Is Rotterdam nice to live in?

Question

I might go study there. Also, what do you think of Hogeschool Rotterdam?

Answer 1

I love Rotterdam, I live in Rotterdam, and i actualyl graduated from the Hogeschool Rotterdam last juli.

Rotterdam is a nice city to live. and as every big city, it has good area's and bad area's. most good area's are in the newer suburbs, and the bad areas in the older outerneighbourhoods.

The Centre is quite large, and since rotterdam was leveled with the ground in world war 2, (5 buildings were left standing) the city has a lot of new innovative architechture.

as for clubbing in rotterdam. i often here, non-rotterdammers badmouth rotterdam. but the truth is, you need to know where to go and most foreigners dont. For students a good place to go on a friday or saturday night is 'de oude haven' and 'stadhuisplein.' theyre a little hidden, stadhuis plein is quite close to central station, and de oude haven is close to the marketsquare. on the other end of city centre. I personally like the clubs Cafe Plein, Vie, Revolution, Riva.

Answer 2

After Amsterdam, Rotterdam is the second largest city in the country of the Netherlands. It's also second in nightlife after Amsterdam but it has much less tourists, hardly any really. This is largely because, as Willeke has said, in WWII Rotterdam was bombed heavily to force the Netherlands to capitulate and almost all of the old city of Rotterdam was destroyed. This is also the reason why Rotterdam is the most modern large city in the Netherlands architecturally.

Rotterdam is also the largest port in Europe and I believe second largest in the world. It has some areas where you want to be very careful at night, especially if you're a girl. Rotterdam also has a mayor who's really trying very hard to make Rotterdam a nice city to live in though, and I think he's succeeding, although I haven't been to Rotterdam in a while. There's always something to do in Rotterdam, art, theatre, sports, music, you name it. And it's about an hour to Amsterdam, less than 30 minutes to The Hague, the 3rd largest city (and 45 to the beach!), and about 40 minutes to Utrecht, the 4th largest so you probably won't be bored.

Hogeschool Rotterdam is a well-known school, but you should know that it's not a University. Rotterdam also has a real University, the Erasmus University http://www.eur.nl/english/ and if you want the best possible education I suggest you try to go there instead, unless of course you have a good reason to choose the Hogeschool.

If you have anymore questions, please let us know!

Answer 3

Hogeschool Rotterdam is well known, but as I have not been to a college, I can not say how well it is judged. There are sites that allow you to compare universities and colleges.

Rotterdam is a big city in a rather small packet.
Expect all the big town problems but also all big town advantages.
Rotterdam is a relative young city, for the Netherlands, as it has been flat in WWII and has been rebuild since, with buildings modern at that time.
There are some sub-urbs with older houses, as well as old villages taken into the town, but most sub-urbs have also been build after 1945.

There are many students in town, so you can be sure there is a healthy night-live as well as many cheap places to eat.
Getting a place to stay is hard, so start searching as soon as you know that you go to Rotterdam, (do not wait till the summer, as most students need to find their own place to live.)

Here are some sites, in Dutch, to compare the different colleges: http://www.amtrak.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=Amtrak/Page/Browse_Routes_Page&c=Page&cid=1081256321422&ssid=137
http://www.studiekeuze123.nl/web/site/default.aspx?m=opendagen

And one description of the college in English:
http://www.hogeschool-rotterdam.nl/page.html?ch=cie&id=39817
I could not find sites to compare it to other colleges and Universities, but I know they do exist.