In an age of information overload, look for curated opinions

You can ask a chatbot to list every English-taught business Bachelor’s in Europe and get an answer in seconds. You can scroll through campus tours, student vlogs, rankings, and program pages until midnight. Finding information is so quick and easy. So why is choosing a study path still so intimidating and difficult?

The reality is, deciding on your study program still takes as much self-knowledge and honest conversation as it did for your parents. When I was looking for programs abroad, roughly ten years ago, it was already very different. The problem still persists, except now, there’s even more information to process.

Being able to navigate the endless stream of information and opinions shared online is a crucial skill for the new student cohort. From Google search to ChatGPT, to TikTok and Instagram, to your grandparents... everyone has an opinion. But who should you listen to?

I chatted with three experts from NHL Stenden about how students make study decisions these days, aiming to uncover the best tips for navigating the chaotic world of online study advice.

Decide how you want to learn

We all learn differently. Some people are independent learners, while others thrive in group environments. Some prefer focusing on abstract concepts while others want to dig into case studies and hands-on projects. The core question is… What kind of learner are you? What kind of study experience do you want?

Konstantin Brehm starts his open-day conversations with how you want to study. He asks prospective students whether they prefer lectures and exams, practical experience, group projects, or independent work, because those preferences will shape their study experience.

“What I often do at open days, for example, is I ask [students] ‘How do you want to study?‘, ‘What is important to you?‘, ‘Do you want to have lots of lectures, busy schedules, read lots of books, and have exams?‘, ‘Do you value practical experience, or maybe more self-study time?‘,‘Do you thrive in group work or are you someone who likes to be alone and do your own projects?‘. These things are very important because they will define how you will live for the next four, five, maybe six, years. There are so many schools, subjects, ways to study out there. The question of how you want to experience your study is something for students to reflect upon.“

Once you know that you learn best by doing, or best by reading and arguing, whole categories of programs drop off your list. Mr. Brehm put it bluntly: "If University of Applied Sciences is not for you because you don't like group work, then you shouldn't torture yourself for four years."

Same thing if your goal is to gain practical knowledge to pursue a specific career path. If you want to learn by building, testing, and working with real clients, a practice-oriented program may suit you far better than a lecture-heavy one.

Seek out stories from students with a similar background

Social belonging is key to a fulfilling campus experience, and your peers are in the best position to share relevant, curated opinions on the benefits and challenges of studying in a particular country or university.

Dr. Deike Schulz argued that the most convincing messenger is a current student. “TikTok and Instagram are the first address for students to look up information. So this is how we should translate [the study experience]. Educational entities shouldn’t be the ones saying ‘hey come study here‘, it should be the students themselves speaking from their first-hand experience.“

Ms. Irina Dragomir echoed this sentiment, noting that for many international students, their only experience of an institution (before enrolment) is through digital channels. For example, at NHL Stenden, domestic Dutch students may understand what day-to-day life looks like: biking to school, study habits, dealing with rain, social norms, and so on.

But many international students lack that context. Which is why it’s key to talk to students who come from contexts similar to yours, as they can bridge the gap between how life and education work in your home country and in the study destination. “[Students] generate content that is much more directly speaking to the one who’s watching. Because it’s not me that’s watching that content—I am not looking for a university and neither are the colleagues who are doing these marketing brochures.“

Sometimes, it’s the unglamorous details, like rainy bike rides or exam weeks, that can give you a more authentic picture of how it feels to study at a particular university, or in a specific country. Dr. Schulz reflected on how heavy rain is a very commonly discussed culture shock for international students in the Netherlands:

“We had influencers, micro influencers, who are experts, who are former international students living in the Netherlands. And what they often do (and they become very popular with) is that they make videos showing like ‘Hey, in the Netherlands, it rains a lot, and this is what the Dutchies do when it rains‘. And then that’s a very authentic story, that people can relate with, and can see. And I think that’s a good way to share what to expect.”

Curated opinions can also come in person. University fairs remain very popular and useful for finding new universities. When Ms. Dragomir asked her students whether they had attended an education fair, she pointed out that "almost all hands were up". And this makes sense, as they are often the only time you get to talk face-to-face with a representative from a university abroad. It makes the experience real, which is more important than ever, given the prevalence of AI that are prone to hallucination.

Make good use of AI with the right prompts

AI tools have improved quickly. They actively search the web and cite sources, and hallucinations have reduced (although they still happen). One common use case for these tools is comparing study options. 54% of Gen Z have used AI to make a purchase in the past year. Tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, or Claude can be genuinely useful for your study search. They can help you map out your options, compare factual information, translate program pages, and explain unfamiliar terms.

They’re great for seeking out personalized advice when you have reliable data sets to draw from and compare. For example, if you upload two curriculum brochures (which are infamously long and clunky) from two universities you’re choosing between, it will do a great job at formatting them in a way that makes it easy to make side-by-side comparisons.

But you should be careful when you ask for a verdict. They are designed to affirm existing beliefs, because acceptance and reassurance get people to continue using the tools. In fact, in a recent study, researchers found that AI affirmed users' actions 49% more often than humans did. So, if you ask whether your favorite program suits you, you’ll usually get a ‘yes’.

"These tools are still built for engagement and for conformity. So they do tend to confirm you in your choices, and you have to be really smart about how you ask your questions in order to also find or let the tool find your blind spots in your thinking."

