On Graduate Schools

I’m looking at graduate schools overseas, including schools in Sweden, the Netherlands, Norway, the UK, Australia, and Switzerland.
Any readers study overseas? If so, any advice would be most welcome.
I’ve been focusing on Swiss universities due to their proximity to CERN, as well as being quite enthralled with the country, the cities, and the people when I traveled there in the past. Gorgeous country, and it looks like a great place to live and study. It looks like there’s a not-insubstantial amount of paperwork to study there (let alone work there), but I imagine that’s pretty common and not a huge hurdle to overcome. Any advice with dealing with it? I imagine the local consulate is a good place to get information, but I figure that some people have more advice.
I’ve got a friend in Sweden who can help out with some aspects of moving and settling in (e.g. getting a phone, driver’s license, get acclimated to things, etc.), but things are different for foreigners than residents in many places, and I’d hate to screw things up in some way.
Moving domestically is hard enough. Moving internationally is likely to be a bit harder. Fortunately, I’m not the only prospective grad student to consider studying overseas, so I’m sure there’s procedures and whatnot. Now, I just need to start getting applications out…

3 thoughts on “On Graduate Schools”

  1. I lived in sweden for about 7 years, it is a great place to live, the people are great.
    You can drive on a US license for one year – to get a license in Sweden is a long and expensive process. They do not recognize the education for a US driver, so you will have to take a driver training program.
    The good news – they have excellent public transportation and except out in the country – it is often unnessesary.
    It is a great place to live – but very expensive.
    Good luck.

    1. Interesting. One would think that the driving requirements would be similar. I guess not. Oh well.
      Expensive is all right, so long as wages are reasonable compared to the cost of living. While I could some odd jobs while studying, my wife would be the primary breadwinner for a little bit, so getting a work visa and a job would be rather important.

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