New and Confused

[Flossy1978]

And there's no reason not to bring your child with you when you come over. Many people do it. It's better than leaving your child for a year.

[lpage160]

You do realise you keep talking about WHEN you will go to Finland, but you've not even been accepted into a school yet.

Do you realise how difficult it is to get into a school there? You need to at least sit an exam. There will be many people applying some small amount of spaces. The competition is tough!

Then you need to get Immigration approval.

I don't know how it works in America, but how do you know for sure the Father of your child will allow you to take her? You won't see her for a year. You could be prevented from taking her. How difficult do you think this is going to be on your child? Being ditched for a year???

So these things all sound negative, but they are reality. I think you need to get accepted into a school first, then get your ducks in a row

Lol!! My personal life is non of your business... But if you must know… the nice family member I talk about is my husband and the munchkins dad. As to the how's and whys of him doing this… well that's no ones business but mine and his. However no one is upset or being forced into anything. I don't really care what people have to say about my personal life though.

Also my Finnish friend moved because is love and marriage. Her husband is a doctor and has a practice there. It didn't make sense for him to start fresh when it's doing so well.

Seriously I'm just going to skip your comments from now on as they are not productive in the least..

[lpage160]

How difficult do you think this is going to be on your child? Being ditched for a year???

Also, don't you dare speak about my daughter again. I have my reasons and NO ONE IS BEING DITCHED! This is why I will be flying in every two months to see her, plus Skype, and holidays, and school breaks. However NONE OF THAT is your business and I would urge you to keep your nose and your opinions of my personal life to yourself!

Also if this sounds harsh, it's because it is. I can tolerate a lot of rudeness but when someone starts judging my personal life and judging my family… well that's where I draw the line.

How about you just stay out of this thread?

[Flossy1978]

Why bring up what you're going to do with your daughter in a public forum if it's not open to discussion??? They were just legit questions. I didn't ask anything personal or be judgemental. I just tried to make you think. You said you wanted to be prepared.

It's most likely true. You could bring her over when you first come. Lots of families and single parents do it. The younger she is, the better chance she'll have at adapting and learning the language. Which is what you want, right? If you want to stag living in Finland. It's something positive!!!

Finland is very good at helping children adapt to life in Finland. They can help in many ways, depending on the age of the child.

You can contact social services or other government agency to see how they can help. Since you'll be a student, I don't know how much help you could get. But it's worth a shot.

[AldenG]

You look like a good egg. Given your determination, I'd like to see you do this. It will end up being valuable in one way or another even if it does turn into a rocky road in some respects.

But it's true (as already pointed out) that the first big hurdle will be the entrance exam, and THAT is where your primary focus needs to be until you get accepted somewhere. We don't experience anything like that in the US except sometimes applying for elite prep school scholarships. I don't even know how to tell you to prep for it. The tests are more applied and learnable than the SATs. Maybe GRE or AP study guides would be of use once you've chosen your target programs and learned what you can about past tests for them. EDIT: On second thought, the GMAT guide might be best.

Admission to US undergrad programs is based more on your record, your extracurriculars, your references, maybe an audition or a portfolio, and also very much on general intelligence as measured indirectly. But admission to Finnish programs is strongly based on long tests of knowledge and application, and at any given level of exclusivity, competition is a lot tougher than in the US. (Finland has both less supply AND proportionally more demand than the US for educational programs.) To excel in the test for an IB program, you're going to need to be facile with lots of practicalities most Americans don't learn (or not thoroughly, at least) in high school or even necessarily in college. One topic I've seen come up several times is various forms of compound interest calculation: value after time X, time to double, effect of different compounding periods, etc, and people who have just taken a test keep mentioning the importance of being quick-quick-quick, being good at roughly assessing non-calculable results, knowing common computational shortcuts and methods of approximation, and stuff like that. But then there was recently a test that seemed to depend more than anything else on having memorized a company's entire annual report including the values in the financial tables.

