European Grad Studies Abroad: Cost of Living vs Low Tuition Fees

[bjcheung77]

Many people including myself have thought about studying abroad in Europe due to their inexpensive tuition AND/OR cost of living compared to a regular (non alternative education friendly) state-traditional B&M university.  I mean, an average year at the local B&M may cost 15K/year at the least or much more.  So, I've been searching for graduate programs abroad...

Most decide on either COST VS TUITION: Here are examples of the "low tuition countries" and their "average living expenses"
Updated on April Fools Day! (April 1, 2020)  Link: https://www.study.eu/article/study-in-eu...ition-fees
Here's another comparison post from today! Link: https://ehef.id/post/international-stude...untries/en

I've looked at the University of the Arctic (not a real university, it's a consortium of several universities) for a long time now (yes, about 2 decades, it started in 2001 with 4 countries I think - US, Canada, Russia, Norway).  Site Link: https://www.uarctic.org/about-uarctic/ and for more info, here's their Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_the_Arctic - I was searching randomly about programs that interest me and came across one in Norway.

UiT Arctic University of Norway Link: https://en.uit.no/education/admissions and they have free tuition all the way up to PhD but there are nominal semester fees of about 600 NOK (60 Euro).  However, they are one of the more expensive countries as per the links above and on their page, they require at least a $13.5K USD in the bank account to show you have financial funds to last a year in Norway.

The main attraction were the Masters/PhD programs they offer where you can travel up to 3 different countries, not on exchange but it's part of the program, especially if you're doing an environmental "natural" or "outdoor" program!  Here's the Admissions Link: https://en.uit.no/education/admissions/a..._id=593541 and this is the Financial link: https://en.uit.no/education/admissions/a..._id=592756

[rachel83az]

Keep in mind that, for foreign students, rent will often be due in advance. You sign a 1-year contract, you have to pay 1 year's worth of rent immediately. Depending on the country, you may be able to use an escrow service so that you're not paying $10k+ to someone who may run off and leave you without an apartment (something that can happen to the naive), but you're still required to have all the money before they'll grant you a student visa.

[nyvrem]

The other 2 famous EU countries with cheap / low cost tuition are Germany and France. Germany is especially enticing cause after you graduate, you get to apply for a visa to find work there. the visa itself is like for 22 months or something.

[rachel83az]

Germany can be difficult to get into as an undergrad. I imagine graduate school is pretty competitive also. Totally worth it. Germany is an awesome country.

[nilahti2]

Many people including myself have thought about studying abroad in Europe due to their inexpensive tuition AND/OR cost of living compared to a regular (non alternative education friendly) state-traditional B&M university.  I mean, an average year at the local B&M may cost 15K/year at the least or much more.  So, I've been searching for graduate programs abroad...

Most decide on either COST VS TUITION: Here are examples of the "low tuition countries" and their "average living expenses"
Updated on April Fools Day! (April 1, 2020)  Link: https://www.study.eu/article/study-in-eu...ition-fees
Here's another comparison post from today! Link: https://ehef.id/post/international-stude...untries/en

I've looked at the University of the Arctic (not a real university, it's a consortium of several universities) for a long time now (yes, about 2 decades, it started in 2001 with 4 countries I think - US, Canada, Russia, Norway).  Site Link: https://www.uarctic.org/about-uarctic/ and for more info, here's their Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_the_Arctic - I was searching randomly about programs that interest me and came across one in Norway.

UiT Arctic University of Norway Link: https://en.uit.no/education/admissions and they have free tuition all the way up to PhD but there are nominal semester fees of about 600 NOK (60 Euro).  However, they are one of the more expensive countries as per the links above and on their page, they require at least a $13.5K USD in the bank account to show you have financial funds to last a year in Norway.

