It is no secret that the choice of university affects your future. Will you blend in the community? WIll finding work be easy after graduation? Will you earn enough? There are so many factors to consider when choosing a university!
Here are my reasons why you should choose Aalto.
For many applicants, the financial aspect is the most important. I decided to summarize the living costs of studying in Finland. How much is the rent? Food, transport, visa?
I will not include tuition fees here. Please, check yourself whether you have to pay those. If you do, you might get a grant and end up not paying any.
This is what you get for lunch for 2.60€. A glass of milk, bread with hummus, rice with chicken in curry sauce, salad, beans. You can get more, I just don’t eat so much 🙂
“Oh I would love to move to Finland but I can’t. I do not know Finnish.”
That is a bad excuse! English is more than enough.
If you go to the countryside, things might be a little different, but in the cities, you basically do not need Finnish at all. Nearly 20% of the students at Aalto are not Finnish. Considering only Masters students, the number is much higher. In practice, this means international events and parties almost daily!
-20 degrees outside but so pretty! 21 Jan 2019, Aalto campus
Aalto organized team-building activities in Nuuksio National Park. Journey 10 participants and coaches enjoyed a nice vegetarian dinner and the beautiful view.
This summer was filled with joys, excitements and inspirations because of the five-week summer journey organized by EIT Climate-Kic. I met students and experts who share the same passion to mitigate climate change, the biggest challenge we face nowadays.
“I was warned that Finland is cold and people hard to make friends with. First one was true, but the second one – not at all. Finns just have their own way to open up. In the end, they will build an authentic relationship with you.”
– Manuel Barrantes, Friend of Finns & Creative Sustainability student
Get more than a degree at Aalto University. Application for Master’s programmes 3 Dec 2018–11 Jan 2019 and for English Bachelor’s programmes 9–23 Jan 2019. Find your own programme and apply.
When I was a kid, I did rhythmic gymnastics like any other Russian girl. At some point, I had to quit and go for education rather than full-time sports career. Long story short, I came to Finland and started studying at Aalto.
I was looking for gymnastics-related sports activities on campus and came across the Otanko Pole Dancing Association. The classes are taught in English/Finnish by Aalto students and alumnis and one must only pay 15 eur per year to be a member.
Pole dancing? Should not be too difficult. I gave it a try.
Especially after spending time in the corporate world in between studies, it is easy to start prefering it over academia. Although student life has its advantages, sometimes the corporate world simply seems to provide more challenges to tackle in a concrete way every single day. This is one of the reasons I opted for the dual degree combining the CEMS MIM with another Master’s program from Aalto University School of Business.
In short, the CEMS MIM program builds a bridge between university education and working life. The curriculum offers multiple elements where students are provided with the opportunity to work together with corporate and social partners on real-life business challenges.
Less than one third of scientists and engineers in Finland are women. In the EU Member States, only Luxembourg has less female engineers than Finland does. The number of female doctoral graduates in Finland is growing every year. However, there are still three times less female PhD graduates than male ones. This needs to change. Companies and universities should encourage female high school students to go for a career in technology.
“This room is named Paniikki and has super powerful computers. This enables us to work with the newest methods. At the moment I am using those methods to solve illiteracy. We Aalto students get the opportunity to apply top-notch research in multidisciplinary ways.”
– Tinka Valentijn, Barefooted Problem-Solver & Machine Learning, Data Science and Artificial Intelligence student
Get more than a degree at Aalto University. Application for Master’s programmes 3 Dec 2018–11 Jan 2019 and for English Bachelor’s programmes 9–23 Jan 2019. Find your own programme and apply.
For me personally, I consider the internationalization opportunities at Aalto University one of its greatest assets.
Because of Aalto University, I have been able to experience university life in two different countries within the past year. Last fall I did my mandatory semester abroad for my BScBA degree. To take advantage of the wide range of partner universities globally, I wanted to go as far as possible. I ended up on a new continent for me; North America and the University of Victoria in Canada. I had grown up watching American tv-series and movies about high school and college life in the states and I wanted to experience it for myself. What I consider my biggest learning from this first exchange is putting things in perspective. No matter how nice the campus is or fun the student life seems, my appreciation towards the high-quality education we receive in Finland grew immensely. Without the comparison to Canada I never actually realized the quality of our university programs and contrary to Canada’s system, for us Finnish citizens it is even free to pursue these programs. Canada as a country surprised me in the sense that it oddly represented all the stereotypes I had heard before. In fact, people were even more friendly than expected. This is something that I truly missed when I returned in Finland, where you rarely face the same kind of friendliness towards strangers.
