Questions about Uppsala

Someone asked me some very good questions about Uppsala and the MSc in Computer Science, so I decided to share them here.

1. How are the living expenses in Uppsala in general?

Sweden can be a bit expensive. In my opinion, housing is not too expensive (I used to live in Madrid and Barcelona before moving here, so that's my reference point). You'll pay about 3000-3500 SEK/month including Internet. The major problem is that it is hard to find accommodation. Prices for other things are: about 20-25 SEK for a bottle of water or soda, same or cheaper for coffee/tea. You can get a (reasonably big) sandwich on campus for 45 SEK, or a caesar salad for 65 SEK. You can buy lunch (salad + main course + coffee + bread or fruit) for 70-80 for lunch. Another option could be a frozen meal for 20-30 SEK. Fruits on one of the campus restaurants are 1 piece 7 SEK (and of course cheaper in the supermarket). A pizza is about 70 SEK and frozen pizza 25-40 SEK. Alcohol is EXTREMELY expensive!

2. Is it easy to find jobs at the university in research? in general, is it easy to find a job anywhere?

Getting a job at the university is hard. Normally they hire students as TA or the sort once they know the student, so it probably won't happen during the first year and it is not as common as in other universities. It is also hard to get a part-time job without speaking Swedish (it is a lot easier to find a job once you graduate or an internship even if you don't speak the language). You can work at the student nations but the money is not great. It might be good for making friends, paying some meals and drinks but you won't support yourself with this kind of job. These student nations are great for having cheap food and cheap drinks as well as meeting many students. You can always consider studying Swedish before you come here and continue getting free lessons once you're here.

3. How good are the professors in Computer Science?

Professors are GREAT! They really care about preparing their material and explaining things. The atmosphere is very relaxed and informal. You're free to pick the courses you want, you have access to tons of papers and extra reading, and people are really open to comments and suggestions. I really enjoyed my time as a master student here. You can easily approach TAs and professors and they will happily answer your questions (well, maybe not if you ask for the solution to the assignment).

4. Which areas should I stay in? I don't mind using public transportation.

Like I said before, finding accommodation can be quite hard in Uppsala. You should rent whatever you find and once you're here you can try to move. Most people use bicycles. Buses are quite expensive (between 20-30 SEK depending on how you buy your ticket and about 500 SEK unlimited for a month). You can find used bicycles and everything is really close. If you're studying computer science, then you should live as close as possible to Polacksbacken. But again, 15-20 min by bike from most parts of the city anyway.

Enjoy your time in Uppsala!

International Women's Day

Well, first of all, I hope you don't think I'm turning the blog into a girls club. Gender inequality is sort of a big issue in IT and I'm happy to see that people at Uppsala University are aware of it. More importantly, people here actually care and want to do something about it! So, in my humble opinion, celebrating international women's day with a networking event might not make a difference for everyone, but hopefully some of the people on the event now feel less alone. At least I hate to hear these stories about women who didn't (or couldn't) study computer science because people made them feel less capable and not adequate.

Anyway, regardless of the gender inequality angle, it was a great event! I had the opportunity to meet many people, I enjoyed discussing different points of views about Sweden and computer science, as well as planning activities that the UU ACM-W student chapter can (and want to) organise. And we did all these with fruits, bullar, coffee and tea! :-)

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!

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