The tests aren't necessarily smart or appropriate always, nor do they necessarily pick out the most promising or desirable candidates. But they are very demanding and designed to yield a wide spread of applicant results. Your score is who you are and where you'll go. Among your competition will be some desperate and very hard-working students with few if any distractions from poor countries with alphabets you can't read whose only chance of ever receiving any kind of higher education is to score higher than you and other applicants to one of Finland's or a similar country's free or low-cost programs. So some of them are practically fighting for their lives, and you'd better believe that many of the ones who get accepted have spent every waking moment preparing for those tests. One point can make all the difference. Non-negotiably.

If you're serious and you're sure it's going to be an IB program, I would get cracking with some GMAT prep books. At this point, placing high on an entrance exam is the only meaningful proof of how serious (and capable) you are about overcoming the obstacles ahead. Do that first, and then it will make sense to talk about how to beat the odds on becoming functional in Finnish.

[Flossy1978]

^^^^This^^^^

What AldenG said is what matters the most right now. He is so spot on.

Worry about getting into a school, then hopefully the rest will fall into place afterwards. There's no point worrying about housing, cars, phones, etc till you get the magic letter or email giving you acceptance into a school and then the even more important resident permit issued by the Government.

I apologise for any offence you've taken at what I've said. I wish you luck.

P.S be warned.... Finns in general are quite blunt and straightforward. Their honesty can sometimes actually be somewhat hurtful (unintentionally). But that's the Finnish culture. They often lack a brain to mouth filter. So you'll have to get quite a thick skin to cope with it if you should become close friends with any Finns (excluding your friend in England. She'll have adopted the English culture by now).

[lpage160]

I apologise for any offence you've taken at what I've said. I wish you luck.

P.S be warned.... Finns in general are quite blunt and straightforward. Their honesty can sometimes actually be somewhat hurtful (unintentionally). But that's the Finnish culture. They often lack a brain to mouth filter. So you'll have to get quite a thick skin to cope with it if you should become close friends with any Finns (excluding your friend in England. She'll have adopted the English culture by now).

Thank you for the apology
Usually I do have a thick skin about most things, except when it comes to my daughter. Just the thought of someone calling me a bad or neglectful parent really hurts. She's my one and only.

Also:

Holy crap! I didn't realize that those tests were going to be that difficult.... now I'm nervous.
So study like I'm going to take the GMAT? K, I can do that... after a trip to the book store.
See this is why I come here to ask questions, no one at the school even told me about exams when I spoke with them.

Thank goodness I have a year for all of this or I would be hurting.

I can't thank everyone enough for the helpful advice

Sorry if I came off a bit closed minded, I'm just determined and this is something I have been wanting to do for years.... and I'm going to try. If I don't make it for whatever reason then I don't, but for now I at least want to do everything I can do accomplish this.

[betelgeuse]

If you have someone in the US who is funding this project then you should be OK. But I don't know how Vero (Finnish tax office) deals with that (technically it is a gift and therefore taxable income).

It is only a gift when tax resident here and paid the OP in money. If it's paid directly to, for example, landlord, it's not a problem. However, paying expenses directly from US probably includes high fees. For this route, you should look at currencyfair.com. It should be possible to pay rent with it. Tax laws at the OP's current US state might be more lenient so it can make sense to gift the money while only US tax resident. There's the below 4k every three years for free in Finland but it's unlikely to suffice for this case.

[Upphew]

Holy crap! I didn't realize that those tests were going to be that difficult.... now I'm nervous.

Not necessarily difficult, but you have to do well: http://www.tamk.fi/web/tamk/internation ... statistics

[lpage160]

Seriously, the forum is here to help. You mentioned kidlet, people will comment on kidlet. Getting knickers in a knot at the drop of a hat is the second thing you need to get rid of (any appearance of being arrogantly FIGJAM-awesome has already been mentioned).

Cart before the horse. You can't "plan" for things in a concrete manner before you conquer the unknown. Getting the place in university is an unknown. There will be plenty of time to get your ducks in a row once you receive the invitation for the exam, so first, concentrate on checking all the universities you're interested in (websites) and find out when to apply and how. It's all there in Google searches and available in English. And it's almost a year away for most of them. It's after the exam that you ask about how to apply for your visitation visa etc. Then another unknown (did you get in) and then it's time to arrange everything else.

