advice, wisdom, guidance needed

[Sn0bunni24]

I really haven't been here for a while. However, I've gotta say, that all of my experiences here on this forum have been just about the most helpful I could think of. Through this forum I have been given connections to many opportunities, etc. I recently went on high school exchange to Jyväskylä and loved it so much. I really miss it there in Finland. Here in the United States, it's just not the same. Now that I'm in my last year of high school, I'm thinking about university and seriously ready to consider Finland in the mix of all of this.

My problem is, I'm not sure exactly where to start or what my best options are. I realise the immense opportunities that just about any U.S. university pushes on students for travel and exchange abroad, and fully realise I could go on some programme such as an Erasmus equivalent for U.S. citizens as a freshman here at our local university. (Not hard to get in at all, but still is a good school.) However, our university here really doesn't have any studies that would interest me once I came home from a one year study abroad. What I would love to do would be to obtain a degree in Scandinavian Studies with a focus in Finnish, or just in the Finnish language in general. The University of Washington has a strong Scandinavian Studies programme I could go into, but I can't help but think that a Finnish university might be cheaper than out of state tuition. Plus there's the fact that I would actually be living in the country whose language I am studying as my major. The university I love is of course the University of Jyväskylä. In short, I was wondering if anyone at all may have some advice or insight for me. I would greatly appreciate it, and would be happy to answer any other questions.

I have been to sites such as cimo, study in finland, etc. but figured I'd ask here too.

[Pursuivant]

Oh, you know them Americans & Geography, IIRC at Columbia University Finnish is in the "Germanic" department... well they had to fit it somewhere

[Sn0bunni24]

Finland is Nordic, but strictly speaking it's not Scandinavian. I hope you've checked that Finland qualifies!

Yes, I'm fully aware Finland is not considered part of Scandinavia. However, like mentioned before, it's often that U.S. universities fit Finnish studies into some larger department which is usually completely unrelated, such as Scandinavian or Germanic. I've never seen a Finno-Ugric Studies department, at least not here in the States.

[ajl]

There should be (was recently) a Finnish degree out of the University of Washington (still not it's own dept,
but the program is much larger than when I was a student, only starting to teach Finnish then). I don't
know how long they can ding you for out of state tuition, but get a checking account there, move your driver's
license there, register to vote there and you should be stuck at out of state tuition for a year or less (well, a
year's what UC schools got out of people when a relative started Berkeley a few years ago).

[CatNip]

Hi,
Here are some links, hope you find then useful:)

http://ies.berkeley.edu/fsp/finnishstud ... navian.htm
http://finnish.umn.edu/index.htm
http://www.finlandiafoundation.org/temp ... PID=471788
http://www.amscan.org/grants_americans.html
http://www.amscan.org/study_in_scandinavia.html
http://depts.washington.edu/finnish/
http://www.finlandia.edu/index.php?id=1
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FinnsNW/