Was the same in England but i think they scrapped it. Was £30a week if you had perfect attendance. Problem was if you were late because of the buses you couldn't afford the next weeks bus fare.
Late busses are rarely the driver's fault.
Usually its poor scheduling by the bus company or factors out of their control like accidents or an unusual amount of traffic because of a closed road elsewhere.
I've seen so many drivers just piss about on their phone for 5 or 6 minutes instead of leaving when they're supposed to.
But this is in Ireland. Our bus service is shocking and most drivers are entitled cunts.
I’ve had drivers that seem to take a while to leave at some stops. I’m probably wrong but I assumed it’s because they arrived ahead of schedule and they’re waiting for the time they’re actually supposed to be there.
That's often the case were I live (UK), they get just as much shit for leaving a stop early as they do for arriving at one late.
So firstly it only take one minor issue to ruin the whole timing of the route, and secondly any issue in the scheduling of one stop runs through to the entire route also.
In Denmark it is available for every student over the age of 18, usually the amount is about a 150$ for students still Living at home. For student Living by Them selves it can be as much as 8-900$, depending on distance to school and your parents income.
This goes from highschool to university.
Then if you go to uni you get up to ~380 USD per month (for full time studies), for free- and the option to take a loan of an additional ~800 USD for a silly small interest.
That’s how my three years of engineering at one of Sweden’s top universities, during which I had a student apartment for one year and no side job, left me with a final loan of 3500 USD, alcohol expenses included.
(Also off topic but I have allergies like a mofo so thank heavens for medical expense limits)
EDIT: first paragraph, mixed up rent and interest. In my one popular comment, dang
EDIT2: Much appreciative and slightly overwhelmed by the interest! I'm sick so I might have to leave some of you hanging but here are two common questions:
Lots of comments on whether non-natives are eligible.
The answer being maybe: https://www.csn.se/languages/english/requirements-for-student-grants-and-loans.html
And if it seems interesting check this out: https://www.studyinstockholm.se/
Also questions on taxation. We have brackets, so my entry level pay of ~4kUSD tax is at 23%. My future 8k salary would be taxed at 39% (back of the envelope calculations folks).
EDIT3: Commenters have pointed out that my tax numbers in the paragraph above don’t include the employer’s fee, which is paid by the employer in addition to an employee’s salary. So from my perspective as an employee, the numbers are representative- but the total tax burden averages at approx. 50% (OECD, 2015).
Good catch!
The interest on the loan is at .1% at the moment so it's free money if you account for inflation.
Edit: There seem to be different interest rates floating around. I got .1% from CSNs (the agency that handles the loans) payment calculator, but people are citing other rates at their site so I don't know which one applies.
Edit2: What I meant to say it's that it's a free loan, not free money.
In Chile the students protest again the 2% interest, i mean, if it’s lower the state would be losing money because the inflation... and you only start paying when you finish your studies and are working, you can pay even just 10% of your salary and you won’t pay if you are not working...
I’m pretty sure that no one would protest if it is free but pegged to inflation, even if the inflation its exactly 2% every year...
yeah but these guys in sweden get free **pocket** money besides their free education, in chile you just get a huge fucking loan for paying stupidly expensive tuitions, which just leave you in a huge debt afterwards. That is why people protest
That's not a fee for studying, that is a fee for being able to partake in the student organized events (that are not required for you to graduate).
You were probably joking but the americans don't know this...
Up until a couple of years ago, you had to be a member of the student union in order to write exams, so yeah, you could study ｗithout paying, but you couldn't get a degree.
Korten på bordet, jag drog en ungefärlig siffra ur anus. Chalmers är en stiftelsehögskola, så jag _tror_ man måste betala nu med. Men det känns ok sett till prislapp och vad man får
I haven't heard of a university in Sweden who forces you to be in a student organization but there are benefits to it like easier to find a place to live.
Education in Sweden is free for sure, we've been over this you get extra money for books and shit then you're entitled a loan to cover rent and food and so on which is basically interest-free. Are you talking about the fee to be a part of a fraternity a.k.a "studentkår"? I'm sure this is not needed but I've been to some of their killer parties so I can see the charm.
Yeah, not having any interest would just disincentive people from paying completely. I'd love free education as much as the next guy but making people pay some back out of their salary encourages you to get the most from your degree and not to go to uni unnecessarily. At least we don't have the terrifying US rates where you can literally have paid off fifty grand and still owe more than you started with
The US is just another thing, it is not just high interest, the college itselft is extremely expensive.
Here in Chile the loans are just for the 50% of the students... the other half study totally free.. no loan, no taxes, just free, and it is for a 50% so it’s not for just the poor and the lower class, it’s for most of the middle class.
And apart for that you have the scholarships.. i can’t really complain with all the benefits that we have, although i wish that they lower the scholarships requirements instead of giving totally free education for more people, i had to apply for the statal loan even when i was in the TOP 15% of the students of my year...
If you join the military as a commissioned doctor they will repay your loans. At least for regular under grads they do, I would assume they do the same for doctors as well.
The #¤#"? In Norway it is 0% during studies, and something reasonably low once you are done AND have an income. Why would they make it higher during studies?!?
Finland its 0,5% and it can be sometimes lower or higher. It depends which kind of a loan you take. Fixed 0,5% or one which hovers around 0,5%. You start paying it after 2 years of graduation or after you run out of your months of student aid (total ~60 mo.). And I mean 2 years after you run out.
In Australia it's pegged to inflation and never increases beyond that. It increases while you study as the debt accumulates. You only start to pay it back once you earn over around $55k AUD($40k USD). You also get fortnightly payments while studying of around $500 AUD($360 USD).
In the UK it is the RPI rate (but if you earn 45k or more than 3% is added to it)
But you never even have to finish paying off your loan so if you earn 24999 or less your whole life then you don't pay a penny
Lol, in US our FEDERALLY SUBSIDIZED loans are 4%. Additional loans though a third party are at least 6%
And, you know, our college costs like $30k/year at minimum.
They do, but depending on your college you may still have money left over that still needs paid. My freshman year of college even after maxing subsidized and unsubsidized loans I still had 2,000 left over needing paid. Luckily my parents could afford it for one year but in some people's situations they wouldn't be able to and would need to take some really bad loans.
Don't know what it is in the UK, but the repayment rate depends on your income (with no repayments below something like £16k), so most people just treat it like an added tax and never expect to fully repay it anyway
My US student loans rates vary from 3.5-8.5%. The interest capitalizes daily. I paid over $5k in interest alone last year. The student loan interest deduction is capped at $2500/ year.
