First off, I'm a citizen of the USA, graduated out of high school last June. It's long been my goal to get my degree in a Finnish university/polytechnic (the best out of several options I had), but I figured that instead of diving right in I'd better go there and see if I liked the country first. So I signed up for an exchange program and, well, here I am. I've been living in Helsinki since August and I'll be here until July. I've got to say that the country is, overall, quite nice (could've used some more snow this winter, though) and I could definitely see myself living and studying here for a couple more years... who knows, maybe I'll take a wife, get divorced, and end up like those poor guys I see huddled over their Lapin Kultas in Kallio. =P
Preferably I'd like to study computer science (information technology, whatever you want to call it) in an English language degree program. Now, actually my Finnish is pretty good for day-to-day operations (I've gone a couple weeks without speaking any English now
), but I'm not sure I would want to conduct my education in it yet - maybe I can do some graduate studies in Finnish after I have a couple more years with the language. The only institutions which offer undergraduate degree programs in English are (to the best of my knowledge) the Finnish polytechnics.I applied using the joint admission page today, worked fine. First preference was EVTEK, since it seems to have the most advanced program in IT, what with being in Espoo so close to TKK and Nokia. And I'm already quite familiar with that part of Finland, so that's a plus. My second option is Oulu Polytechnic, which also seems to have a respectable program. I've actually seen the campus in Raahe while staying with a friend of mine in Oulu, and it seemed nice. It was tough fending off the wolves once I got out of Kehä III, though.
My third and fourth choices don't matter so much, since if I don't get in to the first two I'll go back to the States and study there. I'm already accepted into several good universities there (Milwaukee School of Engineering, University of Wisconsin Madison, Arizona State), so that's no problem - but it would be disappointing going back home empty-handed. Although really, taking the entrance exams for Finnish polytechnics won't be a problem since I already live here, and I've seen the exams from previous years - should be a piece of cake. I'm exempt from the English portion of the exam as far as I can tell, having completed secondary school education in the USA.
So! Those of you reading this might be wondering what the point of this long post is if everything's going so swimmingly? Well, the only problem is - I don't know how to fund it! D:
My exchange year here was already quite expensive, I had to cash out my life insurance and I've run through all my job savings already. Getting €6,000/yr is going to be quite tough - I can convince my parents to help with some of it, but I can't expect them to pay the whole amount for 4+ years.
So that really leaves me with either a scholarship or a loan. And since no scholarships exist for this sort of thing (as far as I know - care to differ?), that leaves me with student loans. Problem is, that federal loans *do* exist for US citizens enrolled abroad, but they are only doled out to those attending approved schools - which in Finland is limited to the University of Helsinki and the Helsinki School of Economics: neither of which I wish to attend.
A private loan would be fine - really the only requirement is that I would be able to defer payment until after I get my degree, so I have a chance to make some money in order to pay it back - but in the US, at least, all private loans are only available to schools which are already on the federal approved list!
So I guess this post is directed towards foreigners (particularly Americans, but other options are fine) who have attended/are attending school here. How did you pay for it? And, if you got a loan, where did you get it from?
For any Finns reading this, do you know of any options I can take in Finland to get some money? It's a long shot, but if any student loans exist from private institutions (banks, etc.) that don't require a Finnish co-signer (I've got a lot of friends here, but I don't want to ask them that big a favor), please let me know. But I'm pretty sure no such thing exists.
I know, I know, leaving money as the last concern was a bit dumb. But everything else is in place, it'd be a shame to head back home simply because I don't have the dough.
Thanks for reading,
-Ice
)
What is it generally the business geeks don't know sh*t from bananas and the computer nerds can't be "let out of the cage" to the customer, so the place where the best jobs lie are in the "missing link between the monkey and the man" strata where you can interprete the geek<=>nerd as otherwise the customer will get what they ordered but its not what they wanted. 