Doctorate in Finland

Samppa · Post by **Samppa** » Wed Sep 03, 2003 2:25 pm

I would like to continue my Physics studies towards Ph.D. in Finland since I am going to move there next year. Do you have any experience with Finnish higher degrees education? Which universities are better and which are worse? Do you get enough scholarship? Can you work during your studies? Student Union, tution fees, language requirements, etc..? Can you get residence permit while studying?

I'll be grateful for any bit of information.

**Sponsor:**

PeterF · Post by **PeterF** » Wed Sep 03, 2003 2:42 pm

Hi Samppa,
we have not met but I seem to remember reading that your subject is "Quantum Computors"
For those who want to know more:
http://www.cs.caltech.edu/~westside/quantum-intro.html
Doing your PhD..good luck.. I assume this will be the basis subject for your Thesis.
Is there anyone in Finland also working in this field?
Doing a PhD usualy needs a Professor within your field.
My checks seem to indicate that Oxford UK and California are the main areas for this work.

Hank W. · Post by **Hank W.** » Wed Sep 03, 2003 3:08 pm

You don't get scholarships, remember, education is free...

...OK, postgrads & others can get some scholarships.
http://finland.cimo.fi/studying/content ... _setup.htm

For studying etc. wade through the HUT links first:
http://www.hut.fi/Study/

depending what you want to make your PhD in...

Samppa · Post by **Samppa** » Wed Sep 03, 2003 3:11 pm

Peter Floyd wrote:Hi Samppa,
we have not met but I seem to remember reading that your subject is "Quantum Computors"
For those who want to know more:
http://www.cs.caltech.edu/~westside/quantum-intro.html

The link is great, for those who have no idea what Quantum Computer means.

Peter Floyd wrote:Doing your PhD..good luck.. I assume this will be the basis subject for your Thesis.

You see.. My work is not exactly about a quantum computer. Simply saying, I work on the future memory of the quantum computor. I don't want to give lectures about the matter.. cuz it might be really boring for non-experts in the field.. but the main idea is to record information on the nuclei of matter - for example isotopically engineered crystals of Germanium. Using semiconductor materials is especially convinient since the semiconductor devices industry is really developed and enables building micro- and even nano-devices. Naturally, silicon and germanium contain one non-zero nuclear spin isotope and it is possible to control those isotopes' spin orientation by different methods... Again, I don't want to give lectures, cuz it'd be too long.
What I'm saying is that QC is not the basis of the work.. It's rather wider. The field of the research is the interception of Nuclear, Semiconductor Physics and Quantum Optics..

Is there anyone in Finland also working in this field?
Doing a PhD usualy needs a Professor within your field.
My checks seem to indicate that Oxford UK and California are the main aeas for this work.

Well.. I was thinking to narrow the field to something more specific, like experimental nuclear physics.. So Helsinki University and Jyväskylä could be the options.

Samppa · Post by **Samppa** » Wed Sep 03, 2003 3:22 pm

Hank W. wrote:You don't get scholarships, remember, education is free...

Is LIFE free too?

Tanya · Post by **Tanya** » Sat Oct 25, 2003 4:47 pm

Hello everyone,
this is my first time to be on this forum, so I haven't checked out all the topics yet...however I'd like to ask you if there is a posibility to transfer on any Uni in Finland where I could continue my Medicine studies???
it doesn't mind if the lectures are in Finnish, I could definetely make efforts to learn it asap!
Thanx

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sat Oct 25, 2003 5:28 pm

Samppa wrote: Is LIFE free too?

Wake up! We're talking FINLAND here, remember?

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sat Oct 25, 2003 5:30 pm

Tanya wrote:Hello everyone,
this is my first time to be on this forum, so I haven't checked out all the topics yet...however I'd like to ask you if there is a posibility to transfer on any Uni in Finland where I could continue my Medicine studies???
it doesn't mind if the lectures are in Finnish, I could definetely make efforts to learn it asap!
Thanx

I don't want to demotivate you, but eeeermmm...
Most of us have been definately making efforts to learn it ASAP for the past years...

Tanya · Post by **Tanya** » Sat Oct 25, 2003 6:34 pm

Arno wrote:
Tanya wrote:Hello everyone,
this is my first time to be on this forum, so I haven't checked out all the topics yet...however I'd like to ask you if there is a posibility to transfer on any Uni in Finland where I could continue my Medicine studies???
it doesn't mind if the lectures are in Finnish, I could definetely make efforts to learn it asap!
Thanx
I don't want to demotivate you, but eeeermmm...
Most of us have been definately making efforts to learn it ASAP for the past years...