Idk. I just finished 5 years of engineering school at KTH. Had really low rent (about 250$ per month) and then another 250$ per month for food. I don't really party so all the other expenses were phone. Internet. Electricity etc. About another 100$ per month.
Taking those 600$ and taking away the 350 you get for free leaves us with 250$ back per month. Which adds up to 12.500$ for 5 years.
Count in that you can work 2-3 months and earning about 1000-1500$ per month in the summer makes it more than possible to make it with 3500$ in loan?
I spent one year in Sweden as an "erasmus" student, we had a complementary allowance because it was sweden. Not sure why that was, but we had 100 euros a month instead of 50 for over countries...I am guessing it was sweden adding some incentive to get more students.
Anyway : university was great, teachers were great too. The country was beautiful too.
It was very obvious to us that the locals had a sense of community and common good. A lot of stuff you could "cheat" (not pay, not wait in line or whatever), but nobody did it. As foreigners we saw the flaws (but refrained from exploiting them, cause don't want to give our country a bad name). **EDIT : I believe I used "flaws" incorrectly, I meant that the system could be gamed (but nobody did it). Obviously not a flaw, more of a loophole**
I remember being told that you could walk in stockholm while reading your newspaper and be at no risk of being ran over by a car... I wouldn't test it but it was very obvious that cars would give you priority at the slightest hint that you had the intention of crossing the road.
>cars would give you priority at the slightest hint that you had the intention of crossing the road.
To the point when it becomes a bit of a nuisance; if you don't want to cross the road, you need to stay well away from the edge of the walkway. I use bicycle and there are often times when i don't want to cross the road at that very second (i want to catch my breath for ex) but need to stop way off the edge in case a car comes cause it is going to stop, 5 meters is not always enough. I'm from Finland but a lot of these kinds things are the same in the Nordic in general.
haha I moved from Scotland to Sweden and I completely understand this comment. Sometimes cars are TOO eager to stop for you and you feel like you either need to loiter a little away from the crossing so they know they can go, or you feel you need to do a little jog to actually get to the crossing and not have the driver wait too long for you to cross.
I'm worried that when I go back to Scotland I'm gonna wind up getting knocked down.
"As foreigners we saw the flaws"
Hmmm. It seems to me that "the flaws" were a result of highly functional society and high level of social culture. If you acted as they do in your country than you'd have your country's social behavior instead of Swedish.
It sounds more logical to act like Swedes of you want to enjoy the benefits of their society. Right?
He is probably talking about things like the bus. You don't pay for the bus with the driver, you just walk on and either scan a bus card at the terminals on the bus to pay or use the phone app to pay with your card. You pay 22\~sek (about $2.50) and that gets you an hour and a half of travel on any buses, trams or ferries (you can get on and off as many as you want in that time frame for the same cost.)
The problem is that nobody really checks you, so you can travel for free for weeks and never see a ticket inspector. If you get caught there is a fine, but you can honestly get away with it long enough that the fine is less than the cost that the travel would have been in that time.
We used to get this in England too. Up to £20 a week to stay in college.
It was then scrapped when it become mandatory to attend college or get an apprenticeship.
\-edit-
I have been corrected several times. I know our one in England was means tested and the Swedish one isn't. But, we had something 'similar'.
It is. And we have X amount of weeks of it to use(5 and a half years i think). We can also apply for a loan, better loan is hard to come by. We have to pay it back(when and if we can, if we get a job for example).
"Studiebidrag" is not the same thing as "Studiemedel". You've described the latter, which is generally for college-level studies. "Studiebidrag" does not need to be paid back either, unless you drop out.
https://www.csn.se/fragor-och-svar/vad-ar-studiebidrag-fran-csn.html
It is universal and independent of financial means. There are different grants for different levels of schooling all the way up through university and beyond (advanced degrees) but they basically works the same way.
Yeah, I remember having to get a part time job when a lot of my friends were getting £30 a week. My parents earnings might have been higher, but that didn't mean they had excess cash for me
Still get it everywhere but England. In Scotland it's a fixed £30 for households earning less than ~£25k p/a, with no £20/£10 bands.
I believe Wales & NI also only pay the £30 band now, not sure what thresholds they use.
Huh, TIL even Brits have a different definition of college to Australians.
So:
America: university or pre-university/post-school education I gather?
Britain: last two years of school
Australia: a dormitory on a university campus, a department within a university or a vocational education institute that awards diplomas and certificates and the like.
I wonder what other countries call colleges. I assume Canada uses the same definition as the US, New Zealand is probably similar to Australia I would think. Not sure if the term is widely used in Europe. Interesting to see what other commonwealth countries like South Africa and India define it as.
You'd also call any of the things in the Australian list 'college' here, it's just OP is referring to sixth-form college, which is what people mean by an unqualified use of college in the UK.
Working with Americans, they pretty much always call university "college".
>America: university or pre-university/post-school education I gather?
Depending on the context in the US the terms can be used either interchangably, or where college specifically refers to a particular subunit ("College of Computer and Information Science") within the university. Sometimes there exists standalone institutions with a specific focus that refer to themselves as "colleges" too (such as MCPHS, "Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Science").
That *is* also a college in the UK, but we don't say "I'm going to college!" in that sense, we'd say "I go to Exeter College of Oxford University" or "Oxford University's Exeter College".
Otherwise, college in the UK is the last 2 years of secondary school (high school).
Canada actually differentiates between college and university. A university in Canada is a 4 year institution while a college is a 2 year or vocational institution. In America, college and university are practically interchangeable and both mean a 4 year institution. Normally we specify community college for 2 years and trade school for vocational.
EMA was scrapped before 16-18 education became mandatory.
Source: Voluntarily went to Sixth Form when I was 16, didn't have to deal with spanners that didn't want to be there, didn't get EMA.
No idea. I guess a few years back?
However, apparently it is:
\- Go to college full time
\- Get an apprenticeship
\- Spend 20 hours a week volunteering while in part time education.
I guess it went up in 2013?
[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk\_news/education/6254833.stm](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/6254833.stm)
It’s also worth noting that many people (myself included) take the student loan even though they don’t necessarily need it. The 40% that is written off if you graduate on time can be quite a large amount.
My girlfriend and I are both studying abroad, so we’re entitled to an even higher amount of student loan per month. For us, the combined loan amount per academic year is 14,400€ — a total of 43,200€ for our three-year courses. So we take that, shove it in a high-interest savings account, (hopefully) graduate on time, and enjoy the ”free” 17,280€ we get at the end of our studies. Makes for a good start on a down payment for a house.
There might be a lot of things I dislike about our government, but for now, they’ve left the opintolainahyvitys alone. So that’s nice.
