Life after Atlas Dawn Spruijtenburg

This edition of Life after ATLAS features Dawn Spruijtenburg, a graduate of the class of 2017, who is now studying Transport, Infrastructure and Logistics at the TU Delft.

When Dawn was finishing high school, she had no idea what direction she wanted to go into. She had visited many universities and different study programs and liked all of them, but none had the ‘wow’ factor. Until she found ATLAS: “What attracted me most, is that ATLAS is a very challenging program. I did not want to do something that just anyone could do, I wanted to be challenged.”

During her three years at University College Twente (UCT), Dawn spent a lot of time finding her favourite subjects. She took many different mathematics and physics courses but eventually was most charmed by a course on transport and mathematics. “The combination of practical problems and mathematics appealed to me and it is very interesting how traffic can be modelled using mathematics. So, I started looking for a master program that combines mathematics with the practical implementation, and Transport, Infrastructure and Logistics perfectly fits this description.”


Dawn Spruijtenburg, Alumna Class of 2017

People at UCT are always full of initiative and there is always someone who wants to do something fun

Dawn Spruijtenburg, Alumna Class of 2017

“This master program is very interdisciplinary, although it only focuses on transport. It belongs to three different faculties, meaning that there are students from many different backgrounds.” Consequently, Dawn’s master program is a very accessible option for ATLAS students, and the only specific requirement is a strong basis in mathematics. In fact, Dawn has not experienced a major knowledge gap: “Of course there were some courses where I lacked some pre-knowledge, but every student in the program has this at least one time, and it is not really a problem.”

Dawn likes the TU Delft, the university is quite a bit bigger than the University of Twente, and the students have a sense of pride in the reputation the university has. “I do miss the learning environment at UCT, especially working together with classmates and having so many opportunities to discuss study materials with teachers and peers. I also miss the community, people at UCT are always full of initiative and there is always someone who wants to do something fun. I’m happy that there are other ATLAS students studying in Delft; we organized our own little UCT community and have dinner every week.”

There are a lot of students that worry whether the ATLAS program prepares them well for a master program, but Dawn says not to do so: “ATLAS gives you a broad background and skills to gain knowledge quickly, so at the end of your ATLAS career, you will for sure be able to continue with the masters of your choice!”

University College Twente offers a unique bachelor’s programme, Technology, Liberal, Arts and Sciences, to top students. Visit the University College Twente website for more information about the college and Technology, Liberal, Arts and Sciences website for more information about the bachelor program. Or visit us during the open day, a student-for-a-day or an insight-day.

Author
Roos Bulthuis
Writer, Alumna Class of 2016
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