I wouldn't like to sound pretentious, but anything is possible if you try hard enough, and above all when you want it strong enough!
(that's why I'm speaking 5 languages apart form my mother tongue...and I'm 22)

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sat Oct 25, 2003 7:07 pm

Tanya wrote: I wouldn't like to sound pretentious, but anything is possible if you try hard enough, and above all when you want it strong enough!
(that's why I'm speaking 5 languages apart form my mother tongue...and I'm 22)

You're not sounding pretentious at all... I thought just the same when I came to Finland. I'm speaking 4 languages apart from my mothertongue, and I'm hoping Finnish will be the 6th.
But believe me, Finnish is not possible, not even if you try hard enough

You're going to need AT LEAST a year, my guess... I've been here for a year now and I'm by and by managing to understand. But I'm a long way away from really speaking yet...

Tanya · Post by **Tanya** » Sat Oct 25, 2003 7:33 pm

OK, I understand what you're trying to say...
but people are different in apprehension and comprehension, in making those little schemes in the head and memorizing new terms...
I'm not saying I'll be a master in learning a foreign language, yet one thing causes different effects in different people. Some people learn certain languges harder and other easier..and vice versa...
I might have terrible difficulties in leraning Finnish...and on the other hand I might learn it in several months...
However, after a year you are able to communicate with people in Finnish right?!

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sat Oct 25, 2003 7:39 pm

True, true... Everyone has his/her own way in doing things and achieving things.
Uummm... Well... theoretically it should be possible to communicate in Finnish after a year, yes...

I've heard of one person who 'learned' the language in 8 months. As in... He was communicative and he pretty much understood Finnish. But he spent 6 of the 8 months in a day school where they do nothing else but speak Finnish and hammer everything in your head, 6 hours a day, 5 days a week (pretty much like the courses you get from the (un)employment office).

Please do keep us informed with how you progress and what you think.

I promise I won't tell you 'Told you so', if you promise that you do the same

Caroline · Post by **Caroline** » Sun Oct 26, 2003 3:09 am

Samppa wrote:
Hank W. wrote:You don't get scholarships, remember, education is free...
Is LIFE free too?

There is no such thing as a free lunch. The education in Finland, like everything else subsidized, is paid for by enormous chunks of taxes. To say that it is free, in the true sense of the word, is a bit misleading.

Caroline · Post by **Caroline** » Sun Oct 26, 2003 3:28 am

Tanya wrote:OK, I understand what you're trying to say...
but people are different in apprehension and comprehension, in making those little schemes in the head and memorizing new terms...
I'm not saying I'll be a master in learning a foreign language, yet one thing causes different effects in different people. Some people learn certain languges harder and other easier..and vice versa...
I might have terrible difficulties in leraning Finnish...and on the other hand I might learn it in several months...
However, after a year you are able to communicate with people in Finnish right?!

Tanya, I have to agree with Arno on this one. You could probably continue your medical studies in Finland, but I doubt you could learn Finnish in a hurry in order to take classes taught in Finnish...unless you are already fluent in Estonian or something, which is very similar to Finnish. I'm not trying to discourage; just being realistic. Remember, that the "learning curve" is not diagonal: at first nothing makes sense...then you learn a whole lot....then you practice what you learned, then you forget some stuff....then you learn a little bit more.....

To give an example of my own experience- I've always been very talented in learning foreign languages, and I started studying Finnish 3 years before moving to Finland. Still, it was another 2 years or so before I began using Finnish every day in public. My biggest challenge in life in Finland has been taking a business course 6 hours each day; I was in tears the second day because of the stress from having to learn so many new words, and even many of the native Finnish speakers in the class were overwhelmed!

Tanya · Post by **Tanya** » Sun Oct 26, 2003 1:02 pm

Yes, I understand...but nothing is impossible...(I love Alice in Wonderland

) IN the end you'll all learn it and speak it fluently...I guess!
Actually I was thinking first to take an exchange programme for a month and do a clerkship in the hospital and just check out how th ethings are functionning in my head and around me.

Unfortunately here we don't have Finnish language course. It seems to be so unpopular...And I don't have a clue where could I find a "source" here, except in the embassy...
And the worst thing is that nobody translates Finnish literature in Serbian. So nobody get to know finnish culture closer. I don't even know if we have Kalevala translated.

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