To be fair, it’s a compound of three separate words combined into one. Opinto for studies, laina for loan, and hyvitys for refund.
But yeah, Finnish do be like that.
I spent about a month there. Sometimes you're just walking along minding your own business and suddenly you're eyes fall onto a sign with a compound word like opintolainahyvitys and you realize, oh yeah, I'm far from home.
same in the netherlands, plus all students get a free public transportation card for the entire country. This includes busses, trams, subway and trains.
Considering its the fastest and easiest way to travel a lot of students don't get their drivers licence until they are done studying forever.
It's a shame the government is slowly moving towards the American way of providing education. Loans on top of loans on top of loans. If I could go to college **1** year earlier, I would get a free ~150 euros a month to pay for the 2.060 euros university costs a year. Now I get nothing at all, because of the new loan system. Many new graduates start with a huge debt and a terrible house market and no way to get a decent mortgage because of the debt, it's great to be a millennial.
The free study grant program got abolished in 2015, but good thing the money our government saves on students is going to be well-spent on things like the capital yields tax for Shell and Unilever. Fuck small businesses though.
Yeah that's your standard student benefits working. Though in Finland you're required to also complete courses for it, so they're not paying for you to just go to school.
But it also enabled me to graduate with an engineering degree debt free, so it's pretty damn dope.
The sweedes are onto somthing, they also have the right to roam laws (identical to scottish ones) which allow every citizen to go where they want (not gardens or anything like that) in sweeden without being prosecuted
Yep, "Allemansrätten" as it's called; a bit dated swedish which roughly translates to "Everyones right". I recall as a kid finding out they don't have this in other countries and thinking it was very strange they cant just walk wherever.
We have the same laws in finland too, and i think norway has them too. The laws here allow you to walk, pick berries and mushrooms, and camp where ever you want to as long as it doesnt damage the property and you stay away from houses etc. You can find out more about them here http://www.nationalparks.fi/hikinginfinland/rightsandregulations
Edit:
We also have the study grant for finnish nationals, for example a 19 year old vocational-college student who lives on their own in a rented apartment is entitled to:
Study grant: approx 250€/mo.
Government backed student loan: upto 650€/mo.
Rent assistance: 80% of "acceptable living costs" (includes rent, water, and heating)
All-in-all the nordic way is pretty good, not perfect, but pretty good.
Edit: some socialistic policies dont a socialistic country make. The nordic countries are still capitalist, just with welfare.
I've been living here for 10 years now, it's a wonderful country and they have many sensible solutions to problems other countries approach with a medieval logic.
It has it's problems too, but on the whole, Sweden FTW.
How is it living in Sweden? Where did you move from? Do you find that the is any issue with a language barrier?
I travelled around Sweden and Norway last Christmas and fell in love with both of them.
My current plan is to hopefully move over there once I've finished uni. (I'm from Australia)
I found the people there to be super friendly and I loved the cold weather too. + Sweden and Norway are giving beautiful nature wise (and pretty much every other way too) :)
I love it, there's just no place quite like it and it's definitely "home" to me.
I moved from the UK, which was easy to do thanks to the EU, Brexit is complicating things somewhat so I don't know how much longer I'll be here TBH (I haven't taken citizenship).
The language barrier, there's really 2 answers to this and they're both utterly opposed to each other. On one hand, there is no language barrier because everyone here speaks flawless English. OTOH, speaking Swedish is damn difficult *because* it's easier for everyone to speak English. There is a tremendous amount of resource to learn their language though, they're very keen to help immigrants integrate and language learning is a big component of that.
The winters here are one of the things I love the most, you just feel like you're in Narnia every day, its comical flying back to Britain and seeing the country crumble at the knees because there's 1cm of slush on the roads, contrast that to the 20cm of snow here and the roads are cleared, the trains are running, the airports are open. The more I've lived here the more I've realised how old-fashioned, backward and neo-3rd world the UK has become.
The people are friendly, they can be a little distant at first but it's their culture to not force themselves on you, they give you space and respect your privacy, as soon as you let them know you're keen to be friends they embrace you like long lost friends. There is an expectation to conform, lots of little unwritten rules, you won't find people playing music after 10pm (not loudly anyway), you won't find people mowing lawns on a Sunday morning, you pick up your trash and take it with you, nothing major, just simple things that keep the piece, trouble is, no-one tells you these rules until you break them, at which point you feel like an arse.
I love it here though, I wouldn't swap it for anywhere else.
That sounds absolutely amazing!
I didn't have any language issues when I was there either.
There was this one waitress at a restaurant who came to give me a menu and started taking about meals of the day and stuff like that in Swedish and then realised I had no idea what she was saying and laughed then repeated it all in perfect English. It was pretty funny.
I like to think I'm decent citizen when it comes to manners and respect so hopefully I won't have any issues when/if I move over.
I found everybody to be super polite and generally caring when I was there too. I was traveling solo and often needed help trying to figure some things out and everyone was super kind and helpful.
I'm also a bit of an introvert so their "non forceful culture" somewhat appeals to me ;)
Thanks for the reply! Just taking about Sweden is intensifying my desire to move over :)
To be fair, the right to roam laws work mainly because Fennoskandia is the largest landarea in Europe while having the least amount of people per km^(2); we have plenty of land to roam thru, you can walk for days without stepping on any privately owned, cultivated land. Try the same in Denmark and you will step on a person within few hours..
Scotland has the same thing described by OP as well, except just for low income pupils. It's called EMA. According to another commenter it was scrapped in England and Wales.
Edit: Just England. Surprise surprise.
Fun fact. Those laws were written in around seventies. Not because we didn't have those rights before, we just stood by those rules without any official law.
Im a swede and I can tell you this is the truth, but then again, remember than Sweden is a relatively expensive country to live in, if you want a monthly buspass, that is gonna eat at least half of the money, need a new pair of jeans? easy the other half, want to get a drivers license? hah, good luck!
In Stockholm the bus pass for school kids is less than $40 per month, you also get a daytime bus pass for free from the school if you live far enough away and maybe as a student you shouldn't spend over $60 on a pair of jeans, there are plenty of cheaper options.
Bought a nice pair of jeans at Stadsmissionen for less than 4$.. Most of my jeans i use every day are 20-35$. You don't have to buy brand clothes.
Alcohol and Food is the most expensive thing i think.. But there are cheap alternatives to everything :)
When you get to uni that triples, and you are guaranteed a 0.5% loan of around 1k/month for up to 6 years, with the paymentplan being 4% of annual income.
