Uppsala University Nations

Until last year, being a member of any of the student nations was mandatory so, there was no way you didn't visit them at least once! Now this is optional, which means there are a lot of students who doesn't join and doesn't enjoy this great part of the student life in Sweden. Taking part on the different activities organized by the nations is a great and cheap way of having a lot of fun! You'll make a lot of friends and specially it is a good way to meet more Swedish students that otherwise might be hard to meet in the international masters (I'm saying it's hard, not impossible)

I just want to leave you here a list with the links to the nations' websites. I REALLY encourage you to check them out and join any of them once you're in Uppsala! You can choose one based on your interests, hobbies, scholarships, housing needs... (yes, some of them even offer housing!) and don't worry, it's not a life-time commitment! After you join any of them you can take part in others nations activities and you can even change your membership from one nation to another.

• Gotlands nation
• Gästrike-Hälsinge nation
• Göteborgs nation
• Kalmar nation
• Norrlands nation
• Smålands nation
• Stockholms nation
• Södermanlands-Nerikes nation
• Uplands nation
• Värmlands nation
• Västgöta nation
• Västmanlands-Dala nation
• Östgöta nation

In case you were wondering... I'm a member of SNerikes nation! :-)

Writing from Shanghai!

Hello everyone! Even when this blog is about studying and living in Uppsala, I’m going to write from Shanghai today. I’m currently studying in Tongji University and I will be back to Uppsala next semester. I’m part of a double degree program in Computer Science and, as part of the program, I’m taking some courses in Tongji University. I have to say that I love Shanghai! It’s an amazing city! And more importantly I think Tongji University is a great place to study.

For those of you who might be interested on this program I will say that it is a great opportunity. Uppsala University is, as you probably already know, a renowned University very strong in CS research. On the other hand, Tongji is also an excellent University with tight industry relations. I’m currently taking a Data Warehouse course taught by the DW eBay team. You can see google camp posters everywhere, IBM recruitment posters, contests, etc. You will work with the latest technology.

The hardest part about studying in Tongji is the cultural differences. You might have to double check everything, talk many times to your classmates and the teachers, and be sure you know what to do. On the beginning it might seem like everything is the same as in your home country until you start having misunderstandings. Hopefully you’ll solve them very quickly and I’m sure everyone will try to help you because if I’m sure about something is that all Chinese students and teachers that I have met are nice and friendly and they will try to help you as much as they can.

I’m sorry for being away for so long! I hope you don’t forget about me and about the blog!

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!

A little bit of everything

This post doesn't really have a specific topic: it's more like a summary of the latest weeks. First I have to say that I haven't have the time to write much since this period has been kind of crazy: a lot of programming and a lot of reading!

In case you were wondering, there are many courses that are project based. In my particular case I'm taking User-Interface Programing, but there are many other courses like this one, where you need to develop a group project during the whole period (or even 2 periods). The idea behind those courses is really good and you can learn a lot. At the same time they require hard work every week, group communication, researching and again: more work. This courses will also give you the opportunity to work with people with different backgrounds and make excellent friends.

For all those non EU/EEA citizens how are planning on coming to Uppsala, read this article about future University's fees.

http://www.thelocal.se/25092/20100219/?utm_source=email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=136

Visiting Stockholm

Less than an hour from Uppsala is the amazing city of Stockholm! I’ve been studying so much that I waited and waited until the winter break came and I finally went there! I honestly have to say I didn’t know what I was missing. Stockholm is actually a very beautiful city and it looked really amazing all covered with snow.

The train tickets are very cheap and you can come back to Uppsala the same day. You can walk around the city, visit some of its many museums and you can even take a boat trip.

If you are interested in taking a tour, I recommend you to look for the Hop On Hop Off tours. Just like in most cities around Europe they have many tours and even they have a boat route around the islands. The bus tour is a very good option during the cold days since you get to see the city, go off the bus in the places you like and then get in the bus again and hide from the cold weather.

Stockholm also has many outdoor theaters which I’m dying to enjoy during the spring!