Study

Short introduction of yourself

I’m Rick Manders and have been studying IEM since 2011. After finishing my bachelor in three years, I started my master immediately after it. However I got the feeling that the end of my student life was coming too quickly and wanted to extend it. So I wanted to study abroad. Stockholm wasn’t the first destination I was excited about after having seen the list of possible destinations with an Erasmus exchange. However when I did a little more research on all options I got more and more interested in Stockholm.

Contact information
Rick Manders
r.manders92@gmail.com

Contact information of the university
KTH Royal Institute of Technology
www.kth.se

Practical information

University

When did you study abroad and what program did you follow?
From September 2015 to January 2016. I didn’t follow a program, but followed courses I selected myself.

Which courses did you attend?

• Energy and Environment
• Renewable Energy Technology
• Management Consulting
• Corporate Finance and Markets I
• Swedish Society, Culture and Industry in Historical Perspective

What did you have to do to get a place at the university?
​I went by the exchange office and they told me they had two places for students at KTH. These places where filled on a first come first served base.

Were the credits you gained accreditable?
The exam committee approved all my courses. However I took them as additional courses and not to substitute master courses I need to take at the RUG.

Did you have language courses in advance or at the destination?
No I didn’t. You can easily manage with only speaking English. However I regret it a bit that I don’t speak a bit Swedish.

Is there an study association or international community that you can join?
Yes, KTH has its own study association called THS, which is also for international students. Some others also joined the ESN of the Stockholm University.

Preparation

What were important items that you brought?
The regular things you would bring. Only thing I missed and bought there where music boxes.

How did you travel (cheap) and how did you arrange that?
Plane

Did you need any visa or other official papers?
No

Living

Did you arrange a room or place to stay in advance?
There is the possibility to get a room from the university. However you don’t know where you will end up, since they have several locations. I didn’t got a room from the university at first, so I had to look for one on my own. This can be very hard especially if you are not in Stockholm to visit it, I tried it but it is very frustrating. Most rooms which are rented out are places where you live together with your landlord. I spoke to people living together with a whole family or an old lady etc. In the end I got a room through the university at a new build campus where I had my own studio.

How expensive is living over there?
It is more expensive than Groningen. I paid €550 for my (new) studio of roughly 25m2. Which maybe was a bit on the high side. However rent is Stockholm is quite expensive and most people live outside the city centre. It took me roughly 30 minutes to get to the city centre with the subway and 45 minutes to university.

Experience

How were the first couple of weeks?
The first week is an introduction week organized by THS, in which you can sign up for different activities. For the rest you are busy exploring the new city and university and meeting new people.

How did you experience studying abroad?
Studying is not that different from studying in the Netherlands. I personally enjoyed it to do courses in which you have more interaction with other (international) students. In all my courses there where a lot of international students, sometimes even more than half of them.

How was the total experience? (Country, people, living, culture)
It was a good experience, you get to know a lot more (different) kind of people and although Sweden is also a very western country, you also  get to know another culture. Although you live and study there you are also constantly a tourist exploring and doing new things.

Did you experience a culture shock?
No, the only shock was for my wallet. Alcohol, especially in clubs is quite expensive.

How was the food?
It is not that special and you can of course get all the food you like. Except the one thing I missed, which was good bread.

What was better than expected?
The weather, you suspect it to be cold, dark and rainy but it wasn’t (most of the time). The weather was quite beautiful and there was a lot less rain than in the Netherlands. Of course it can get cold during the winter, however just as the Swedes say: ‘There is no such thing as bad weather, only bas clothing’. It did get dark quite early (at worst at three in the afternoon) which can be a bit depressing, but as soon as there is snow it is much better.

What was worse than expected?
Finding a place to stay was quite frustrating.

City/student life

How was your overall experience with the city?
Good. It is of course totally different than Groningen. It is much larger and has the atmosphere of a capital city, but at the same time isn’t too large. If friends come over for a city trip you can easily explore the city on foot.

How was your living place?
Most people and students live in one of the many suburbs Stockholm has. These are all well connected by the subway. Also the place where I was staying.

Travel

Did you have any chance to see something of the country?
Although you have to study a bit, you also go abroad to tee something of the country you go to. Besides the city there are a lot of places in Sweden you can go to since Stockholm has quite good train connections and of course Lapland. Besides in Sweden you can also go with cheap cruises to for example Helsinki for a weekend. I also went to Bergen in Norway.

What are do or don’ts concerning trips?
Do as much as you want.

Looking back

Was it worth it?
Definitely.

What did you learn?
You get into contact with many new people from which you of course learn new things. Besides that you get out of your normal day to day life in Groningen

What do you regret?
I regret that I didn’t join some kind of sports club/activity/team.

Would you recommend studying in XX to others?
Yes, studying abroad in general is something I would recommend everybody due to the lots of new experiences you gain and it is a lot of fun. Stockholm is maybe not the city which will be the most different from the Netherlands, but there still are so many new things you can do and places to go to.

Are you still in contact with your friends/fellow students?
Yes with some, although not that many.