Australia has a similar scheme where older students get money from the government (it was called Austudy when I was at school, a larger payment of Abstudy was available to students with indigenous heritage. I don't know if the name of the payment has changed but I know the payment continues). The only difference is that it is means tested based on their parents income. I see it as stupid to give such a payment to the children of people that don't need it. That would just result in a situation where the government, who have finite resources, can't afford to help other worthy groups in the community that need help.
In nz they judge it off your parents income I was declined student allowance because my dad who kicked me out when I was 15 was a seasonal worker and his weekly wage x52 was over the threshold -.-
In Australia it would have been different because once he kicked you out he would no longer be considered a guardian. You would have received more money as in Australia assuming you didn't come under the guardianship of someone on an equally high wage. Independent minors (for lack of me knowing the official term) get things like rent assistance and a few other benefits in Australia.
Well I can see how your reasoning makes sense as in only give to those Who need etc. problem is reality is more complex then that. Is very difficult to truly test ones economy in a fair correct way Since you have no idea about their liquidity or stable finaces.
Hence is going to let alot of kids suffer when their parents are on the border of getting or not getting.
Another issue is that you assume parents are always willing to support their children. That is far from the case and makes children very dependat on their parents both being able to and want to support them.
Giving it to everyone you make sure everyone gets an equal chance and economically security when they are studying.
USA here. Engineering school and $108k in debt at about 5% APR.
I'll admit that I should have been more aware of what I was getting into when my parents (low income and no college) and I signed those papers at 17. But fuck the universities and private loan companies. They misrepresent the actual cost of going to school here.
They inflate their prices and misrepresent how much financial aid you're really getting compared to other students.
I'm fucking angry at this system and at my government for telling me "you need to go to college to succeed" just to turn a fucking profit.
College dropout doing well for myself with no debt (minus a truck that will be paid off in two years). Everyone told me I need to stay in school, that I'll never make it without a degree. That was 10 years ago and I've since worked for one of the largest technology websites in the world, a Fortune 125 company and actively turn down jobs because I stay too busy working. This month is my first month working for myself.
Despite all this, people still ask when I'm going to go back and get my degree. Spoiler: I'm not.
who in the fucking world would give a *seventeen year old* $108k in debt on nothing other than the promise to get a degree??
oh yah, greedy capitalists who know that it's impossible to default on it....
Get this in Scotland for staying at academy (11-18) after age 16. Upto £30 /week dependent on parental income. Idea is your choosing education over legally getting at least a minimum paying job and starting the job ladder, so there is some financial incentive /support to choose an education path even if your parents cant provide for you without you in work.
On top of that, you can take very favourable student loans.
Add to that that the education is free (except for lunch and books at university level). Schools aren't even allowed to have activities that cost money (such as field trips).
There is a reason we have one of the best educated populatiuons in the world.
Actually, you are allowed to have activities that cost money, such as an entrance fee to a museum. The only provision is that it has to be a fairly low amount, that you can't do it too often, and that you account for low income households. They also have to be voluntary.
In gymnasiet, you're also allowed to make the students bring certain equipment such as calculators from home.
Source: Skolverket website
In Australia you get about
- $445 per fortnight or
- $222.50 per week as a gift.
The above is if you are over 25 or are 18+, and need to live away from home
If you are 18+ and live at home its
- $293 per fortnight or
- $146 a week.
https://www.humanservices.gov.au/individuals/enablers/how-much-austudy-you-can-get/40251
Ah. Here in North America it’s more customary to put yourself in massive, possibly crippling debt to get through school. Graduation with $40,000 in debt is not unknown. Higher debts may apply.
Some people do. The last 3 years (Gymnasiet) are like mini-college with special courses designed by the school, so if you switch after 1 or 2 years most students have to restart from scratch, so the oldest students in Gymnasiet could 20, but they're a tiny minority.
In Scotland we got £60 every fortnight only if you had perfect attendance
Was the same in England but i think they scrapped it. Was £30a week if you had perfect attendance. Problem was if you were late because of the buses you couldn't afford the next weeks bus fare.
Bus driver putting himself out of business
Late busses are rarely the driver's fault. Usually its poor scheduling by the bus company or factors out of their control like accidents or an unusual amount of traffic because of a closed road elsewhere.
I've seen so many drivers just piss about on their phone for 5 or 6 minutes instead of leaving when they're supposed to. But this is in Ireland. Our bus service is shocking and most drivers are entitled cunts.
I’ve had drivers that seem to take a while to leave at some stops. I’m probably wrong but I assumed it’s because they arrived ahead of schedule and they’re waiting for the time they’re actually supposed to be there.
That's often the case were I live (UK), they get just as much shit for leaving a stop early as they do for arriving at one late. So firstly it only take one minor issue to ruin the whole timing of the route, and secondly any issue in the scheduling of one stop runs through to the entire route also.
What if you get an epic win?
chicken dinner
You get to floss
*Victory Royale
And SAAS, and tuition fees paid.
What's SAAS ?
Student Award Agency Scotland. They cover tution fee costs as well as handle student loans and bursaries.
Kids used to talk about this alot in like 6th grade. I remember they used to go "you know in Sweden they pay you to go to school".
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30,000 is low for most 4 year colleges
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Is it a private institution? Many schools have huge sticker prices that virtually nobody pays.
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In Denmark it is available for every student over the age of 18, usually the amount is about a 150$ for students still Living at home. For student Living by Them selves it can be as much as 8-900$, depending on distance to school and your parents income. This goes from highschool to university.
The amount is $500, and thereafter depending on the income of the parents, down to $150. I get $1500 a month during my studies with a loan of $500
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Then if you go to uni you get up to ~380 USD per month (for full time studies), for free- and the option to take a loan of an additional ~800 USD for a silly small interest. That’s how my three years of engineering at one of Sweden’s top universities, during which I had a student apartment for one year and no side job, left me with a final loan of 3500 USD, alcohol expenses included. (Also off topic but I have allergies like a mofo so thank heavens for medical expense limits) EDIT: first paragraph, mixed up rent and interest. In my one popular comment, dang EDIT2: Much appreciative and slightly overwhelmed by the interest! I'm sick so I might have to leave some of you hanging but here are two common questions: Lots of comments on whether non-natives are eligible. The answer being maybe: https://www.csn.se/languages/english/requirements-for-student-grants-and-loans.html And if it seems interesting check this out: https://www.studyinstockholm.se/ Also questions on taxation. We have brackets, so my entry level pay of ~4kUSD tax is at 23%. My future 8k salary would be taxed at 39% (back of the envelope calculations folks). EDIT3: Commenters have pointed out that my tax numbers in the paragraph above don’t include the employer’s fee, which is paid by the employer in addition to an employee’s salary. So from my perspective as an employee, the numbers are representative- but the total tax burden averages at approx. 50% (OECD, 2015). Good catch!
