I'm considering grad school in Sweden and wanted to get input from all here who have studied there. Where did you study, how long, what did you like/dislike, etc? I've lived overseas before and get sent overseas for work pretty regularly some im interested in more than just what its like to live outside of the US.

1/9/2006 12:33:32 AM

Surely someone around here has studied abroad in sweden...

1/9/2006 2:21:41 PM

^too easy

1/9/2006 2:23:20 PM

for me, i think the speaking of swedish would be prohibitive



[Edited on January 9, 2006 at 2:23 PM. Reason : *]

1/9/2006 2:23:30 PM

^^ Yeah, I know but I had to put something out there to generate responses.

^ A lot of programs are taught entirely in english

1/9/2006 2:26:05 PM

About 80-90% of the people in Sweden Speak English, so that shouldn't be a problem living, but you will have to find a course that is completly in English, which could be difficult. (Many courses have some classes in English, and some in Swedish, so you would be unable to complete a degree).

Swedish itself is a very difficult language, and won't be learned fluently in a year.

You'll want to stick to the bigger cities like Gottenburg, the remote parts of Sweden are very remote. I must ask though, why Sweden?

1/9/2006 2:49:10 PM

I went to Europe this summer for 5 weeks 2 of which I was in Sweden. I stayed in place called Garpensburg which was about 100 miles or so below Stockholm. I never visited Stockholm but I heard it was great. I did go to Uppsala which is right below Stockholm. The University in Uppsala is where the students I studied abroad with went. Uppsala was a nice city, very clean. I also went to a place called Oland. Oland is the island right off the coast of Sweden in the Baltic Sea. There are two islands Gotland and Oland. Oland is the smaller of the two and is a little south. The island is where most of the Swedes go on vacation during the summer so there is plenty of things to do there during the summer. I know you have heard of the beautiful girls there, you won't be disappointed especially on the beaches. On Oland there are touristy things to do but you can also go and tour old Celtic forts, 1000 years old Oak forests and take a swim in the Baltic. One night during the summer the Swedes celebrate Midsummer (where it never gets dark) if you are there then you can't miss this. It’s like the 4th of July to them. The only problem with Sweden is its location. In the summer it’s a great place to be. The temp is around 65 and the sun barely sets. I remember drinking on a beach at 1 am with the sun on the horizon. I would definitely try to be there during the summer months because they say winter is very cold like -30 C and its only daylight for 2 hours a day. If you want to see some of the pictures I took while I was there you can look at my Webshots folder.



Another advantage is its free to go to school there.
http://community.webshots.com/user/jvp7800

[Edited on January 9, 2006 at 2:54 PM. Reason : .]

1/9/2006 2:50:51 PM

^ Thanks for all the info, just the type of stuff that I am looking for. If you can think of anything else, post it, i appreciate it.

^^ Why Sweden? A few reasons: I'd really like to get my master's in Europe and Ive heard very good things about swedish schools. I've also spent a lot of time in other european countries so id like to experience something new. They offer the specific programs that i am looking for and they are taught entirely in english. And very important is that higher education in sweden is Free.

[Edited on January 9, 2006 at 2:57 PM. Reason : ^]

1/9/2006 2:56:41 PM

what?

how is that possible?

1/9/2006 3:02:19 PM

taxes

1/9/2006 3:09:06 PM

Taxes, Jeremiah

1/9/2006 3:09:33 PM

yep, taxes. it is one of the few countries that extends the free higher education to foreigners. Although the EU is practically forcing them to charge non-EU foreign students tuition and the law should take effect in the next few years.

1/9/2006 3:13:52 PM

i hope to study abroad there in the fall.

1/9/2006 3:18:14 PM

well who knows, we may end up at the same school.

1/9/2006 3:19:57 PM

assuming i'm accepted, i'll be at lund, which is on the very southern tip, kinda near malmo.

i was told that all the books and courses are taught in english.. or maybe it's just all the chemistry courses. but yeah. i haven't studied a lick of swedish.

[Edited on January 9, 2006 at 3:27 PM. Reason : asdf]

1/9/2006 3:21:27 PM

well, I can't believe that it's free for foreigners

1/9/2006 4:08:37 PM

^^ Not all courses and programs are taught exclusively in english although a lot are. I dont know much about the undergrad area but there are roughly 250 different master's programs in sweden that are exclusively english. The swedish gov't has a pretty good website advertising their higher education to foreigners that can answer a lot of program related questions.

1/9/2006 4:22:57 PM

^ could you please post the url? thanks.

damn if it is free, i might go study there just for the heck of it!

but i bet you have to pay for living costs, right? and i am sure it is very expensive. any estimates?

1/9/2006 7:00:02 PM

so, are all the girls there 12 foot blonde super models who walk around naked?

1/9/2006 7:11:02 PM

i see you're a Poli Sci major. if you had a technical degree and wanted to study over there, i would strongly recommend getting a PhD. a PhD in most technical fields is no longer than 3 years in most of Europe. in America you end up spending 5 or so years and then go onto postdoc'ing.

1/9/2006 7:13:33 PM

^thats if you dont care about your phd work. America has the best colleges and universities in the world. Our programs are harder, and our grads produce more work.

