Student blogs

Welcome back to your (in no way exhaustive) guide to answer the question “what now?” after getting accepted to KI. As the title suggests, this is the second- and final- installment of the series, so if you haven’t read the first part yet, I would highly advise you to do so. Part one talked about the residence permit and information regarding bank-related subjects. This part is a bit lighter and we will cover housing, scholarships, and connecting with fellow students. So without further ado, let’s get right into it.

Housing

If you are a fee-paying international (non-EU/EEA/Switzerland) student who has been accepted to study at Karolinska Institutet, you are eligible to apply for KI Housing. With KI Housing, you can live in a fully furnished student apartment for a limited period of time before you find another apartment or accomodation.

In January 2023, the Swedish government changed the housing regulation and as a result, students from an EU/EEA/Switzerland who have been accepted to a bachelor’s or master program at KI are no longer eligible to apply for KI Housing. These students can look for alternative accommodations via this link provided on the KI Housing website.

An important note here is to register in SSSB’s housing queue as soon as you register for a Medicinska Föreningen membership. Medicinska Föreningen (MF) is Karolinska Institutet’s student union. While having an MF membership benefits you in multiple ways, the most important benefit in my opinion is being able to stand in the SSSB queue.

SSSB (Stockholms studentbostäder) is Sweden’s largest student housing organisation and operates on a “queue” system (much like many other housing organisations in Sweden). Once you have a student union membership, you can register to start your queue, or you can simply register first and collect queue days upto 90 days after which, your queue will be paused until you update your student union membership. The reason why this is beneficial is that when the time comes to move out of KI Housing, you will have enough queue days to find an apartment via SSSB!

Scholarships

There are many scholarships and grants in place to help students navigate university. The KI website lists out such scholarships along with eligibility criteria and deadlines for some. It is important to note that these scholarships/grants differ from each other not only in terms of eligibility criteria, but also in the application process. So if you are considering applying to any of these, make sure you are on top of all the requirements and important information.

Once again, KI’s digital ambassadors talk in length about scholarships and funding your stay in Sweden, so make sure you keep an eye on the content we release! Of note, DA Yohannes recently wrote about this exact topic and covered everything- from scholarships to self funding- so give this blog a read if you are interested.

Connect and stay informed

Last, but not the least- make friends and find connections!

Now that you are admitted, you can fully expect an onslaught of emails with important information such as online meetings, webinars, deadlines, how-to’s, and more. So keep an eye on your inbox regularly and check your spam folder too just in case.

The digital ambassadors are also organising a bunch of events- from webinars to student lives- so keep an eye out for those so that you don’t miss any useful information.

Speaking of digital ambassadors, the first KI newsletter you receive contains a link to sign-up in order to speak with a current KI student. If you weren’t aware of that yet, now you know. So sign up for this phone-call to talk to digital ambassador and ask us any questions you may have about student life here at KI! Even if you don’t sign up for a phone call, remember that you can find our contact information on the KI website, so just shoot us a mail if you are curious about KI.

And lastly, download the Goin Connect app to connect with other students from your programme. This app is in place so that students from all over the world can connect each other with a little help from senior students and no communication with staff members. So get the app and start making new friends!

That’s it, folks. These are the most important things to keep in mind now that you have been accepted to KI. It is important to note that this list exists so that you know what you need to do moving forward. This is, by NO means, an exhaustive list, and I would urge you to do your own research, visit important websites, and get information yourself instead of relying solely on this blog. Planning your whole stay in Sweden based off of one (1) blog you read on a random Thursday- you realise how daft that sounds, right? So, do your research, kids.

Once again, congratulations on getting accepted! If you have any questions, you know where to find me.