Dr. Schulz observed that people in general (not just students) place a lot of trust in AI because of its novelty and the gentle, reassuring wording. "It’s all so new. If you also look at how the internet developed [in the 90s]… everyone took to everyone because it was a very small community. And you also see the same thing with what happened now with large language models is that people just trust in the beginning because, ‘Oh, it's so friendly’, and they can’t already have the critical ability to see, ‘hey, it’s a computer I’m talking with. It’s not a person.’

There are so many dimensions to what builds trust. It is also that people are reaction to the tone of voice. The language model is also trained to sound like a highly educated person, which leaves a type of first impression [on the user]."

AI answers also get thinner as the topic becomes rarer or when a concept/term is more specific to a region. You need to do some linguistic maneuvering to get it to do more in-depth research or admit what it doesn’t know. Mr. Brehm brought up how a comparison between a psychology program at a research university and a more niche field at a university of applied sciences may lead to a more unbalanced overview due to information asymmetry: “If you ask it to be critical and open and transparent about what it doesn’t know, it might give you a better response. But if you just ask a generic question about a study program that lacks digital information out there, then AI will make up something very, very generic.

I think this especially relates to lots of programs at universities of applied sciences. I always try to compare it to, let’s say, the scientific university where you might have a field like psychology that has been heavily researched and described. There’s so much information online, offline about psychology. It’s also a very old field and of course a study topic. And then we have programs at NHL Stenden that are called serious gaming, which has significantly less information compared to psychology that AI will probably have to resort to some hallucination or to making some things up about it.“

There’s also a matter of cultural differences and performance that vary by language. Mainstream AI tools are trained on Western culture and primarily on English-language material. Therefore, the quality of its output may vary significantly depending on the language used, and its interpretations and advice may be formulated through a Western lens. "We have to remember that these tools are largely build on, let’s say, Western media, Western culture, Western input, mainly in the English language. I mean, Dutch works, German works, but minority languages are completely lost in these tools. So there’s still a lot of shortcomings."

Look past familiar labels, especially if you want a career-focused degree

Information overload has a side effect: the options that are more difficult to explain get skipped. Universities of applied sciences are a good example. The term is often too abstract to understand, and many countries have different names for this type of institution (“Polytechnic” is more common in English-speaking countries, “Fachhochschule“ is used in the DACH region, ”hogeschool” in the Netherlands and Belgium, while “UAS” is used in Finland).

If you want your degree to lead directly into a profession, a university of applied sciences program may be the best way for you. A Dutch UAS Bachelor’s usually takes four years and includes compulsory internships, which give you direct entry into your chosen field. NHL Stenden's own comparison describes UAS Bachelor’s degrees as 240-credit programs focused on professional skills and project work, whereas 180-credit programs at a research university focus on theory and independent research.

Dr. Schulz highlighted the important role UAS have in advancing different professional fields: "[Professors at UAS] help students and professionals to get better at their profession or to learn more about things in their professional area. That is our main goal. We also produce academic output but supporting students, experts and professionals through applied research come first."

Of course, this is tied to the first point: you need to know yourself, how you like to learn, and what you want to do in the future. It’s important to weigh the trade-offs carefully. A UAS suits you if you like group projects and hands-on work, and it may frustrate you if you prefer independent theoretical study. The academic research you do as a professor at a UAS is also focused on applied sciences (working, as opposed to more theory-focused study at research universities. If you plan to do a Master’s at a Dutch research university later, you’ll usually need a pre-Master’s first.

Bring your family into the decision, then make it your own

Your family knows you, and their views can really help you make a better decision. Mr. Brehm sees many students arrive at open days with their parents, who influence both the program and the city. Family also shapes practical priorities. Several of Ms. Dragomir's international students valued cheap flights home, and she concluded that "the safety net seems to be important".

Therefore, your family can be an excellent asset for gathering a shortlist of universities that would fit your interests, future plans, and study habits. But it’s important to remember that your parents face their own information overload, sometimes in a second language. And you are the one who will be actually walking around on campus and pursuing the program. So, it should be your final decision on where you’ll study.

Remember, it's not a 'forever' decision

Choosing a university is an important decision. Getting a higher education degree takes a lot of effort and time. What’s more, depending on where you choose to study, it can also cost quite a bit of money. But it’s also important to remember this is still just one part of your life. And even if you make the ‘wrong‘ choice, you can always make a career pivot later on.

When asked what they would tell a prospective student deciding on studies right now, all three experts advised trying to relax and enjoy the process. Ms. Dragomir looked decades ahead: "What I would tell a student who is deciding is to be sure that 10, 20, 30 years down the road, the choice of university will not matter. What will matter are the experiences that they've had in that time, and especially the personal growth that they have gone through."

The pitfall she hears most often is the belief that "my choice has to matter" for a job and ten-year plans. She encourages you to see the decision as the 19-year-old you are, not as the person you envision yourself to be several decades in the future.

Dr. Schulz reminded students that careers rarely follow a straight line. As an internship coordinator, she met students who “were often so anxious”, and she told them about her own route from media art student to business owner, teacher, researcher, and professor, none of which she planned at 18.

Choosing a university is a great step for the person you are today. Not the you in 10, 20, 30 years. Your studies should be useful for your career and personally fulfilling, but most importantly, fun.