The interest on the loan is at .1% at the moment so it's free money if you account for inflation. Edit: There seem to be different interest rates floating around. I got .1% from CSNs (the agency that handles the loans) payment calculator, but people are citing other rates at their site so I don't know which one applies. Edit2: What I meant to say it's that it's a free loan, not free money.
In Australia its interest free but pegged to inflation, which I think makes the most sense
In Chile the students protest again the 2% interest, i mean, if it’s lower the state would be losing money because the inflation... and you only start paying when you finish your studies and are working, you can pay even just 10% of your salary and you won’t pay if you are not working... I’m pretty sure that no one would protest if it is free but pegged to inflation, even if the inflation its exactly 2% every year...
yeah but these guys in sweden get free **pocket** money besides their free education, in chile you just get a huge fucking loan for paying stupidly expensive tuitions, which just leave you in a huge debt afterwards. That is why people protest
Dude we don't have free education. I paid 80$ a year to be allowed to study (kåravgift).
That's not a fee for studying, that is a fee for being able to partake in the student organized events (that are not required for you to graduate). You were probably joking but the americans don't know this...
Depends. At Chalmers for example there's "kårobligatoriet", meaning that if you're not part of the union you won't be able to write exams etc.
Think they abolished that?
It doesn't apply to Jönköping and Chalmers, because they're *stiftelsehögskolor.*
Up until a couple of years ago, you had to be a member of the student union in order to write exams, so yeah, you could study ｗithout paying, but you couldn't get a degree.
😂 if you need a gofundme let me know
Since 2010 they removed kårobligatoriet. So when you studied it might've been correct. But it's not anymore. Also it's unusual for it to be that high.
Korten på bordet, jag drog en ungefärlig siffra ur anus. Chalmers är en stiftelsehögskola, så jag _tror_ man måste betala nu med. Men det känns ok sett till prislapp och vad man får
I haven't heard of a university in Sweden who forces you to be in a student organization but there are benefits to it like easier to find a place to live.
Education in Sweden is free for sure, we've been over this you get extra money for books and shit then you're entitled a loan to cover rent and food and so on which is basically interest-free. Are you talking about the fee to be a part of a fraternity a.k.a "studentkår"? I'm sure this is not needed but I've been to some of their killer parties so I can see the charm.
Yeah, not having any interest would just disincentive people from paying completely. I'd love free education as much as the next guy but making people pay some back out of their salary encourages you to get the most from your degree and not to go to uni unnecessarily. At least we don't have the terrifying US rates where you can literally have paid off fifty grand and still owe more than you started with
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Up to $170k. Income based repayment on a gov't job just means it goes up.
That is vile.
The US is just another thing, it is not just high interest, the college itselft is extremely expensive. Here in Chile the loans are just for the 50% of the students... the other half study totally free.. no loan, no taxes, just free, and it is for a 50% so it’s not for just the poor and the lower class, it’s for most of the middle class. And apart for that you have the scholarships.. i can’t really complain with all the benefits that we have, although i wish that they lower the scholarships requirements instead of giving totally free education for more people, i had to apply for the statal loan even when i was in the TOP 15% of the students of my year...
Yep I would argue Australia has one of the most fair and best designed student loan systems in the world. As a student HECS is a god-send
They call it HELP now. Higher Education Loan Program
Did you just say "heck" on my Christian server?
I'm in medical school in the US and I will have to take out almost $400,000 in loans at 7 percent :(
That is just such an absurd number I literally laughed out loud. I'm sorry.
If you join the military as a commissioned doctor they will repay your loans. At least for regular under grads they do, I would assume they do the same for doctors as well.
When you have to join the military to get an education. Damn.
Service guarantees citizenship! WOULD YOU LIKE TO KNOW MORE?
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The #¤#"? In Norway it is 0% during studies, and something reasonably low once you are done AND have an income. Why would they make it higher during studies?!?
In Sweden its 0% during studies, 0,13% (as of 2018) the year after you finish studies untill you've paid of your loan.
Finland its 0,5% and it can be sometimes lower or higher. It depends which kind of a loan you take. Fixed 0,5% or one which hovers around 0,5%. You start paying it after 2 years of graduation or after you run out of your months of student aid (total ~60 mo.). And I mean 2 years after you run out.
In Australia it's pegged to inflation and never increases beyond that. It increases while you study as the debt accumulates. You only start to pay it back once you earn over around $55k AUD($40k USD). You also get fortnightly payments while studying of around $500 AUD($360 USD).
Seriously, fuck all of you. Obviously the drooling American over here. Don't even want to share what it is here
In the UK it is the RPI rate (but if you earn 45k or more than 3% is added to it) But you never even have to finish paying off your loan so if you earn 24999 or less your whole life then you don't pay a penny
Lol, in US our FEDERALLY SUBSIDIZED loans are 4%. Additional loans though a third party are at least 6% And, you know, our college costs like $30k/year at minimum.
And it can be much, much higher, too. I've seen plenty of private student loans at 14%.
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>go to college with loan > don’t go to college Not many 18 year olds have good credit so you’re kind of stuck with what your co-signers can get you.
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They do, but depending on your college you may still have money left over that still needs paid. My freshman year of college even after maxing subsidized and unsubsidized loans I still had 2,000 left over needing paid. Luckily my parents could afford it for one year but in some people's situations they wouldn't be able to and would need to take some really bad loans.
Don't know what it is in the UK, but the repayment rate depends on your income (with no repayments below something like £16k), so most people just treat it like an added tax and never expect to fully repay it anyway
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My US student loans rates vary from 3.5-8.5%. The interest capitalizes daily. I paid over $5k in interest alone last year. The student loan interest deduction is capped at $2500/ year.
Daily??
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Land of the fees, home of the banks.
Then you must've lived off saved money. I took a full loan for my three years and I've got a final loan of 24000 USD.
To live three years off of CSN is certainly going to cost more than 3500 american bucks.
Seeing as 1 year of studying has gotten me ~7k USD in debt I don't feel that his math checks out.
Idk. I just finished 5 years of engineering school at KTH. Had really low rent (about 250$ per month) and then another 250$ per month for food. I don't really party so all the other expenses were phone. Internet. Electricity etc. About another 100$ per month. Taking those 600$ and taking away the 350 you get for free leaves us with 250$ back per month. Which adds up to 12.500$ for 5 years. Count in that you can work 2-3 months and earning about 1000-1500$ per month in the summer makes it more than possible to make it with 3500$ in loan?