That's why the labs smell bad when you go into them -- all the furriners taking advantage of our system.


[Edited on January 9, 2006 at 7:21 PM. Reason : as]

1/9/2006 7:19:47 PM

professors here are notorious for using their PhD candidates as slave labor...but yeah, generally our best schools > Europe's best schools

1/9/2006 7:24:20 PM

mind you im only refering to technical degrees

1/9/2006 7:27:18 PM

http://www.studyinsweden.se/

There you go Trap. It is indeed free although like I mentioned earlier, around 2008 they will probably be charging non-EU nationals tuition of somesort. You are responsible for cost of living and in certain cases student union fees. As you will see on the aforementioned site, they estimate $790 per month for cost of living expenses (im sure that will vary depending on where you live).

[Edited on January 9, 2006 at 8:15 PM. Reason : 0]

1/9/2006 8:15:03 PM

Quote :

"kinda near malmo"

friend of mine lives in Malmo and commutes to Copenhagen

1/9/2006 9:02:44 PM

I have been to Lund for about a week and Malmo for about an hour. All I can say is that beer is $8 a pint. You will go broke. People seemed nice and the students I met or people that graduated from there had nothing bad to say about it. Lund is a college town just like any other college town would be. Everyone I encountered spoke perfect english. You should look into what you will be paying for rent. A lot of people commute (to work anyways) since rent is expensive. Oh yeah, if you plan on getting a part time job, you better figure that out also. From what I have heard most everyone that works is full time. They don't have minimum wage jobs, I heard the cashiers at grocery stores get paid like 35-40K a year. Anyway, just what I heard and saw, i was only there for a week. Mmmmm, what else... the girls are hot in sweden.

[Edited on January 9, 2006 at 9:21 PM. Reason : forgot]

1/9/2006 9:17:49 PM

I spent the spring 05 semester in Lund. Because of how courses transfer and such, I just took my humanities and avoided any of my science courses, but living with other foreign students and a few Swedes, I saw how the system worked.

Not all of Sweden is as cold as in the North. Stockholm & Uppsala are cold, much below 32F, in the winter. Lund and Malmo, not so much. It hoovered around 30F when I was there. Locals said it was the coldest winter Lund had in many years - which was fine by me, as it keep a light snow falling instead of a cold rain.

It's an expensive country. Not so much as Norway (which I prefer to Sweden actually), but eating out and drinking at bars is expensive. I find the atmosphere slightly relaxed, at least in the university system. Or perhaps that was just because it seemed like professors where only on campus to teach and never on campus otherwise. Public transport (trains and busses, both local & regional) are excellent. I sorely miss them back in the US. I miss the convience of being able to bike everywhere - school, shopping, nights on the town - and it just being expected.

I find most Swedes are reserved. Drinking with them helps get them talking, but they next day they were as stoic as the first. I like the language, I found it fairly easy to pick up in written form. I'm horrible at speaking it - can't keep the melody - and find Swedish harder to understand when spoken; Norwegian is much easier for me. You should learn Swedish for daily activities - probably 80% or more speak English perfectly (they start learning around 8 years old), but it's just easier to understand what the cashier says at the grocery. Folkuniversitet offers really good courses in Swedish, for not very much. Small groups, language labs, and fun teachers. FU has offices in almost every city.

1/11/2006 7:29:57 AM

3/17/2006 7:02:57 PM

I studied at Lund University for the Fall 2005 semester. English is not a problem; like the others have posted practically everyone speaks English really well. Take a language class so you can pick up daily conversion. I took a few years of German in high school so that helped just a bit with some vocab. Speaking Swedish is more difficult because of the cadence. While grocery stores aren't too bad at all (I was told that meat can be pricey, but I'm a vegetarian), eating outside at restaurants is very expensive. Most other products at stores aren't that bad. Norway is more expensive.

About alchohol: at the grocery stores you can't get anything higher than 3.5%, and maybe 5 or 6 brands are available. The state run alcohol store, the Systembolaget, has everything you could want for beer, wine, spirits, liquor, etc, from all over the world. Alcohol is very expensive (my German friend, who is from Bavaria where beer is taxed like bread, complained a lot).

In Lund everyone got around with bikes. I really miss that. I had a really good time in Lund, though I found the university itself to be more like a confederation of faculties. But if you're doing grad school, you'll be more focused in your department, so it might not be a problem.

3/17/2006 7:27:03 PM

Ok, so I just heard back from Linkoping University and I got in. Still waiting to hear back from a few others but at the very least it looks like I will be going to Sweden. Has anyone ever been to Linkoping? I honestly dont know much about the town but from the little that I have read, it seems like a nice place. Student housing won't be as much as I had expected (~$350/month). I got in to the Masters of International and European Relations program so it should be interesting.

4/30/2006 2:58:54 PM

Is that a real degree?

4/30/2006 3:05:04 PM

Real enough for what I want to do.

4/30/2006 3:14:21 PM

Ask Sweden

4/30/2006 5:16:36 PM

HAHA yeah, i havent seen him post in a while, is he still around?

5/1/2006 1:37:22 PM