A 95% mistake

As I already mentioned on a previous entry, I spent the month of April focused on the application projects required for the Ba and Ma in Cologne I was interested in. The projects writing was a chaos because I had only one month to do both and I had never done such thing. Each of them had its own condition, but you were absolutely free to be creative and do something by yourself, without limitations. You had to present for the BA a game concept based on "06F", whatever you wanted. It could be a story, a game level, characters design, executable files, a trailer... "06F" means nothing by itself, but it depends on you to do something with it and make them understand your idea in less than 10 minutes, what a challenge. For the Ma they asked for a non-linear audiovisual media concept, that is to say, nothing like a story with a beginning and an end. For example, a non-linear book could be an encyclopaedia or a recipes book.

The thing is that I think they liked both proposals because I received an invitation for both interviews; unbelievable. Last year they had about 260 applicants for 35 places in the Ba and 15 in the Ma, and they expected more this year. I think it was absolutely awesome to be shortlisted for both programmes! In fact, although I am not completely sure about this, I think they had this year more than 500 applications. I say this because my application numbers were 275 and 277, but I have seen from 006 to 501 in the list of shortlisted applicants for the interviews... so it looks reasonable to think that there were just as many candidates, doesn't it? Anyway, the interview took place last Friday.

I went to Cologne relaxed and quite confident. The fact that I was invited for both programmes (although they told me that just one interview was necessary) gave me some hopes. In theory, the projects are more important, I think. Given the fact that both the Ma and the Ba are in English and they don't ask for any language certificate, the personal interview is more to check your real level. The interviews don't take long, just 10 minutes, enough to see if you can communicate and little else. Besides, the projects had to be different, but the interview seemed to be the same for both options, if they had enough with one for me... However, I made there a mistake.

Something that I usually realise when it is already too late is that sometimes I talk too much, specially if I am nervous or excited. It also happens to me when I write emails for example, or when I've got conversation on Skype or Whatsapp. The thing is that, between my interview being the very last one, that I was invited for two programmes and that I was feeling comfortable, my interview took in the end around 30 minutes, three times as much as it should. A friend told me he was about to warn me before so that I could be careful not to make the mistake, but he decided not to do it to avoid me getting nervous. I think I've got this from my mother... According to him, it often happens that 95% of what I say contains very little or no relevant information at all for the other person and only 5% is important. And he is right. You see? That very same thing is happening right now... All this bore is just to let you know that I am today the happiest man in Germany because I've been admitted in both programmes, the Ma and the Ba!!! So I will have the luxury to decide now (it will be most likely the Ma) and in September I start studying at Cologne Games Lab in the Fachhochschule in Colgone.