams with huge design procedure and formulae.Assignment plus written (paper / digital) exam - Some courses have assignments throughout every week or every two weeks that have 20% to 60% weightage with the remaining weightage given to end exams. In digital exam, you have to type instead of writing. Assignments can be group or individual. I personally felt this was the best type of testing. In courses with this of type of assessment, I was able to study systemically and do well.Assignment plus oral exam - Some courses have assignments throughout every week or every two weeks that have 60% to 90% weightage with the remaining weightage given to oral exams. In oral exams, your faculty will ask you questions directly. Sometimes they give you paper to answer in case of equations. This is exactly same as viva exams for labs in India. Usually, I find oral exams harder because unlike written exams, you have no time to think. Any delay that occurs because you were thinking will adversely affect your performance if the faculty thinks so. In one oral exam I attended, the faculty gave time to think and answer and I was able to do well. In another oral exam, it was like rapid fire where I was expected to immediately write and derive expressions and I ended up creating a bad impression. So it totally depends on who is asking and how fast you are expected to respond.MCQ Exams - This is same as entrance exam type in India.Structure of courses: Some courses are organized extremely well. In a given number of hours, you can study systematically, gain enough understanding and pass with good grades. Also some courses are extremely disorganized where you spend hours without any direction. It depends upon who your course instructor is. Your faculty has the authority to organize course, choose the type of assessment and your final grades. Usually I have noticed that when it comes to organization of courses, courses belonging to a track are organized in a similar manner. I mean suppose there is track - ‘X’, if one course is organized well in X, then most other courses in X are also organized well. Similarly, if one course in another track - ‘Y’ is not well organized, then other courses under Y are also not well organized. So perhaps, there is some sort of a head for each track who is responsible for regulating courses, assessment and grading methodologies.The Master Thesis - In my program, the master thesis consists of a long research project worth 45 credits (out of 120 total credits). Note that 37.5% of your entire CGPA depends upon this.Out of the total 120 credits, first year has 60 credits and second year has the remaining 60 credits. If you get less than 30 credits in first year, you may be deported back to India since you are no longer meeting even half the study requirements. In order to start the master thesis, you must not only finish 60 credits but also these 60 credits should include credits from the mandatory courses of the track you selected.The master thesis comprises of a research project you are expected to work ‘independently’. Basically among a broader topic, you are expected to form some research objectives, find ways to achieve that and arrive at the final outcome. You will get 30 minutes of weekly assistance from one supervisor who is a faculty in your department.You can also do your master thesis at a company. Usually I observed that among my classmates, those who took a company project instead of the university research project ended up getting paid for their work (from the company), completed it faster and also received job offers.Often company projects are at different locations and you might have to relocate to that place. Maybe the money for breaking present rental contract and shifting would break even with the internship like salary. But time and job offers appear as pros in case of company thesis. When it comes to quality of research, the university research projects may have a slightly better quality owing to a higher starting level of difficulty. Once again, all this is from a small sample space of 10–15 students I know.2. Living experienceGetting a place to stay - University arranges accommodation for students depending on a first come first serve basis. If you are late to pay fees / not interesting in university arranging your accommodation, you can search for a place yourself. Accommodation are of the following types.a. Studio - You live alone in a tiny apartment -> kitchen and bathroom included. Depending upon your age and rental contract, you may be eligible for rental allowance. This is expensive if you don’t get a rental allowance.b. Shared - You share bathroom or kitchen or both with others. If you are searching alone (without university assistance); when it comes to gender, ‘all male’ and ‘mixed accommodations’ are available a lot. But ‘all female’ apartments are rare to find. I also felt this to be socially unfair. When there are a lot of ‘all male’ apartments, shouldn’t there be ‘all female’ apartments too? Or maybe there aren’t enough girls seeking accommodation.c. Couple - There are options where you can live with a husband or a registered partner.There are many rental scams. So please use only reputed sites when you are looking for an accommodation. Finding accommodation on your own is difficult - especially if you are a single (unmarried) woman searching for an ‘all female’ accommodation. Please make sure that you have someone (relative or friend) to temporarily stay with for a few days or weeks in case you run out of accommodation - either your rental contract is over or you have to shift to another location because of some internship.