But for my fan, here is my (brief rundown) of things everyone should know about Swedish university.
1. It's free! And the government gives you some money to study!
2. It's not free enough, you still have to buy food and rent and you know, live in Sweden, one of the most expensive places on this Earth.
3. If you're studying a set program, you don't automatically get enrolled on your courses. You have to apply for them externally. And hope you get in. To courses on your program. That you're already accepted to.
4. Many professors make up grading criteria as they go along, even though they provide you with official grading criteria at the start of the course.
5. You get almost unlimited chances to retake things you failed.
6.Lecturers always try to make group work a thing.
7. Half the people on your course are somehow already employed by the university.
8. Don't ask the studievägledare (study councillor) for advice, they do NOT know what they are talking about.
9. Don't talk over Swedish people in the seminar, even if they've been stuck in a repetitive feedback loop for the last 10 minutes and you have something much more pertinent to say.
10. Wait 10 minutes for them to finish. Then wait another minute in awkward silence to allow time for someone else to potentially speak and get stuck in a feedback loop.
11. Listen to that person say the same thing over and over in a variety of different ways because they want to avoid the one minute of awkward silence that follows their stopping speaking.
12. Spend a 45 minute seminar wanting to kill yourself.
13. Coffee break! You always get a coffee break, at least one an hour. THANK GOD.
14. KAMRATBEDÖMNING. Never get constructive criticism from a professor. The preferred method is to get other students who don't know what they're talking about to give half-assed feedback on your papers.
15. Nobody buys books. If they do you should mug them because they must be millionaires. Professors will lend you books and look the other way while you scan them.
16. At least one lecturer will be from Skåne and completely incomprehensible.
17. Good luck!
