Student blogs

About a year ago, I wrote a post called Why should you pick KI Biomedicine. Now that I’ve studied at KI for a year, I’ve only found more reasons to feel satisfied with the choice I made, and I thought I’d share them. 

Whether you’re looking for reasons to apply to KI, reasons to accept your offer of admission, or are simply here due to curiosity, here are 5 reasons I picked KI — and why you may want to as well 🙂

1. The teaching style and quality 

In the year I’ve spent at KI I have been subject to a plethora of learning activities like debates, art exhibitions, lab experiments, seminars, projects, group presentations, designing experiments, and lectures. 

There’s been something unexpected in almost every course, and the faculty has been really great in making it all fit together. The quality of teaching isn’t an easy metric to evaluate, but if you’re wondering about things like… 

“Hey, is the teaching at KI good? Is it fun and interesting? Do the students like it?”

…my answer would be a pretty resounding yes. If you like to learn and you want to study biomedicine, then you’ll find it fun.

Image Credits Inika Prasad

Image by Alba Corman

Image by Inika Prasad

2. International atmosphere

KI hosts a thriving international ecosystem consisting of students, researchers, and faculty. Moreover, various events through the years have drawn in international research groups as well as the spirit of collaboration. With the international atmosphere come lots of bonuses like…

• Making friends from different places is easier
• Classes are never dull since faculty are from all over and have different styles of teaching
• It’s nice to hear what it’s like to live and learn in other parts of the world
• You get great input if you’re considering an exchange programme or a thesis abroad.

Photo by Kyle Glenn on Unsplash

3. Course structures

The courses in my programme (the Bachelor’s Programme in Biomedicine) run consecutively instead of in parallel. This means that you only deal with course material and challenges of one course at a time. This way, it’s a lot easier to juggle extracurricular activities, extra jobs, and focus better on the material itself.

4. Campus and facilities

If you haven’t checked out the KI Campus Tours already, then I highly recommend you do so. I’ve come to really like KI’s Campus — especially the one in Solna. It’s tightly knit, has plenty nice green spaces around, and is surrounded by lots of prominent institutions for science and medicine like SciLifeLab, Karolinska University Hospital, The Public Health Agency, etc. It makes for a great ecosystem for good vibes and great academics. 

Neo. Image by Patrick Engeler

Aula Medica, Image by Diego

Karolinska Sjukhuset. Image by Inika Prasad

5. Extracurriculars

When I was applying, I didn’t really know much about extracurriculars at KI. One year into studying here though, I can tell you a few things: 

• There are a lot of extracurricular activities to partake in: sports, music, literature, research, dance, business, etc. 
• If you want to be a part of something that doesn’t exist, you can always create it. 
• Go follow the different clubs and sections on their social media! That’s where you’ll get more regular updates and information.
• Being involved in student life is really fun. You get to meet people you otherwise wouldn’t and being flung out of your comfort zone can be fantastic for you.

Final Notes

I hope this was helpful for those of you curious about the KI experience! If you’re in the midst of the application process, I wish you the best of the luck! You can keep up with application deadlines and requirements on the programme pages and on the Karolinska Institutet Student Facebook Page. 

<3 Inika