4th Day: Sveriges Lantbruksuniversitet

Hej, it's me again, trying to go on with my seven days without being late, but it seems to be quite ambitious in the end :)

So here it comes, some summary about SLU, or Sveriges Lantbruksuniversitet, which is actually one of the first Swedish words I learnt when I arrived :) I have now spent 5 months in SLU, studied in 4 different courses, met dozens of students and heated up hundreds of Tupperware lunch boxes!

Concerning the courses I took, I can say I am satisfied with three of them, and one in particular (forest policy) was really really good. The last course I took, on sustainable development, was a bit disappointing for me: a bit of everything, but nothing really consistent. And I don't think I learnt a lot of things in that course, compared to the other ones. But from an overall perspective, the courses are (for most of them), very well organized, and that's where the strength of SLU is.

Indeed, I can but advice all students in life sciences to come here. The organization is really good, you will always find someone to help you. It is also a great place to meet students from everywhere, and the teachers are very available. There is less distance between students and teachers, and that changes everything! The courses are of quality, even there are some disproportions. I had only courses that demanded a relatively low amount of work I would say, whereas some of my friends had a looooot of things to do. The infrastructures are amazing, state-of-art buildings with magical doors that open automatically XD, etc.

As most courses at advanced (master) level rely on personal studies at home and projects, you will have a lot of "free" time, and the lectures are not mandatory. It means you decide on your own about how you want to organize yourself, and how much you want to put into your studies. I think it makes people more responsible, compared to a system where your choices are limited and where you're told what to do and stuck in a room for the whole day. The study pace is also quite good: 9-12 and 13-16 are the regular hours, and you have a break every hour (most of the time 10-15min) to take a fika or a coffee. Swedes have it all right: they have understood that you CANNOT actually concentrate for three hours without a break, and that beginning super early and finishing super late is counterproductive.

Well, to sum up, I really like this university :) I think I have become more independent study-wise, and for that I am grateful to the Swedish system :-) And, OMG, this campus is so cool. I wish we had the same in APT (maybe Saclay will be, only time will tell). But yeah, I think I didn't stay long enough to see the defaults of this uni. And it must have some. I guess Swedish students would have some things to point out (which they can do in the comments section :p )! Just know that for 5 months, you won't have a lot of problems and everything will be more than ok :-)

So, if you wanna discover a wonderful uni in a wonderful city in a wonderful country, you now know where to go!

Vi ses

Mig