FAQ and some Insights

What to do and What to expect?

► You can join our program twice a year in either April or October and we should receive your application at least 4 weeks before a new quarter starts.

► As we have limited class size, it makes sense to apply as soon as possible to ensure a start in your preferred Season / Quarter.

► The school is Award Winning with many opportunities to shine and an amazing learning experience.

► All classes are held in English. And while we don’t ask for a TOEFL test, you should be ready to express yourself in fluent English!

► You’ll meet a lot of interesting people. Make new friends and gonna have a lot of fun!

What do you get?

 ► Top Teachers straight from the Biz as all our teachers are professionals working in the Creative Industry who share all their knowledge with you. With a very practical hands-on approach, they will mentor you to become who you’re meant to be!

 ► Small class groups as we accept only 10—15 students per Quarter to ensure a very effective learning environment with lots of individual support and mentorship.

 ► A Network to access the best creative minds  out there.  Your peers and mentors often become friends for life and our graduates end up in exciting places!

Portfolio School → Advertising Career

► The goal is to build a successful portfolio in Art Direction or Copywriting. That’s why we call it Portfolio Program. The entire program is split into  quarters. The duration of each quarter is 10 weeks. 

► We are proud to be the most diverse of all schools in the network. With 90% international students, covering all continents, we can say that we are small in size, but big in scope. As we have students joining us in small-sized cohorts of max 15 people but coming from literally all over the world!

► You have to be at least 18 years old if you apply. With no formal limit towards the maximum age. What we can say though, is that our students are - on average - in their early or mid twenties. 

► We know that our education is challenging and it helps to have had some pre-orientation - i.e. an internship in an agency, some studies in the field of design, marketing or communication or just a strong passion for creativity!

Internships, aka: Agency Labs, NoM.AD experience or Quarter Away

In the second year of the 2-year portfolio program, students go on various internships. In order to qualify, they have to prepare a portfolio during their first year / four quarters in school. Plus, the grades achieved during the first year, must have resulted in a GPA of 3.0 or better. 

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The applications for the internships are pretty simple:
students send their portfolio links and some additional info to the school’s team members, in charge of managing the process. Together with a list of four agencies, picked as the most wanted destination for the internship. Our team sends out applications for the student’s preferred choices in chronological order - if the first choice does not work out, the portfolio will be sent to the second choice, and so on. With mostly the placement happening for one of the four favoured agencies, so students get the internship of their dreams. 
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In order to prepare, students receive a so-called “sneak peek” presentation with information about an agency: the clients, the mission, the slots they offer for internships, etc. In this sneak peek presentation, students find around 80 agencies worldwide, so they are “spoiled for choice” ;) 
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Who are the agencies available for doing the internships?

We work with all leading agencies worldwide. Namely the creative agencies within the big networks:
Omnicom’s DDB and BBDO, WPP’s Ogilvy, VML, Publicis’ LePub, Saatchi & Saatchi, with McCann, Havas/BETC, TBWA, MullenLowe.
Also with VML, GUT, Monks, R/GA, Droga, Innocean, independent agencies like Jung von Matt / JvM in Germany, Serviceplan, and a few more.

All in all, our students have the option to intern with the best ad agencies on the planet, in cities like Amsterdam, Atlanta, Barcelona, Berlin, Hamburg, Madrid, Mexico City, Miami, Mumbai, New York, São Paulo, Tokyo, Zurich … FYI: the school helps to prepare and gets you placed, while organizing the move to another city, finding a place to live, travel cost, etc have to be covered by the student.

Visa 🌍 🌎 🌏

With 90% international students, we are somehow experts in visa as students from outside the EU, will have to apply for a visa.

 In order to qualify our vocational school for a visa, we have to offer a program with a minimum duration of 2 years. (That’s why our shorter programs are only applicable for EU/Schengen passport holders). 

 Once you are accepted, you get all relevant documents to enrol and apply with your local authorities for a full time study visa.
Allowing to live, study and also travel within the EU/Schengen region with a visa. 
FYI: Our team will help you with the process, sharing advice and best practice along the way.

 Please note that visa procedures vary from country to country. You need some patience, since it can last a few months until you get feedback.

Helpful links:
Vocational Training 
Residence Permit 


Part-Time work possible?

The program is quite intense: With all classes being mandatory, homework and assignments on top. And not to forget the internship(s) where you will be in an agency. Expected to commit fully to the agency’s busy life. Resulting in not much time at hand to work … Part-time work in a very flexible job - maybe …For example as a freelancer where you can set the schedule might be possible. With a lot of spontaneous re-shuffling accepted, since all teachers are working professionals. And it can happen that a teacher has to cancel and reschedule a class on short notice. So, we recommend keeping the time you study in MASE basically free, in order to be a full-time student. Lastly, visa requirements limit the allowed work capacity