Hey Jillian,
thanks for this thread and your time. I hope you can help me.
There is one question I can’t stop thinking about. Whilst in germany „University“ and „University of applied sciences“ are the standard academic institutions, there is a third concept called „Dual University“. It is getting quite famous in the past years especially, however was established the 70's „already“.
I did my bachelors on such an institution. I’m not sure if you ever heard about it (and basically this is already my point): Long story short, students have a contract with a company during the time of study (without contract you can not apply), each semester is squeezed into ~3 months and the „other half“ of each semester you spend your time in the company as a trainee.
Nowadays these institutions enjoy a very good reputation in germany, are pretty competitive, rank 1st in terms of career development comparisons (initial salary increase, percentage of leadership roles, …) towards the „conventional“ institutions. It enjoys good accreditation, is evaluated with 210 ECTS (6 semesters) and I received a double degree from Open University (B.Hons.).
I do not want to advertise it!! I just want to give background to get an objective feedback.
I was quite happy about this form of education, but I feel like I need to explain the background in my future application materials (would be terrible not to be accepted because some adcom did simply never hear about it). On the other hand, if I start to explain the concept of my University, it may look like I want to justify or apologize something that I’m actually proud of.
I may could ignore entirely as it is accredited, if it wasn’t for something so important…
From your experience, how do you expect the process? Maybe it is not at all that new to the adcoms, I actually am pretty sure that I’m not the first
But is it a killer for my application? Does an additional attachment question the quality or is it a sign of professional and thorough thinking?
I simply feel unhappy with both solutions and would like to hear some input from you. Maybe it even is such a big thing that I can forget entirely to join a top US B school?!
Your (as well as all others!) time and impression is highly appreciated,