Admission through quota 1 or 2

What are the main priorities in a quota 2 assessment?

When assessing quota 2 applications at the International Bachelor in Social Sciences, emphasis is partly given to your academic background and work experience and partly to your motivated application. Your application must demonstrate that given your experience, you are qualified to study the International Bachelor in Social Sciences, and against this background you should explain your motivation.

In addition to your motivated application, emphasis is also given to activities relevant to the social sciences. These could be academic supplementary activities such as Higher Preparation Course (HF) supplementary subjects and other higher education activities and/or relevant social sciences-related work, folk high school education, travels, voluntary work, military service and conscientious objector service plus general work experience.
 

Relevant work experience

Social sciences-related work activities must be relevant in relation to the social sciences subjects. It can e.g. be work as a teacher or within organisational- or communication-based work (however, not telemarketing, service assistance work, office messenger work). In addition, importance is attached to whether or not your work includes management responsibility. It is up to you as an applicant to explain in your motivational letter how your activities are relevant. If you are in doubt whether or not your work experience is relevant to the International Bachelor in Social Sciences, you are very welcome to contact our study guidance.
 

Relevant upper-secondary school level subjects

When assessing quota 2 applications, emphasis is given to relevant upper secondary school level subjects, unless the subjects are part of your upper-secondary school examinations. If these subjects are comprised by your upper-secondary school examinations, it is required that the subjects are later passed at a higher education level.

The subjects below are relevant in connection with admission to the International Bachelor in Social Sciences. There may, however, also be other subjects which are relevant. If you have any questions, please contact the Study guidance office for bachelor students.

• Social Science
• English at Danish A-level
• Rhetoric
• Geography
• Philosophy
• Business Economics

The education activity is documented in the form of examination results transcript(s), course certificates or similar documents which may prove that you have completed the specified course(s).
 

Higher education, voluntary work, study abroad, folk high school education, military service and conscientious objector service

In addition to the above activities, folk high school education, studies abroad, voluntary work, military service and conscientious objector service can also form part of the quota 2 application assessment.

As an applicant, it is your responsibility to demonstrate in which way you have acquired special competencies through the different activities, and in which way they are relevant to the programme you wish to enroll in.

It is important that you specify the scope of e.g. work activities, folk high school education, studies abroad. I.e. in the application form on optagelse.dk, you must specify the period for the activity and e.g. the number of hours in relation to the work activities and in relation to voluntary work.
 

The programme is taught in Danish. Please switch this webpage to Danish language and learn more.

The programme is taught in Danish. Please switch this webpage to Danish language and learn more.

This guide is for you who are about to write a motivational letter to apply for a bachelor programme at Roskilde University via quota 2.

We cannot guarantee your admission by following this guide, however it can be a really good idea to find inspiration in the following advice. Your personal motivation, own experience and conceptions are the regards which sets you apart from other applicants. To write a good motivational letter, you should reflect on the mentioned factors and relate them to the programme you are applying for.

That is also why it is not possible to give an objective answer to what a good motivational letter is. A good motivational letter starts and ends with you - and you know yourself better than we do.

The formalities

A motivational letter should not exceed 1-1½ pages. There are no guidelines for font size, spacing or word count – that’s up to your own judgment. This is because your written presentation is also part of the overall assessment of your application.

The most important things to keep in mind when writing your motivational letter is:

• If you’re applying for the International Bachelor in Social Sciences, the emphasis should be on the basic section of the programme – but you are welcome to include the bachelor subjects you may already have thought about choosing intend to study.
• If you’re applying for one of the Danish-taught programmes, please switch this webpage to Danish language and learn more. 
•  If you’re applying for more than one bachelor programme at Roskilde University, you must write a motivational letter for each of the programmes. 
• The motivational letter must be written in the teaching language of the applied programme.

The content of the application

In your application you should reflect upon the following three topics:

1. Why did you choose this specific programme?
2. How is your experience related to the programme, you are applying for?
3. Which expectations do you have for your studies if offered admission?

