An introduction to DTU

In this entry I will try to explain as much as I can about the university I go to: Danmarks Tekniske Universitet which as you can tell from its name in danish means the Technical University of Denmark.

As its name says, it is a university in which only science and engineering are taught. There are other big universities in Copenhagen such as the University of Copenhagen or Copenhagen Business School where social or simply natural sciences are studied. DTU is not located in the city center but has a very nice and big main campus in Lyngby, around 10 km north of Copenhagen city center. The campus is somehow similar to American one. It is extense and has many buildings where there are classes, labs, auditoriums but also sports facilities, bars and other places to hang out. 

DTU wins the comparison with my old university by far. The place has everything a young student needs from good classrooms, dinning halls, places to study, places to chill and many others. Sometimes we joke about the fact that you could actually live at DTU. You can eat at the canteen, take a shower at the gym and sleep in the library's hammocks. 

My favorite building in campus is 101. This is where everything happens. The canteen, the library, the sports hall and most importantly the student bar are in 101.  The student bar is called S-Huset and is one of the most special places at DTU. It is ran by students and beer is "cheap" so people hang out there after classes. I usually play ping pong and table football while most people just sit and drink beer after beer. The fact that DTU has many places to hang out makes it easier for students to meet fellow students from other study lines. This is one of my favorite things here. As many of you know, I like to speak to people so I love the bar and the canteen where I meet new people from all over the world almost every day.

Another special fact about DTU is that its study plans include many elective courses. This means that even if you specialize in something you have the chance to study courses which are not directly to your studies. This is enriching academically and also personally. In school, you usually go with the same people in all of your classes. This is not the case at DTU most of the time. The fact that are so many electives and so much freedom makes classes very diverse in the origin and background of students.

DTU has around 10,000 students including Bachelors, Masters and PhD. There are around 2000 international Masters students like myself so you can imagine that the atmosphere is very international wherever you go. Most bachelors courses are taught in danish but all masters courses are taught in english. The origin of the international students is very diverse but the most common nationalities are south europeans (greek, spanish and italian) followed by chinese and indian. I left southern Europe and I still spend most of my time with Mediterraneans like myself. I won't lie to you, I don't regret it. 

One of the things that surprised me  the most about DTU is the amount of student organizations and events that take place here. There is always something to do besides studying and classes. All kind of events happen everyday. You name it we have it. Conferences about coding, sustainability, chemistry softwares, how to find a job, start up pitches, design competitions... As I was saying, most of it is organized by the multiple student organizations. There are organizations in every faculty as well as for sports, games or whatever thing you can imagine. There is an LGBT+ group, a group devoted to promoting sustainability, a group that does beer brewing... Joining these organizations is also a great way to make friends and to socialize at DTU.

When you study at DTU you can feel how important this place is to danish economy. It feeds the country with engineers and science and its research usually creates new companies and projects. Many companies such  Haldor Topsoe or Novozymes are kind of integrated with the university and they share some of their research projects with different DTU departments. This helps the danish economy but also gives wonderful opportunities to the students. Lyngby is a technological hub. Not only DTU is here but also many headquarters of important companies are located in the area.

As you can tell from what i just wrote I am in love with this place. There is everything I need. Good academics, nice professors, cool people and nice facilities. I strongly really recommend this university if you are planning to study abroad. Other posts will try to compliment this recommendation. The good things about DTU are obviously complimented by how amazing Denmark is as a whole.

There are many more things that I could say about DTU but maybe it's time to finish, you'll probably be bored if you have reached this point. If you have any questions I'll try to answer them. Don't hesitate.

Albert

    Me and the DTU sign 

    

    A beer drinking party in campus

 

    The library during Christmas time