Getting your Personnummer

As you'll soon discover, once you arrive to Sweden you'll need to get your own personnumer. You'll need this number in order to open a bank account and to be able to work here. It's very easy to get and it will take you like an hour of your life and 1-3 weeks of wait after that until you receive it at your home address (here in Uppsala). Remember to take your passport with you when you go there!

You can get it at the Swedish tax offices called Skatteverket and you can find one at this address:

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A little bit about this period

You might already know that courses in Uppsala University are mostly taught only during one period (half semester). All courses range from 5 to 15 credits and if you plan to finish your degree on time, you should take 60 credits per year. Nevertheless, do not believe that the workload of each course is 100% based on the credits: many students (including myself) complain about this problem. There are courses of 7.5 or 10 credits that are actually OK, but many 5-credit courses seem to require a lot of work, sometimes even more than a 7.5-credit course.

This period I’m taking User Interface Programming II (5) and Machine Learning (7.5). It’s less than 15 credits but I already took extra credits the previous semester. You might be interested on following on twitter how much I’m actually working on each course. As a spoiler, I’ll probably be working more on the UIP2 course than in ML. Why? Well, it’s a project-based course without final exam, which means that the whole evaluation is made on one single project that has to be developed during the course. Be careful with project-based courses: they are usually very good and very interesting, but in order to make the most of them you have to work A LOT every week. In fact, when I tool UIP1 I have to say that I learned way too many things about developing graphical interfaces and I met very nice people, but I spent most of the period working only on this course. My advice: combine those courses with regular courses so you can get a better balance and some free time.

If you want to know more about the courses just follow these links: User Interface Programming 2 and Machine Learning.

Follow me on twitter!

I believe that the hardest information to find on the Internet about Sweden and Uppsala University is about the little things that students do on regular basis. I wanted to invite you all to follow me on twitter and get a better idea not only about what I think of my days but about what I do. You’ll see if I have lectures, if I’m working on my assignments or just enjoying some free time!

I hope you like it!

I also want to thank all my readers! I’m incredibly happy that you all have found this blog useful and I’ll keep writing based on your suggestions.

The cost of living in Sweden

When thinking about studying in Sweden, a very common question is: how much money do I need? Well, I have to say that, at least from my experience, living here it’s quite expensive. Still, since I think this is a very personal opinion, I believe it would be better to share some numbers with you. I took some numbers from the website http://www.studyinsweden.se but mostly I’m putting my comments.

Food: SEK 2000. I believe this is possible, but in my opinion it will actually be more expensive. Having lunch at Rullan, an on-campus restaurant in MIC, costs around SEK 80 and a regular meal at Burger King costs SEK 60. Of course cooking your own food is cheaper, but still you’ll find that 1 litter of milk costs SEK 10.90, 1 box of All Bran cereal costs 31.90 and 1 litter of juice costs around SEK 10. In my opinion the cost of food is at least SEK 3000.

Accomodation: SEK 3200. One thing that’s really nice about Sweden is that you’ll find a nice place to live for very little money. You can pay in less than SEK 3000 for a 19m2 room in Flogsta, with your own bathroom and shared kitchen. All services are included (Internet, water and electricity) and you don’t have to pay for July and August. If you’re renting an unfurnished room, don’t forget to check IKEA.se to get a pretty good idea about furniture prices. Still, you can find used furniture for half the price!

Local travel: SEK 500. This number is actually the maximum amount you’ll have to pay. If you buy a bike, like most of the students and Uppsala inhabitants, you will only have to pay for it and forget about public transportation. If you want to use the buses you’ll have to pay SEK 30 to the driver for a ticket that lasts 90 minutes. If you buy the ticket using your mobile phone (text message) you’ll only have to pay SEK 20. You can also buy a rechargeable card. You’ll have to pay a SEK 90 deposit (that you get back when you return the card) and you’ll pay only SEK 16 for each trip. All those tickets include all the busses you take on a 90 minutes period. Finally, you can buy a monthly card that will cost you SEK 500 each month and you can use the buses as much as you want!

Student Union Fee: SEK 400 – 600 each semester. There is no way around it. You can pick the cheapest one if you want and you’ll still be able to visit all nations.

Cinema: SEK 110 – 130. You can find cheaper tickets during the weekdays using the student discount.

Books: SEK 500 – 1000. Buying used books it’s always cheaper and not all courses require you to buy a book.

Train trip from Arlanda Airport: SEK 130. The bus costs SEK 100 but the trip is a little bit longer.

Everything else depends on you. I would like to add that here alcoholic drinks are pretty expensive too. If you’re interested in some other expenses in particular just let me know about it!