(I understand that the Netherlands is very egalitarian with high safety standards for women. But also, I presume that most Indian female students are unwilling or not modern enough for a mixed accommodation.)Food - Unless you know to cook, food can be very difficult. When it comes to Indian cuisine - all raw materials from different types to rice to spices can be obtained in Indian/ Pakistani/ Bangladeshi shops or even shops like Albert Heijn here. I personally didn’t find food to be a problem. I cooked Indian food regularly. If you have to eat out urgently and if you are very specific that the food should be vegetarian, most shops have one vegan option. But eating out is expensive. Even fast food is relatively expensive.Lifestyle and comfort- Weather was a problem for me. It was very windy and I found cycling very difficult when wind speeds exceeded 30 kmph. Winters were harsh and cold and I had dry skin problems.The quality of life (except weather) is high. Food is hygienic. Tap water is very good. Roads and public transport are excellent. Winter clothes are affordable here. Please don’t buy them all the way from India.I found most people to be polite. I didn’t face any direct racism in the university or from the general public.Socializing- There may be events in university where you can eat together, meet representative from companies and have a chat with your faculty. Also there are cultural events in college. When it comes to events specific to Indians, Diwali is celebrated as Diya with a venue that uses university facilities. Also, state wise you can form groups and find common rooms in accommodations to celebrate. Example, Malayalis celebrate Onam in the form of Potluck. Socializing is going to be difficult if you are a teetotaler as you will find most Indians who don’t drink alcohol in India drinking it here. But events like Diya don’t serve alcohol.3. Money and expensesHouse rentFor renting a studio the cost varies from €550 to €850 per month. If you have rental allowance, depending upon the breakup of rent, cost can come down by €100 per month or even more. For example, if your studio is €600 per month, then eventually you may end up paying €480 per month. For shared accommodation, the overall rent may range from €450 to €600 per month depending upon the space and quality of accommodation. Couple accommodation costs between €700 and €800 which is €350 to €400 per person.Living expenses: Health insurance and travel charges may totally comes to €60 per month. This is given that you stay close to university and don’t have to travel much. Note that dental insurance is not covered under general health insurance.A single meal at a restaurant may amount to €8 to €10. Fast food costs €3.5 to €6 per meal. Cooking reduces cost per meal to €2 to €3.I cooked most of my meals after buying raw ingredients suitable for Indian cuisine. Weekly, I ate 2 meals outside (like Subway). My total food expense came to €150 per month.Overall, I estimate that the total cost of living in NL for an Indian student (including rent, food, insurance and travel) will amount to €500 (too stringent) to €800 (somewhat lavish). €650 per month was ‘comfortable’ for me. If you live in a medium size independent house, eat out and have parties every weekend, you may end up spending more than €1000 per monthTuition expenses: Tuition fee in Netherlands is relatively highly expensive compared to most other EU countries. For every month of study delay, you have to pay additional fees for the whole month. After your defense, don’t forget to un-enroll. Even if you unenroll of Nov 1st, you will be charged for the whole month of November. Also if you un-enroll on a vacation period, you have to pay for the whole of that period. If you un-enroll on the day summer holidays, you have to unnecessarily pay for three more months! Be extremely careful with this. Green light -> defense -> Unenroll -> Graduate. For graduation, you need not be enrolled.Overall suggestions for future students:Before you join, please make sure that you know some people who took the exact same course and exact same track. It is very important for you to get a guidance on what courses to follow and what track to follow. Your overall CGPA may improve by 1.5 to 2 points just with proper guidance. Sometimes it may even effect your passing chance depending upon the course. For instance, in one of the (bad) courses I took, the final exam was completely MCQ type. The examiner had asked 5 (out of 20) questions (so 25% of total marks) directly from a past exam which he hadn’t uploaded in past year exam section. Those students who knew good contacts (such as immediate seniors) had access to that exam questions along with solutions. They ended up getting above 8 while many just passed or narrowly failed. Now of course, all courses are not like this where past year exam matters. But you need to know which course is good and for that a trustworthy network is needed. Overall please avoid courses with MCQ exams as it just a matter of chance. Written descriptive exams and assignments are more fair.Also please don’t choose a track just because you are interested in it. Suppose you like track X, but it happens to be disorganized then your whole study is ruined.Ideally if you start in September 2021, you are supposed to finish by Aug 2023. Every month after that will cost you more tuition fee. And also, you have the additional task of finding another accommodation. Even though your course gets overs in Aug 2023, your rental contract will end by July 2023. So even if you finish on time, you still may end up searching for another whole month’s period of accommodation. Also short stay accommodations are hard to find. Maybe you have to take a one year contract if you need accommodation from some credible place. Instead, you may go and stay in some friends place if it is for a few weeks or a month. So ideally try to graduate by July. If you want to finish by July, you need your report ready by June. Which means you have to finish your thesis by May. Which implies that the core of your thesis must be completed by April! It takes one month of post processing, one month of writing and more time for your faculty to evaluate.In my batch, I do not know of anyone who graduated by July. Only a few students I know graduated by Aug. Most of my classmates graduated during September to December period. Which means that most of them had a study delay ranging from at least one month to more than three months.When you come here don’t forget to bring a pressure cooker, two spare specs if you wear glasses, calculators of all models (Casio 82, 991-es and 991-ms) and any specific product (say Himalaya shampoo) that you personally need. Different exams specify calculator models and nothing else is allowed. Calculators are very expensive here.Try to work independently without much assistance from faculty or TAs. Before you start any project, please ask a rubric of the evaluation criteria. Sometimes you may not get that. Ask any senior students if they have one. It is extremely important that you have a rubric that states how you will be assessed right from the beginning of the master thesis/project, so that you will know what to do.Finally, remember that every small decision you take is irreversible and will have a huge impact on your wellbeing since you are an international student who is paying a massive amount of fees. Get appropriate feedback and advice from trusted seniors and friends before you make any move.