How Ghanaian Student Won the Erasmus Mundus ME3+ Scholarship with a 3.39 GPA and Multilingual Profile

My name is Nene Abayateye, and I was born and raised in Ghana. I am a mechanical engineer with experience in power plant operations and more recently, Life Cycle Assessments (LCA).

My program is the Erasmus Mundus in Management and Engineering of Environment and Energy (ME3+).

For this program, the universities are located in Hungary, France, Sweden, and Italy. Students in the program spend a semester in one of these countries according to three different predetermined tracks or specialization paths.

For my specialization, I studied at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics (Budapest, Hungary), IMT Atlantique (Nantes, France), and finally at the University of Borås (Borås, Sweden). My academic track took place in these 3 countries.

The fourth university was The Free University of Bolzano, but I did not spend a semester there as it was not on my track.

Educational Background

I studied Mechanical Engineering at Ashesi University in Ghana from 2016 to 2020.

In my undergraduate years, I attended a Harvard Model United Nations (HNMUM) Conference in the US and was on an energy-related committee. I also did two engineering internships in my as well as other extracurricular activities. In addition, I also took courses in the French language, which massively helped my Erasmus Mundus application.

I finished a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering in Ghana in 2020 and then worked in an energy company in Ghana and Burkina Faso for 3 years. I was quite lucky to be working in an energy company, and so I had some industrial experience in the courses and concepts that were going to be taught in the program. I did my best to articulate these experiences properly in my application letter.

One point I would like to stress is that my GPA from my undergraduate studies was 3.39/4.0, which is a second-class upper in Ghana, and is in no way extraordinary when it comes to GPAs. I believe the rest of my profile made up for my not-so-high GPA and gave me an advantage over other candidates with better academic records.

How Did you Prepare to Apply for the Erasmus Mundus Scholarship

The ME3+ Program is a very competitive program to get into. In the year I got in (2023), 15 scholarships were awarded out of 1,000+ applicants (a ~1% success rate).

The first year I applied for this program as well as others, I received painful, stinging rejections. In the months following the first set of rejections, I decided to improve my profile where I had the most strengths and figured I could get the most leverage: my languages.

I had been learning French for 3 years before that point and had language certifications to prove it. Looking at my situation and the time available until the next season of applications, I decided to add more language certifications before the next round of applications. I did a two-week crash course in German basics and thankfully passed the Deutsche Zertifikat A2 examination.

The whole program is taught in English, and though an English certificate was not required, I went ahead to register and took the IELTS exam as well. I also signed up for some paid courses on Coursera around renewable energy and one of these courses gave me an idea for a final project which I added some months later when I was writing my application letter.

Admittedly, all these efforts were a significant financial and time investment, but it did pay off in the end.

At the time of submitting my application for the second time, I uploaded an English C1 certificate, French B2 Certificate, and German A2 certificate. I had a lot of other energy-related experiences, but I believe having these three certificates was the icing on the cake which set me apart from all other candidates who might have had better academic records, and similar work experiences.

Could you briefly discuss the Erasmus Mundus program you pursued and the specific field of study it focused on?

The Erasmus Mundus in Management and Engineering of Environment and Energy (ME3+) is divided into three tracks, generally focusing on renewable energy technologies and environmental engineering-related topics. My specialization has a focus on Life Cycle Assessment, which deals with the measurement of the environmental impact (eg. Carbon footprint) of products.

How did the cost of living vary across the countries you studied in? Which country was the most affordable or expensive, and how did you manage financially?

For the countries I studied in (Hungary, France & Sweden), the costs of living increased steadily over the three countries. The scholarship amount was however enough to cover all the living costs over the three countries and even save some as well.

Did you face any language barriers, and if so, how did you overcome them? Did the language of instruction change from one country to another?

The language of instruction fortunately was English for all the three universities in which I studied. However, the day-to-day spoken language for all three universities was Hungarian, French, and Swedish in that order.

The Swedish people had the highest level of spoken English among the three countries. For France and Hungary, not speaking the local languages makes integration more complex, but you can manage daily life with only English. Personally, speaking French already made life slightly easier for me since it gave me more opportunities for integration with other French speakers.

Would you recommend the Erasmus Mundus program to others? What advice would you give to someone considering this scholarship?

I would wholeheartedly recommend the Erasmus Mundus program to anyone considering this scholarship. Some extra advice I could give is:

1. From my experience, it is best to start planning for scholarships months ahead, probably about 6 months ahead of the application deadlines to get a feel of all you will need to do, and then probably start imagining the first versions of your motivation letter.
2. Focus in advance on where you have the strongest “unfair advantage” and then develop those skills to the best level you possibly can. This will make your motivation letters and CV really stand out.

Looking back, would you have done anything differently during your time in the program?

I believe I maximized all the opportunities that came my way.

Over the two years in the program, I:

• lived in 4 cities (in 3 different countries)
• successfully found free tickets for 4 classical music concerts in Budapest, Hungary.
• made friends from all over the world
• started learning the Spanish language and got an A2 certificate
• explored more than 20 museums and historic locations
• successfully navigated visa, administrative, and housing issues in 3 different countries (a feat you don’t fully understand until you’re in the thick of it)
• tried cuisine from every continent for free (at several international dinner events)
• picked up a hoard of new hobbies: Latin dance (salsa/bachata), mountain biking, inline skating
• learned the basics of ice skating (which landed me in an emergency ward) in Sweden
• learned how to use a turntable and DJ-ed at an event in Nantes, France
• volunteered at a top Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) symposium in Gothenburg, Sweden.
• carried out my thesis internship in LCA of electronic products, which is currently one of the hottest fields in environmental engineering/sustainability.

All these are aside from the main academic knowledge and experiences I gained in energy and environmental engineering.

I think I thoroughly made the most of my two years in this program and would re-do everything again.