Europe Graduate School

[Fearless]

Warphalange: I think that Msc is a taught course in most of non-anglosaxon Europe. It means studentloans for getting the degree. In sweden and rest of europe soon, you will get a msc in accordance to the bologna-treaty in five years from start. Bsc 3 years, 2 years of MSc.

cristo: hehe, in sweden the state only takes ~32% of your salary as a Phd-student. But we also got free healthcare and s*** like that, which I suppose you get in england as well.

 

[cristo]

cristo: hehe, in sweden the state only takes ~32% of your salary as a Phd-student. But we also got free healthcare and s*** like that, which I suppose you get in england as well.

To be honest, it probably works out to be around the same: in Sweden it seems they pay you then take some back, but in the UK they just don't pay as much! And yes, healthcare is free here.


As an aside, try and watch your language: the filter that normally asterisks them out isn't working at the moment.

 

[WarPhalange]

cristo, if I have Greek citizenship, is an Msc more doable in the UK? Meaning, are the rules then more similar to that of a UK citizen?

Man, I don't like the idea of paying for an Msc... The thing is I'm already in my 5th year for my bachelor's. They normally take 4 here, but I went to a junior college first, which didn't cover all the physics I needed, so basically I'm stuck for an extra year. I only really need 1 more quarter to graduate, but that doesn't matter since I still want to apply for US grad schools and they pretty much always start in the fall, so I might as well fill that time with classes.

 

[kmewis]

Sorry to derail this thread a little bit. I'm in pretty much the same situation as WarPhalange, but Canadian. I can get dual citizenship with Europe (yay British parents!) and exploring grad school options for Biophysics in Europe. Does anyone know which schools/where is good for either a MSc or PhD? Sweden interests me in particular too.

Lots of good info in here already, thanks everyone!

 

[oedipa maas]

cristo, if I have Greek citizenship, is an Msc more doable in the UK? Meaning, are the rules then more similar to that of a UK citizen?

You need to be a resident of the UK for three years before you can qualify for the domestic tuition.

kmewis, you will probably come out ahead financially if you stay in Canada for your MSc - the cost of living is much higher in Europe.

 

[f95toli]

40% tax (and other deductions) as a grad student? :surprised Here we don't have to pay any taxes...

However, in Sweden most grad students WORK as a PhD. students, i.e. legally it is just another job and you have exactly the same rights/obligations as if you were working at a company which often is a big plus (especially for people with kids).
It IS possible to get a PhD. as a student (i.e. without being employed by a university) but that is pretty rare in science (but quite common in e.g. the arts; but then you need to find money somewhere else, usually via scholarships etc). And it is not 40%, more like 32-33% (depending on where you live).

 

[WarPhalange]

So no paying for tuition at that point then?

 

[Fearless]

So Phd-students get free healthcare, sickleave (don't really know the english equivalent), and a bunch of things phd-student rarely get in other non-soviet-scandinavian countries.

f95toli: I am actually going to apply to Chalmers, Uppsala and Lund when I get my degree. What do you think about those places? (Chalmers I have a good understanding of, since I go there, but what about Uppsala and Lund?)

 

[f95toli]

So no paying for tuition at that point then?

You never have to pay for tuition is Sweden, education at all government funded schools and universities is always free, you only have to pay for books etc (and of course you still need money to pay the rent etc).
As far as I know tuition is still free for foreign students as well, but that might change in the future (which would a shame).


Fearless: I studied at Chalmers and did my PhD there as well (MC2), so I don't really know much about Lund and Uppsala although the group I worked in did collaborate a fair bit with people from the latter (Angstrom).

Lund is a bit of a strange place, they e.g. have a very nice new cleanroom but they don't seem to collaborate much with other Swedish universities; they also seem to be completely focused on semiconductor physics (which is one reason I don't know much about them, I worked on superconducting devices).

 

[Fearless]

After finishing your Phd-thesis at MC2, was it hard getting a relevant job in the sector you wished to work in? Would you recommend others try to get enrolled in their Phd-programme? How hard is it for a CTH-student vs other schools to get into the phd-programme there?

Besides, Do you recommend others to take courses offered by MC2, "Nanoscience and technology"-mastersprogramme? Or is the Applied physics-programme better?

What would you say about Angstrom?

I am thankful for any information

 

[WarPhalange]

Sorry to ressurect this, but I have something else to ask.

My mom is telling me to go back to Greece to basically establish residence there so that it will be easier to get funding and stuff if I go to school in Europe. I'd basically go, register in my home town, then fly back here just in time for the 1st day of classes. I'm telling here that's pointless since it would only count for Greece and only after a certain amount of time.

Any thoughts? Do I just need citizenship to get various EU benefits, or do I actually have to be living there?

 

[cristo]

I can only answer for the uk, but i would have thought you would need to live in an EU country for three years prior to the course to qualify for EU fees. Otherwise, whats to stop everyone doing that? I could be wrong, though, and it would be easy to check by looking at the admissions webpages of one of the universities you are applying to.

 

[WarPhalange]

Good idea. Thanks.

 

[mgiddy911]

Is it possible to do Msc progam in an EU country, say Ireland, to supplement a Bs from the USA before thinking of PHD in Europe? Also could this be done while working part time over there? ie. How much work would the Msc program take? it would be a 1-2 year deal right? is it full time classes or only maybe 3 classes per term? How expensive are they generally assuming you can't get funding to pay for them?

 

[yoran]

Is it possible to do Msc progam in an EU country, say Ireland, to supplement a Bs from the USA before thinking of PHD in Europe? Also could this be done while working part time over there? ie. How much work would the Msc program take? it would be a 1-2 year deal right? is it full time classes or only maybe 3 classes per term? How expensive are they generally assuming you can't get funding to pay for them?

Most MSc are fulltime so having a job besides it (even part time) is almost suicide. Generally you'll have about 5 classes per term and usually the second year ends with a thesis. This thesis takes about a year and requires a lot of work and research.
The tuition differs from university to university so you should really check that at the university of your choice. But I am almost sure that all MSc are below 10,000 euros (which is, unfortunately for you, a lot of dollars...). Some may cost 3000 euros, some 8000. It really depends.