The main attraction were the Masters/PhD programs they offer where you can travel up to 3 different countries, not on exchange but it's part of the program, especially if you're doing an environmental "natural" or "outdoor" program!  Here's the Admissions Link: https://en.uit.no/education/admissions/a..._id=593541 and this is the Financial link: https://en.uit.no/education/admissions/a..._id=592756

Check this site out.  You will need to make a free account.  But it gives insight to thousands of programs and schools.

https://studyportals.com

[nykorn]

I got my BA in Sweden. Tuition was free but after struggling on savings I had to take out a $26,000 student loan to cover living costs as I couldn't find a job, not even something like a cashier or busboy job. And I speak fluent Swedish and didn't need a visa, so had much less hurdles to finding work than the average immigrant. When I was finally offered a job it turned out the salary was so low it wouldn't qualify me for a cheap apartment or be enough to pay for rent and commute daily from another town. The governments hide the true unemployment levels by various schemes, such as how a student doesn't count as unemployed AND neither does a student's spouse. There's also no gig economy here to help you get by like petsitting or babysitting, not even Uber exists in most places in the Nordics. and unlike in most of Europe or Asia where knowing English can get you a job quickly, English isn't a prized, special or elite skill in the Nordics, on the contrary not being almost native level in English essentially means you didn't graduate highschool. Just something to keep in mind. 

I was unemployed for years in Sweden then gave up and left. In contrast I found a job within 2 weeks after moving back to the US, and within 5 months when moving to Asia. 

Most people I knew in Sweden (lived there 9 years!) either moved abroad for work, started their own businesses, or relied on their parents for money (even at ages 25 or 40+... plenty of people had rich ancestors). The exception of the people I personally knew is people who got a nursing license, studied computer science, or were involved with the mafia (those were typically Syrian refugees).

[Duneranger]

I got my BA in Sweden. Tuition was free but after struggling on savings I had to take out a $26,000 student loan to cover living costs as I couldn't find a job, not even something like a cashier or busboy job. And I speak fluent Swedish and didn't need a visa, so had much less hurdles to finding work than the average immigrant. When I was finally offered a job it turned out the salary was so low it wouldn't qualify me for a cheap apartment or be enough to pay for rent and commute daily from another town. The governments hide the true unemployment levels by various schemes, such as how a student doesn't count as unemployed AND neither does a student's spouse. There's also no gig economy here to help you get by like petsitting or babysitting, not even Uber exists in most places in the Nordics. Just something to keep in mind. I was unemployed for years in Sweden then gave up and left. In contrast I found a job within 2 weeks after moving back to the US, and within 5 months when moving to Asia. Maybe someone majoring in a more employable field like computer science or nursing would have better luck.

Not surprised. I lived in Europe and my salary was 4x lower than it is in the US.

[nykorn]

To add to what I wrote before:

I did this when I first turned 18, years ago. Went to school in Iceland where even for non-citizens it was about $500 USD a year. The difficulty is keeping a student visa - unlike people with European citizenship or there on a spouse visa (which was, literally, all the foreigners in my school at the time, to the point where the staff literally didn't understand my visa issues), if you fail a class you get deported.

Expect to pay more than the estimated living cost. Especially if you want to make any friends. You will be paying to hang out at cafes and other things in your free time, where at least in the Nordics, a coffee or beer costs $8 or more. You will definitely need more than $1000 a month if you want to live in any sort of decent apartment - at that budget I was living in apartments that were literally falling apart (my neighbor's balcony fell off, when I was living next door!) and had bloodstains in the hallways, on top of that I was sharing an apartment with 3-4 other people, etc. And some people will not even rent to people on student visas or to foreigners in general.

One bonus is exchange years. You always pay home tuition during an exchange, so if your home tuition is free then your exchange year is also free. Depending on your field you could do "free" education in Norway and get a "free" exchange year to China, France, or even the US. There are a lot of Nordic doctors who do 1-2 years of exchange at Harvard and other places.

I failed a class in Iceland (it was a class taught in Icelandic) and ended up procuring a spouse visa and moving to Sweden, so I no longer had to worry about keeping a student visa. My credits from Iceland and the US didn't transfer to Sweden, nor could I continue my original degree in Sweden in general (the subject I studied in Iceland wasn't offered) so I had to restart my Bachelor's from scratch. I was also restricted to certain classes until I learned Swedish and eventually proved C1 Swedish proficiency in an official way. After graduating, I found out that some hiring managers think my degree is fake because they've never heard of the university name, and others refuse to employ me because the degree was only partially taught in English (they have some kind of company rule to only hire people whose education was 100% in English - despite that I was born and raised in an English speaking country and it's only my college degree that is foreign).

All in all I don't regret it, it drastically widened my world view and linguistic capabilities, and it definitely still saved me a lot of money compared to going to an American school. While my student loan is a high amount for me, as it comes from Sweden there is only 0.05% interest which is crazy low compared to my highschool classmates who went to American schools and have loans at like 8% interest.