Student blogs

Hi everyone! In this blog I want to introduce the students in my class, current first-years of the Master’s Programme in Toxicology at KI. We are 19 students with diverse academic backgrounds, nationalities, and fika preferences ☕. Our programme has a reputation of having a high response rate to surveys and questionnaires, and this blog is no exception with a 100% response rate!

Disclaimer: The classes look different every year, and the numbers you see here are NOT necessarily what Karolinska Institutet looks for when admitting students. If you want more information about eligibility/requirements for getting admitted to the programme, please take a look at the KI website or contact the Admission’s Office for specific questions. This blog is just meant to be a fun introduction of my class for recently admitted/future toxicology students 😊

Without further ado, here is an introduction to the Tox Master class of 2025!

Nationalities

As you can see, we are a small group of people, but with a diverse background, coming from 12 different countries. This is also a very simplified map, since a lot of us have grown up or lived in other countries for a very long time.

Languages

Not only do we come from all over the world, we also speak many different langauages! The language that we all speak is English (of course), but we also have many others in the mix. Plenty of opportunities to learn new words/phrases from each other!

Background and age range

The academic background (both bachelor’s and master’s levels included here) of this class varies, with experience in different fields. Some of us have more experience in wet-lab settings, while others are more familiar with more computational aspects such as bioinformatics. The programme – and toxicology as a field in general – puts a lot of emphasis on collaboration with each other, so this diversity is a great strength of our class 🙂

The majority of us, having recently finished our bachelor’s studies, fall in the age range of 22 to 23. However, it’s important to note that everyone’s journey looks different and there is no age limit for doing a master’s degree! Some people have also worked, finished another master’s degree, or even done a PhD prior to this programme.

Future plans

I also asked the scary question – “What would you like to do in the future?”. Although many people have already decided that they want to do a PhD or work in Industry or within regulatory toxicology after the master, the majority still don’t know, which is perfectly fine! The nature of our programme and study opens us up to many different career opportunities in academia, industry, governmental agencies, consultancies, etc., and we have many alumni working in these different fields! My class is still in the first year of the studies, and at the end of the 2-year programme we’ll have a good overview of the many different aspects of toxicology. So, there’s no rush to decide what we want to do right now.

Typical fika order

Now, let’s get into the good stuff. What do people usually order when they go to get fika? This question says a lot about a person (or group of people)… interpret these answers as you wish.

Fun facts and final words

Last but not least, I asked everyone to add a fun fact about themselves. I got many interesting answers and unfortunately there isn’t enough space to include all of them. Here are a few which I think sums things up pretty well:

• I can move my ears on command

• I am a fan of coriander salad

• I wanted to be an astronaut as a young girl and then I realised I was terrified of going in space

• I love scanning things, my childhood dream job was being a cashier – so I’m enjoying the countless self-checkout machines in Sweden

• I have a pilots license but never got a drivers license

• I have a Nocco (best swedish caffeine drink) addiction <3

I hope this blog gives prospective students insight into the diversity and backgrounds of the current tox master’s students. The people in the programme are wonderful and create a very supportive and vibrant environment! ❤️ I feel lucky to have such great classmates!

Thank you so much for reading and see you in the next blog!