Student case study · Denmark
Sarina, from Kathmandu to Copenhagen
MSc Business Administration and Innovation, September 2025 intake
Admitted in Denmark and the Netherlands. We kept both files moving and put the costs side by side so she could choose.
- Two offers
- Cost comparison
- After bachelor's
- Starting point
- BBA, CGPA 3.38
- English
- IELTS Academic 7.0
- Study gap
- 1 year after her bachelor's, marketing assistant
- Paid for by
- Parents' savings and her own savings
- First call to visa
- 228 days
Where Sarina started
Sarina applied to business master's in Denmark and the Netherlands in the same season. When both said yes, she had two deadlines, two permit systems and one family budget.
What we found
We put both on one sheet: tuition, the funds each country requires, rent in each city, work hours (20 a week in Denmark, 16 with an employer's permit in the Netherlands), and what happens after graduation.
Denmark cost more up front but paid better part-time, and her programme had a company project in every semester. She chose Copenhagen. We withdrew the Dutch acceptance in writing before the deposit deadline, so she lost nothing.
Step by step, with dates
28 Oct 2024
First counselling. Denmark and the Netherlands both shortlisted.
15 Jan 2025
Applications in both countries.
4 Apr 2025
Offer from Amsterdam.
11 Apr 2025
Admission in Copenhagen.
18 Apr 2025
Both offers compared on one sheet; Sarina chooses Denmark.
25 Apr 2025
Dutch acceptance withdrawn before the deposit deadline.
9 May 2025
NOC; first semester paid; SIRI fee paid and ST1 submitted.
21 May 2025
Biometrics.
13 Jun 2025
Permit granted, 228 days after the first call.
24 Aug 2025
Flies to Copenhagen.
The result
Sarina is in her second year in Copenhagen. She works 20 hours a week in a hotel in term and full-time in summer, and her group project with a Danish logistics company turned into a student job.
In Sarina's words
Applied for Denmark and the Netherlands at the same time. My counsellor kept both files moving and explained the differences in cost and work rules so I could choose properly.
If your profile looks like this
- 1
If you apply to two countries, compare them on the same sheet: tuition, funds, rent, work hours, after-study rules.
- 2
Withdraw from the offer you don't take before its deposit deadline, in writing.
- 3
See the Denmark and Netherlands pages for each country's numbers.
Everything about studying in Denmark: cost, process and fees