#ExperienceSharing #Sweden Applying for Master's Programs in Finland/the UK/Sweden: My Experience & Process

I'd like to share my experience applying to grad schools in Finland, the UK and Sweden. I noticed there aren't many posts about grad school applications from a social science background, so here's some of my experience for reference.

I applied to 10 programs in total

Rejected:

University of Edinburgh Film, Exhibition and Curation MSc

University of Sheffield MSC, Master of Science Creative and Cultural Industries Management

University of Helsinki, Master's Programme in Environmental Change and Global Sustainability

Örebro University, Master's Programme in Public Planning for Sustainable Development

Admitted:

University of Sussex, Cultural and Creative Industries MA

Newcastle University, Urban Planning MSc

SOAS, University of London, MA Global Creative and Cultural Industries

Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Environmental Communication and Management

In Sweden you rank 4 choices, so once you get into a higher choice, the schools ranked below it show up as "Deleted":

Uppsala University, Sustainable Destination Development

University of Gothenburg, Sea and Society

First, my education/work background:

five-year junior college → transfer into a communications-related department at a private university → a few jobs in between, including a year and a half in the media industry

Junior college GPA: 3/4.3

Journalism GPA: 3.8/4

The gap is pretty big, so I got nervous every time I had to submit my transcripts.

Also, you can apply without any problem with a five-year junior college degree. I emailed and asked every school!

In the UK I applied to programs related to cultural industries and the arts; in the Nordics, to programs related to sustainability and the environment. I'm interested in both, so my attitude was basically: wherever I get in, that's where I'll go XDD

Starting with what's common to all: for the language test I took IELTS, overall 7.0, with 7.0 in every section except speaking, which was 7.5.

An especially high score won't help much; just meet the school's requirement

Finland

Like in the UK, you apply to Finnish grad programs one school at a time

Since I didn't know much about the schools, I only applied to the University of Helsinki

When I applied in January 2023, it was free

I can't say whether it'll stay that way, so take this as a reference

Their online form is a real pain, so I'd suggest writing everything first and then copying and pasting it in

Scholarship applications happen at the same time as the program application, so if you need a scholarship, be careful not to miss it.

You can save the application as you go, so you don't have to finish it in one sitting!

There's no separate SOP; instead you answer the questions on the application page

The school asked for my secondary diploma. Since I didn't go to high school, I gave them my junior high diploma.

A few important points:

-This school requires your transcripts and diploma to be notarized!

I didn't get mine notarized, so I was rejected outright.

-The form asks for your school's grading system, so you may need to look for it on your school's website or email the school for it.

-If you're missing documents, they'll usually email you to send them in. I didn't check my spam folder and missed my chance to submit them, so watch out.

Results generally come out in April, but because I hadn't sorted out the notarization properly, I got my rejection in mid-February!

UK

Some people don't trust study-abroad agencies and apply on their own, but for the UK I had an agency help me

They offer a free service where a teacher reviews your personal statement and study plan

When you're getting ready to upload documents, they'll also polish them a bit before uploading. I found that really convenient (when you're applying while working, all these fiddly application steps really get on your nerves)

The agency also lays out all the fees you'll need to pay very clearly.

None of the schools I chose charged an application fee

In the end I got into 3. At first I picked SOAS, but after weighing the cost of living in London, I chose Sweden

SOAS costs for reference

Tuition £24,350 (about NT 920,000)

Housing £255/week (about NT 10,000; prices vary a lot, and the one I had my eye on was a mid-priced room in the dorms)

London living costs £1,265/month (about NT 48,000)

Also, the most the school offers Taiwanese students in scholarships is £5,000, taken directly off tuition.

When I added it all up, it felt like way too much money to burn in a year, so I gave up without even looking into other scholarships XD

Sweden

1. How did I choose schools in Sweden? I didn't know Sweden well before applying, so I went straight to the official website to look up master's programs:

Universityadmissions.se - Apply to Swedish universities

Besides looking at rankings, I spent a lot of time on course content and campus facilities, and in the end chose SLU, which has almost no information in Chinese and whose main campus is in Uppsala, Sweden's fourth-largest city.

2. How do you apply? Unlike the UK and Finland, Swedish master's programs use a single joint application, and you can apply to at most 4 (including your choice of program).

You also apply through the website above. You need to create an account and upload the documents each school's website asks for.

Some Swedish universities don't require an SOP or recommendation letters (SLU, for example), which is a lot simpler than the UK.

Things to note:

-Application fee: SEK 900 in 2023 (about NT2800 with transaction fees)

-Documents that all schools require don't need to be uploaded more than once, e.g. passport, IELTS/TOEFL scores, transcripts, diploma

Once your account is set up, you'll see this screen in the top-right corner:

Application: where you rank your choices (see image below)

During the application period you can keep changing the order of your choices until it locks about 1 week before the deadline (I've kind of forgotten the exact timing).

Messages: if you need to send more documents, the school will tell you here. Check it regularly!

You won't get an email notification! (Sometimes they'll also tell you you're admitted a few days early, so check at least every 1-2 weeks so you don't miss anything)

Documents: where you upload documents; once uploaded, they also show up on this page

⚠️Once uploaded, documents can't be deleted, so be careful⚠️

Profile: your basic info, including your name, phone number, address and so on

Application Fee: your payment details

After you submit, these are the statuses you'll see until the results come out:

In progress: being processed. Everyone shows this after the application deadline.

Unqualified: your documents don't meet the requirements. Check whether something's missing, and if you're not sure, email the school; you still have a chance to send more documents.

Conditionally qualified: your documents are fine; wait for the result.

Reserved: waitlisted. I've heard that at Swedish universities reserved basically means rejected, but you can still email the school to ask whether there's a chance from the waiting list.

Conditionally admitted: you got an offer! Non-EU students only get their proof of admission after paying tuition.

Deleted: once you're admitted to a school ranked higher, choices ranked below it are deleted.

Overall the application isn't hard. The site's instructions are clear and the pages are intuitive. For how to read admission rates and judge your chances, see this article:

Sweden IxD / HCI / UX grad school application, in detail. *For basic application info and more, see two other posts: | by Ben | Medium

This person already covered it in great detail, so I won't add anything.

Why I chose Sweden over the other countries in the end

1. Safety 2. Close to nature 3. Money

Costs for reference: SLU tuition: 226,000 SEK/two years (about NT 680,000)

Living costs: SEK 9,450 /month (about NT 29,000)

Housing: SEK 4,600/month (about NT 14,000). SLU guarantees dorm housing for fee-paying students, and prices vary quite a bit between dorms

The school has a scholarship (full tuition waiver). I later asked the school, and there are only four scholarship spots for the whole university, and I didn't get one XD

The Swedish government also offers scholarships, but Taiwan isn't on the list QAQ Living costs can probably be lower; the SEK 9,450 figure is based on the proof-of-funds amount the Swedish government set for 2023.

I didn't get it, but here are SLU's scholarship application questions for reference:

1. Explain why you have made an application to the specific program and how you think your participation in it will affect any plans of yours– academic, professional, or otherwise.

2. Describe a thesis you have written or a project you have been part of. Explain it in layman´s terms so that someone with no prior knowledge of the subject can understand it. What did you learn from it?

3. Describe yourself freely and tell us one thing you find fascinating about your home country.

I'll probably share some posts about SLU's dorms, the campus scenery and the surrounding area later

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Just search for the ID: zenzen_0220