You need to be more efficient with your research and time, I know it's hard but calm down a little on the excitement for coming here as a student, forget the minutiae for now, work on constructing an online business with the associated paper trail, because you need a plan B on moving to Finland and proof of own business might be your plan B.

It was not just the fact that she was mentioned.. It was that it was said that I was "ditching" my daughter. That was the actual phrasing that I did not like…it hurt. It's not arrogance by any means it was sadness and being hurt in general… I am far from arrogant… I won't get into that though... Either way, I just don't do well when someone says I'm ditching my child when there are mothers out there who leave their kids on the streets, neglect them in a car while they go get drugs, …etc. I am not a bad mother is basically where I'm getting at. This opportunity opens up her entire future as well and believe me, I wouldn't be doing it if it didn't benefit her as well

Also, Kidlet... I like it lol

I understand about the doing things in order though. Like I said, I didn't realize it would be super hard to get in. I will admit that is sort of something I'm used to here, getting into college super easily. Thank you for pointing it out though.

[AldenG]

(mispost)

[burak25]

1- Apply for TOAS. Get anything you are offered because you will not have much chances of another one soon.
2- Apply for studio/family place from TOAS moment you arrive. IT takes about a year to get a studio/family place. Good timing for your kid.
3- UTA international student club gives free DNA sim cards with 7 € on it for free to all members. Go get your membership first thing. You will not be able to get a monthly paid deal without paying 500 € for deposit 1 year. It's up to you to decide.
4- Internet at TOAS is free, and it's just upgraded to 100 Mbit Sonera (imho it's just a downgrade now, somehow)
5- Expect to spend 600-1000 € / monthly depending on your rent-alcohol consumption-travelling etc.

Lastly never ever move to some small town. they are boring as hell and not internationally friendly. Also don't dream much about finding a job. Outside university it will be probably none. But as native speaker you might get some job as proofreader stuff from students.

Good luck. You are coming to a great country in a not so nice times. (also please https://www.facebook.com/TUTmemes/photo ... =1&theater )

[AldenG]

So what's the status here?

Have you figured out an exam date to target, and how is your prep for that going?

Any other developments?

[alphamusic]

So what's the status here?

Have you figured out an exam date to target, and how is your prep for that going?

Any other developments?

There is a little update here (maybe you had already seen it when you posted)

viewtopic.php?f=20&t=90397&p=551243#p551243

I'm curious as well about how things are going.

[Lulesta]

Meh,
All the negativity is not going to change my mind.

Also, no I don't have a load of wealth, just a very nice family member who is willing to help me do something I've always wanted to do.

Keep being negative it doesn't bother me. Even if I don't understand Finnish that well, at least I will have some knowledge of it and even that is a plus. Also as far as conversing.. that's what my Finnish friend is for
Maybe I don't get a job over there after 4 years, maybe I do... that is irrelevant as it's 4 years away and I don't care who you are, no one knows the future. As far as tuition and stuff, well, I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.. I'm not going to worry about stuff that is not in effect yet and even then I'll just have to reevaluate finances and see if it will still work.

As I said, I'm not worried about finding a job right now so if everyone can just drop that subject that would be great. I'm a freelancer and I will just continue to be a freelancer. I do all of my work online with meetings via Skype so a move to a different country is not really going to affect that.

Again just to make sure this issue is dropped: I am not looking for a job... but thank you everyone for your concern and your advice.

You are 27 years of age, that is not very old. My suggestion is that you take the time to fulfill your dream of coming to Finland and in the process get a business degree. Is it the best degree the world? No but surely it doesn't hurt you gaining some business knowledge in addition to your graphic design skills. However, do not close your mind to the possibility of returning to the US or going to another country at the completion of your schooling. Also, I think you are over thinking this. Just come, study and you can decide on the next step on completion. Some people take years off just to travel and see the world.