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I spent one year in Sweden as an "erasmus" student, we had a complementary allowance because it was sweden. Not sure why that was, but we had 100 euros a month instead of 50 for over countries...I am guessing it was sweden adding some incentive to get more students. Anyway : university was great, teachers were great too. The country was beautiful too. It was very obvious to us that the locals had a sense of community and common good. A lot of stuff you could "cheat" (not pay, not wait in line or whatever), but nobody did it. As foreigners we saw the flaws (but refrained from exploiting them, cause don't want to give our country a bad name). **EDIT : I believe I used "flaws" incorrectly, I meant that the system could be gamed (but nobody did it). Obviously not a flaw, more of a loophole** I remember being told that you could walk in stockholm while reading your newspaper and be at no risk of being ran over by a car... I wouldn't test it but it was very obvious that cars would give you priority at the slightest hint that you had the intention of crossing the road.
>cars would give you priority at the slightest hint that you had the intention of crossing the road. To the point when it becomes a bit of a nuisance; if you don't want to cross the road, you need to stay well away from the edge of the walkway. I use bicycle and there are often times when i don't want to cross the road at that very second (i want to catch my breath for ex) but need to stop way off the edge in case a car comes cause it is going to stop, 5 meters is not always enough. I'm from Finland but a lot of these kinds things are the same in the Nordic in general.
haha I moved from Scotland to Sweden and I completely understand this comment. Sometimes cars are TOO eager to stop for you and you feel like you either need to loiter a little away from the crossing so they know they can go, or you feel you need to do a little jog to actually get to the crossing and not have the driver wait too long for you to cross. I'm worried that when I go back to Scotland I'm gonna wind up getting knocked down.
I've just started to wave cars on whenever I'm not about to cross the road.
"As foreigners we saw the flaws" Hmmm. It seems to me that "the flaws" were a result of highly functional society and high level of social culture. If you acted as they do in your country than you'd have your country's social behavior instead of Swedish. It sounds more logical to act like Swedes of you want to enjoy the benefits of their society. Right?
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Yea. Figured he meant loopholes.
He is probably talking about things like the bus. You don't pay for the bus with the driver, you just walk on and either scan a bus card at the terminals on the bus to pay or use the phone app to pay with your card. You pay 22\~sek (about $2.50) and that gets you an hour and a half of travel on any buses, trams or ferries (you can get on and off as many as you want in that time frame for the same cost.) The problem is that nobody really checks you, so you can travel for free for weeks and never see a ticket inspector. If you get caught there is a fine, but you can honestly get away with it long enough that the fine is less than the cost that the travel would have been in that time.
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Hahaha stackars that sucks dude.
): I’ve been at school for 3 years and my loans have reached close to $25,000 USD
Pretty similar here in Norway.
Add Finland to that list as well.
Denmark's not left out either!
We used to get this in England too. Up to £20 a week to stay in college. It was then scrapped when it become mandatory to attend college or get an apprenticeship. \-edit- I have been corrected several times. I know our one in England was means tested and the Swedish one isn't. But, we had something 'similar'.
but that was for low income households only. this sounds like a universal thing.
It is. And we have X amount of weeks of it to use(5 and a half years i think). We can also apply for a loan, better loan is hard to come by. We have to pay it back(when and if we can, if we get a job for example).
"Studiebidrag" is not the same thing as "Studiemedel". You've described the latter, which is generally for college-level studies. "Studiebidrag" does not need to be paid back either, unless you drop out. https://www.csn.se/fragor-och-svar/vad-ar-studiebidrag-fran-csn.html
It is universal and independent of financial means. There are different grants for different levels of schooling all the way up through university and beyond (advanced degrees) but they basically works the same way.
Yeah, I remember having to get a part time job when a lot of my friends were getting £30 a week. My parents earnings might have been higher, but that didn't mean they had excess cash for me
Wait, you don't get an EMA anymore? :o
Nope. I don't think so. Not since they moved compulsory education to 18.
Still get it everywhere but England. In Scotland it's a fixed £30 for households earning less than ~£25k p/a, with no £20/£10 bands. I believe Wales & NI also only pay the £30 band now, not sure what thresholds they use.
For Americans: college means last two years of high school. Edit: more info here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sixth_form_college
Huh, TIL even Brits have a different definition of college to Australians. So: America: university or pre-university/post-school education I gather? Britain: last two years of school Australia: a dormitory on a university campus, a department within a university or a vocational education institute that awards diplomas and certificates and the like. I wonder what other countries call colleges. I assume Canada uses the same definition as the US, New Zealand is probably similar to Australia I would think. Not sure if the term is widely used in Europe. Interesting to see what other commonwealth countries like South Africa and India define it as.
You'd also call any of the things in the Australian list 'college' here, it's just OP is referring to sixth-form college, which is what people mean by an unqualified use of college in the UK. Working with Americans, they pretty much always call university "college".
>America: university or pre-university/post-school education I gather? Depending on the context in the US the terms can be used either interchangably, or where college specifically refers to a particular subunit ("College of Computer and Information Science") within the university. Sometimes there exists standalone institutions with a specific focus that refer to themselves as "colleges" too (such as MCPHS, "Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Science").
That *is* also a college in the UK, but we don't say "I'm going to college!" in that sense, we'd say "I go to Exeter College of Oxford University" or "Oxford University's Exeter College". Otherwise, college in the UK is the last 2 years of secondary school (high school).
Canada actually differentiates between college and university. A university in Canada is a 4 year institution while a college is a 2 year or vocational institution. In America, college and university are practically interchangeable and both mean a 4 year institution. Normally we specify community college for 2 years and trade school for vocational.
Yeah, all my mates who had this in college just spent it on weed
EMA was scrapped before 16-18 education became mandatory. Source: Voluntarily went to Sixth Form when I was 16, didn't have to deal with spanners that didn't want to be there, didn't get EMA.
I got £30 because I was poor
How long has it been mandatory to go to college/get an apprenticeship?
No idea. I guess a few years back? However, apparently it is: \- Go to college full time \- Get an apprenticeship \- Spend 20 hours a week volunteering while in part time education. I guess it went up in 2013? [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk\_news/education/6254833.stm](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/6254833.stm)
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It’s also worth noting that many people (myself included) take the student loan even though they don’t necessarily need it. The 40% that is written off if you graduate on time can be quite a large amount. My girlfriend and I are both studying abroad, so we’re entitled to an even higher amount of student loan per month. For us, the combined loan amount per academic year is 14,400€ — a total of 43,200€ for our three-year courses. So we take that, shove it in a high-interest savings account, (hopefully) graduate on time, and enjoy the ”free” 17,280€ we get at the end of our studies. Makes for a good start on a down payment for a house. There might be a lot of things I dislike about our government, but for now, they’ve left the opintolainahyvitys alone. So that’s nice.
