Help! – Who can I ask about Sweden?

Help! – Who can I ask about Sweden? Searching for information on the vast internet can sometimes feel overwhelming. Where does one even start? I want to know exactly what I am getting myself into, so… who can I ask? SAME! It was about one year ago when I asked myself this exact question. So, there I was, sitting in from of my computer with two cups of coffee as my moral companion, thinking: What if I could ask my future self: Is the right path for me, what is the best way to approach my application and are moose really THAT big? So many questions… but I didn’t know what to type into my search engine 0_o. Let me tell you that there are thousands of to-be students in exactly this situation, like YOU, and another thousand students already in the first year. However, I often feel as they are unreachable and don’t know how to get in contact with them. Little did I know, there are a few valuable websites out there, that can connect you with exactly the right people. Let me be the one to tell you what they are and how they can help you. The websites to look out for! LinkedIn I’ll come straight to my first point and what was really valuable for me: LinkedIn. But wait, before you now start and create an elaborate profile let me say this: It is not necessary to have a fancy career profile but rather an authentic layout with pictures that makes you trustworthy and relatable. Put in your profile description what you are interested in and why you want to reach out. This is the first thing others see when receiving your connection request. Then go and just ping/connect with a student, you see has begun living in Sweden, started your program of choice or already finished it. They are almost always more than happy to help. You could ask for a Zoom meeting or just text and they might even forward your contact to others that know more about your questions. MY ADVICE: Just send the message and go from there! University Blogs As Study in Sweden provides information from the whole country, there are also digital ambassadors at many universities. People that are currently studying your dream course at your dream university are blogging and instagramming about their experiences. From Karolinska-Institutet to Örebro University, Uppsala University, Linköping University and more. So read what they have to say and get in contact! That’s why they are there 😛 Karolinska Institutet student blog postsSocial media BY THE WAY, if you have not yet checked out our Instagram “Study in Sweden” Team, you should definitely do so. They cover many topics and are a very diverse team from all over the world. Throughout the year they will post different content that will help you on your journey from application to after admission and more. You can even send them a message. They can give you tipps or some links that could answer your questions! So, check it out regularly, they are quite convincing! Other accounts that are worth looking into are visitsweden, Stockholm.explore, Sweden.se. And don’t forget that every university has probably also an Instagram channel! 😀 Study in Sweden Instagram accountIf you found Instagram very helpful maybe Reddit is also a nice source for you, especially this channel: r/TillSverige Lastly, Facebook is a very hot topic in Scandinavia. In Germany, in my generation, we don’t really use that anymore, so I was genuinely surprised, how active the communities are. Give it a try! Search for example for: “[Your country] in Sweden”, “Internationals in Sweden”. However, it can be a fit frustrating because it often is not tailored to students and totally dependent on others. This also applies to Reddit. To sum up, if I were in your shoes and had to do my research all over again, I would go about it like this: 1. Study in Sweden Blog and Instagram 2. Ambassadors from universities 3. LinkedIn 4. Facebook 5. Reddit If after all this, you are still pondering, let me say this: Places are mere locations but can become your second home with the right people! I guarantee you that the universities here in Sweden make sure you got plenty of them. See ya on the next blog! 😀 Love, Tim