How you structure your motivational letter is up to you, so consider this carefully. The letter should be written in a fluent language, be grammatically correct and easy and interesting to read. Consider using paragraphs and headers to make a clear and visible structure. 

In the following sections you can find inspiration to prepare yourself to write about the three themes.

1) Why did you choose this specific programme?

To be able to write something about this, it’s a good idea to investigate the bachelor programme’s subject area, organisation and working methods. You can do this by e.g.:

• Read more about the programme’s overall objective and the competence profiles it prepares the ground for. One way to do that is read the programme’s study regulations. 
• Read about the programme structure or in the study regulations. 
• Read the individual course descriptions which contains information about e.g. the composition of theory, method, practical elements and how progress and working methods are intended to work. You can find descriptions on study.ruc.dk – choose 'basic courses and projects' under the programme you are applying for. 
• Visit our university, talk to guidance counselors and participate in Open house, where you can talk to students and teachers. Find our next Open House in our calendar.

Think about where you first heard about the programme, why you noticed it and how you got the notion that it could be something for you; what caught your attention?

• Which keywords do you take special notice of when you read about the programme and why?
• What inspires you and sharpens your interest – why and in what way?
• What seems particularly challenging or relevant for you?
• Are there any concrete aspects of the programme that you already know that you want to immerse yourself in or explore further?

2) How is your experience related to the programme, you are applying for?

It is important that you link the programme to your own experiences. Maybe you concerned yourself with the programme’s subject area in different contexts? It could also be completely different things that you think qualifies you for the studies – e.g. work experience, stays abroad, folk high school, hobbies and/or volunteer work. Learn more about what Roskilde University considers relevant experience for the specific programmes in the quota 2 criteria above.  

Also describe any connections between the programme you are applying for and activities or special engagements you have participated in in other contexts than education. This could be things that are significant for your interest in the specific subject area or have given you specific competencies that you can relate to the programme at Roskilde University.

3) Which expectations do you have for studying at Roskilde University/the programme if offered admission?

If you have any expectations that you think accentuates specific aspects of you as a person and student – e.g. certain ambitions, your engagement or interest in other aspects of the programme and the university - you can include it if you find it relevant. Try to put your expectations for the programme on a personal and academic level into words. Here are some questions you can use as inspiration:

• How do you imagine the daily study life? How will you participate in it?
• What can you contribute with – personally and professionally?
• How will you be a part of the cooperation with other students, influence the study environment, the programme, the university etc.?

Remember that both the motivational letter and your experience counts towards the overall assessment of your application. If you are not offered admission, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you wrote a bad motivational letter – it could just mean that other applicants had more relevant experience than you. Conversely, it’s important to remember that even if you don’t have a lot of experience, there is much to be gained by writing a well-reflected motivational letter.

You must prepare a CV in which all the activities you include in your motivated quota 2 application are evident. You are also welcome to include more activities in your CV than you include in your motivational letter.

You can either create your CV by filling in the CV fields in your application on optagelse.dk (education, work experience, etc.) or attach your own CV as a pdf to your application on optagelse.dk. It makes no difference for the assessment of your application whether you choose one or the other, but if you fill in the fields on optagelse.dk, you are sure to get all the important information included.

If you make your own CV, there is no template or recipe for how it should look, but it’s very important that you specify the time scope of individual activities. For example, the number of months you’ve worked, how many hours per week (on average) you’ve worked, volunteered, etc. If you do not specify the time scope, Roskilde University cannot assess the extent of your experience, and this may mean that it will not be counted in the overall assessment. It is therefore important that you specify the time scope as concretely as possible.

A maximum of 12 months' experience in total can be included in the assessment for quota 2. It does not have to be 12 consecutive months and you can include activities that don’t take up a full month – for example, a 2-week course or similar. You don’t need to sort through your CV, as Roskilde University chooses the most relevant activities on your CV to include in the 12 months.