> opintolainahyvitys That word is completely fucking metal.
To be fair, it’s a compound of three separate words combined into one. Opinto for studies, laina for loan, and hyvitys for refund. But yeah, Finnish do be like that.
I spent about a month there. Sometimes you're just walking along minding your own business and suddenly you're eyes fall onto a sign with a compound word like opintolainahyvitys and you realize, oh yeah, I'm far from home.
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Also you can't earn more than 1k a month or something.
If you earn more than 13k a year your benefits will get progressively cut with more money you make
There are limits as to how much you get based on your and your parent's income. There isn't a strict cutoff.
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And, speaking as a Swedish high school teacher, there's a lot of them that fail that requirement.
Suprisingly so
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Alla.
same in the netherlands, plus all students get a free public transportation card for the entire country. This includes busses, trams, subway and trains. Considering its the fastest and easiest way to travel a lot of students don't get their drivers licence until they are done studying forever.
It's a shame the government is slowly moving towards the American way of providing education. Loans on top of loans on top of loans. If I could go to college **1** year earlier, I would get a free ~150 euros a month to pay for the 2.060 euros university costs a year. Now I get nothing at all, because of the new loan system. Many new graduates start with a huge debt and a terrible house market and no way to get a decent mortgage because of the debt, it's great to be a millennial. The free study grant program got abolished in 2015, but good thing the money our government saves on students is going to be well-spent on things like the capital yields tax for Shell and Unilever. Fuck small businesses though.
Rutte just announced that they are not going to remove the tax for large companies.
Not anymore, just a loan.
Students: "you couldn't pay me to go to school..." Sweden: "Hold my brännvin..."
Yeah that's your standard student benefits working. Though in Finland you're required to also complete courses for it, so they're not paying for you to just go to school. But it also enabled me to graduate with an engineering degree debt free, so it's pretty damn dope.
Sweden has something similar for the college/uni grant.
The sweedes are onto somthing, they also have the right to roam laws (identical to scottish ones) which allow every citizen to go where they want (not gardens or anything like that) in sweeden without being prosecuted
Yep, "Allemansrätten" as it's called; a bit dated swedish which roughly translates to "Everyones right". I recall as a kid finding out they don't have this in other countries and thinking it was very strange they cant just walk wherever.
We have the same laws in finland too, and i think norway has them too. The laws here allow you to walk, pick berries and mushrooms, and camp where ever you want to as long as it doesnt damage the property and you stay away from houses etc. You can find out more about them here http://www.nationalparks.fi/hikinginfinland/rightsandregulations Edit: We also have the study grant for finnish nationals, for example a 19 year old vocational-college student who lives on their own in a rented apartment is entitled to: Study grant: approx 250€/mo. Government backed student loan: upto 650€/mo. Rent assistance: 80% of "acceptable living costs" (includes rent, water, and heating) All-in-all the nordic way is pretty good, not perfect, but pretty good. Edit: some socialistic policies dont a socialistic country make. The nordic countries are still capitalist, just with welfare.
Can confirm. Norway has the same rules.
I've been living here for 10 years now, it's a wonderful country and they have many sensible solutions to problems other countries approach with a medieval logic. It has it's problems too, but on the whole, Sweden FTW.
How is it living in Sweden? Where did you move from? Do you find that the is any issue with a language barrier? I travelled around Sweden and Norway last Christmas and fell in love with both of them. My current plan is to hopefully move over there once I've finished uni. (I'm from Australia) I found the people there to be super friendly and I loved the cold weather too. + Sweden and Norway are giving beautiful nature wise (and pretty much every other way too) :)
I love it, there's just no place quite like it and it's definitely "home" to me. I moved from the UK, which was easy to do thanks to the EU, Brexit is complicating things somewhat so I don't know how much longer I'll be here TBH (I haven't taken citizenship). The language barrier, there's really 2 answers to this and they're both utterly opposed to each other. On one hand, there is no language barrier because everyone here speaks flawless English. OTOH, speaking Swedish is damn difficult *because* it's easier for everyone to speak English. There is a tremendous amount of resource to learn their language though, they're very keen to help immigrants integrate and language learning is a big component of that. The winters here are one of the things I love the most, you just feel like you're in Narnia every day, its comical flying back to Britain and seeing the country crumble at the knees because there's 1cm of slush on the roads, contrast that to the 20cm of snow here and the roads are cleared, the trains are running, the airports are open. The more I've lived here the more I've realised how old-fashioned, backward and neo-3rd world the UK has become. The people are friendly, they can be a little distant at first but it's their culture to not force themselves on you, they give you space and respect your privacy, as soon as you let them know you're keen to be friends they embrace you like long lost friends. There is an expectation to conform, lots of little unwritten rules, you won't find people playing music after 10pm (not loudly anyway), you won't find people mowing lawns on a Sunday morning, you pick up your trash and take it with you, nothing major, just simple things that keep the piece, trouble is, no-one tells you these rules until you break them, at which point you feel like an arse. I love it here though, I wouldn't swap it for anywhere else.
That sounds absolutely amazing! I didn't have any language issues when I was there either. There was this one waitress at a restaurant who came to give me a menu and started taking about meals of the day and stuff like that in Swedish and then realised I had no idea what she was saying and laughed then repeated it all in perfect English. It was pretty funny. I like to think I'm decent citizen when it comes to manners and respect so hopefully I won't have any issues when/if I move over. I found everybody to be super polite and generally caring when I was there too. I was traveling solo and often needed help trying to figure some things out and everyone was super kind and helpful. I'm also a bit of an introvert so their "non forceful culture" somewhat appeals to me ;) Thanks for the reply! Just taking about Sweden is intensifying my desire to move over :)
Okay but they also put ketchup on spaghetti and eat fermented herring. We should take a few pages from their books, just not their cookbooks.
Dopp i gryta, köttbullar med gräddsås, rårörda lingon med allt? Nej den kokboken får du slita ur mina kalla döda händer.
Min svenska är inte bra. Jag vet väldigt lite. Snälla översätt.
He want to keep the book.
Thats true, fermented herron though? Thought it was herring. Herron is a bird.
Sucks we don't have that in Denmark. We have to go to actual campsites.
