At Tietgenkollegiet, we are in a privileged and yet challenging situation that there are always more applicants than available rooms. Thus, we have established a Recommendation Committee that processes and selects the applicants to be accepted onto the residence hall waiting list.
If the applicant complies with the formal requirements described on the page Who can apply?, the application will be evaluated by the four representatives of the Recommendation Committee (Indstillingsudvalget – ISU) as well as a representative of the residence hall administration or board.
About the Recommendation Committee
The Recommendation Committee consists of six residents who are democratically elected by their fellow residents at the yearly constituent Dorm Council meeting. The official description of the committee is as follows: “The Recommendation Committee (ISU) represents the residents at the Tietgen Residence Hall, and oversees the selection of responsible, engaged and social students who can support an attractive housing and study environment.
The committee is responsible for the four yearly application rounds. For each round, the applications are split randomly into two groups, each consisting of three ISU-members. In these groups, the three ISU-members evaluates the applications, and passes on the best 10-15% to the final round, where all six members and the representative from the board reads and evaluates.
Focus on motivation AND DIVERSITY
During the evaluation of the individual applications, special attention is given to the sections where the applicant describes his or her motivation for living at the Tietgen Residence Hall. The goal is to find applicants who will fit the dorm the best, and who can contribute to making the dorm a great place to live. Because every ISU-member draws from their own experiences and beliefs evaluations are subjective. It is therefore not possible to define what exactly makes ‘a great application’. However, ISU does evaluate based on the dorms principles of diversity, and aims to select applicants from a wide variety of studies, cultures and interests in every round of applications.
goOD ADVICE FROM THE RECOMMENDATION COMMITTEE
There is no definite recipe for the perfect application, because the ISU-members evaluates based on personal experiences and preferences, and seeks diversity in the new residents who are selected. Besides that, the committee’s members and therefore also what makes a ‘good application’, changes yearly. Nonetheless we have attempted to gather a few pieces of advice below for what to write, and what not to write. It is important for us to highlight that you are not certain to get selected, even if you follow all the advice. This is solely for inspirational purposes.
What you should do:
- Reflect on why you are applying for the Tietgen Residence Hall specifically
- Consider how you imagine yourself contributing to the social environment at the dorm
- Tell us about previous experiences with social and/or volunteer work
- Reflect on the role as roommate/dorm resident, and how it is to live closely together with many people
- Highlight personal interests and special experiences
- Be honest
What you should not do:
- Avoid copying directly from the dorm’s website
- Avoid spending too much room explaining how YOU benefit from the facilities and the dorm
- Avoid sending us anything but the allowed A4 page of writing. The committee does not evaluate additional materials such as application videos, homepages etc.
Confidentiality and disqualification
Members of the Recommendation Committee are subject to rules of confidentiality and are not allowed to pass on information about applicants and/or applications under any circumstances. Furthermore, ISU-members with a personal relation to an applicant is disqualified from evaluating that application.
Allocation of rooms
When the rooms are allocated to the applicants on the waiting list, this is done based on the principle that there should be the greatest diversity possible in the various kitchens. This includes, e.g., striving for ensuring a distribution of gender and types/places of education in the kitchens.