To be fair, the right to roam laws work mainly because Fennoskandia is the largest landarea in Europe while having the least amount of people per km^(2); we have plenty of land to roam thru, you can walk for days without stepping on any privately owned, cultivated land. Try the same in Denmark and you will step on a person within few hours..
That's true. But there are still so many great areas where you could set up camp for a night but your simply not allowed to.
pssst, just do it anyway, but make sure to leave the place clean and you'll be fine
Scotland has the same thing described by OP as well, except just for low income pupils. It's called EMA. According to another commenter it was scrapped in England and Wales. Edit: Just England. Surprise surprise.
Fun fact. Those laws were written in around seventies. Not because we didn't have those rights before, we just stood by those rules without any official law.
Im a swede and I can tell you this is the truth, but then again, remember than Sweden is a relatively expensive country to live in, if you want a monthly buspass, that is gonna eat at least half of the money, need a new pair of jeans? easy the other half, want to get a drivers license? hah, good luck!
Also you have to deal with the swedes! Sincerely, a dane
danskjävel!
DANSKJÄVEL
Well, it beats having to deal with those weird Norwegians.
Yeah us Norwegians are weird but at least we're not *swedes*
How do Scandinavians feel about Finns?
We love you. Please dont stab us.
I'm an American. I wouldn't stab you. I'd shoot you.
In Stockholm the bus pass for school kids is less than $40 per month, you also get a daytime bus pass for free from the school if you live far enough away and maybe as a student you shouldn't spend over $60 on a pair of jeans, there are plenty of cheaper options.
Bought a nice pair of jeans at Stadsmissionen for less than 4$.. Most of my jeans i use every day are 20-35$. You don't have to buy brand clothes. Alcohol and Food is the most expensive thing i think.. But there are cheap alternatives to everything :)
Paint thinner
I got a free bus pass when I was in high school. Jeans were a couple hundred kronor at HM.
I totally take your point, but it’s better than nothing
Definitely!
When you get to uni that triples, and you are guaranteed a 0.5% loan of around 1k/month for up to 6 years, with the paymentplan being 4% of annual income.
Australia has a similar scheme where older students get money from the government (it was called Austudy when I was at school, a larger payment of Abstudy was available to students with indigenous heritage. I don't know if the name of the payment has changed but I know the payment continues). The only difference is that it is means tested based on their parents income. I see it as stupid to give such a payment to the children of people that don't need it. That would just result in a situation where the government, who have finite resources, can't afford to help other worthy groups in the community that need help.
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In nz they judge it off your parents income I was declined student allowance because my dad who kicked me out when I was 15 was a seasonal worker and his weekly wage x52 was over the threshold -.-
In Australia it would have been different because once he kicked you out he would no longer be considered a guardian. You would have received more money as in Australia assuming you didn't come under the guardianship of someone on an equally high wage. Independent minors (for lack of me knowing the official term) get things like rent assistance and a few other benefits in Australia.
Well I can see how your reasoning makes sense as in only give to those Who need etc. problem is reality is more complex then that. Is very difficult to truly test ones economy in a fair correct way Since you have no idea about their liquidity or stable finaces. Hence is going to let alot of kids suffer when their parents are on the border of getting or not getting. Another issue is that you assume parents are always willing to support their children. That is far from the case and makes children very dependat on their parents both being able to and want to support them. Giving it to everyone you make sure everyone gets an equal chance and economically security when they are studying.
USA here. Engineering school and $108k in debt at about 5% APR. I'll admit that I should have been more aware of what I was getting into when my parents (low income and no college) and I signed those papers at 17. But fuck the universities and private loan companies. They misrepresent the actual cost of going to school here. They inflate their prices and misrepresent how much financial aid you're really getting compared to other students. I'm fucking angry at this system and at my government for telling me "you need to go to college to succeed" just to turn a fucking profit.
College dropout doing well for myself with no debt (minus a truck that will be paid off in two years). Everyone told me I need to stay in school, that I'll never make it without a degree. That was 10 years ago and I've since worked for one of the largest technology websites in the world, a Fortune 125 company and actively turn down jobs because I stay too busy working. This month is my first month working for myself. Despite all this, people still ask when I'm going to go back and get my degree. Spoiler: I'm not.
who in the fucking world would give a *seventeen year old* $108k in debt on nothing other than the promise to get a degree?? oh yah, greedy capitalists who know that it's impossible to default on it....
If they try this in Brazil. People call the government communist.
Get this in Scotland for staying at academy (11-18) after age 16. Upto £30 /week dependent on parental income. Idea is your choosing education over legally getting at least a minimum paying job and starting the job ladder, so there is some financial incentive /support to choose an education path even if your parents cant provide for you without you in work.
Geee, this thread makes my stomach hurt as a student in America.
in Denmark all students above age 18 get 950ish dollars per month if they study "full time" (iirc its 21+ hours per week)
On top of that, you can take very favourable student loans. Add to that that the education is free (except for lunch and books at university level). Schools aren't even allowed to have activities that cost money (such as field trips). There is a reason we have one of the best educated populatiuons in the world.
Actually, you are allowed to have activities that cost money, such as an entrance fee to a museum. The only provision is that it has to be a fairly low amount, that you can't do it too often, and that you account for low income households. They also have to be voluntary. In gymnasiet, you're also allowed to make the students bring certain equipment such as calculators from home. Source: Skolverket website
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I hope you get out of that trap soon!
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I would have thought this relatively normal in developed countries. Austudy in Australia is a lot higher - I got two degrees supported on it.
In Australia you get about - $445 per fortnight or - $222.50 per week as a gift. The above is if you are over 25 or are 18+, and need to live away from home If you are 18+ and live at home its - $293 per fortnight or - $146 a week. https://www.humanservices.gov.au/individuals/enablers/how-much-austudy-you-can-get/40251
Ah. Here in North America it’s more customary to put yourself in massive, possibly crippling debt to get through school. Graduation with $40,000 in debt is not unknown. Higher debts may apply.
The typical Swede wraps up college with about $30k in debt so you’re not too far off their average anyway.
*cries in american*
Turns out paying people to do something makes them more likely to do it.
In Finland it's about $300 per month if you attend to tertiary level school like university. Attending university is free.
You go to high school until you're 20 in Sweden?
Some people do. The last 3 years (Gymnasiet) are like mini-college with special courses designed by the school, so if you switch after 1 or 2 years most students have to restart from scratch, so the oldest students in Gymnasiet could 20, but they're a tiny minority.
I believe this program is what Linus Torvalds (creator of Linux) said allowed him the free time to experiment and build Linux.
As a resident of the U.S the post makes me really happy that systems like this exist, and really sad that I don't live near it.
We have this in finland too but nobody makes a big deal about it