Hello everyone, I’m here to write another article! Let’s talk about this article: What should I do after being admitted to a Swedish university?
The first thing is to apply for accommodation!
Recently, I have seen many friends receive admission notices one after another, congratulations to everyone! One of the most important things next is where you will live, how you will live, and who you will live with. This is really important, because you may spend half of your time in Sweden in the dormitory. Choosing the right dormitory can make your study abroad life much smoother. The author studied and lived in Lund, so the following experience is mainly based on Lund! Of course, I think Gothenburg and Stockholm can also be used as references! Welcome to leave me a message to supplement!
Let’s talk about the choice of room type first: Three common dormitory room types for Swedish students
No matter which accommodation you choose, the room types you will face in the end are mainly the following three categories:
🛏️ Corridor Room
Usually 8 to 10 people live on one floor, each in a room. Some corridors have private bathrooms, some have shared bathrooms, but all have shared kitchens and living rooms. Corridor rooms are very suitable for socializing. The kitchen is the social center. Everyone cooks and chats at night or on weekends. On weekends, you can also organize some corridor activities. The atmosphere is particularly good.
🏢 Apartment
Two or three people live in an apartment, each with a room, and share a kitchen and bathroom. This is like sharing a house with friends in China, with more privacy but less interaction. It is suitable for living with familiar friends.
🚪 Studio (single suite)
You live alone, with a kitchen, bathroom, and bed in a room of about 25 square meters. It sounds good, haha, but I have to remind you that living in a studio can be very lonely sometimes. The loneliness in Sweden is not the kind of loneliness in China, “It’s very lively outside but I can choose to be alone” – it is really very, very lonely. Especially in winter, it gets dark early, you don’t go out, no one to chat with or meet, and it feels really easy to get depressed. I remember when I went to a classmate’s studio to play, he said to us after entering the door: “Ah, it’s great that you are here, finally someone came to see me.” So I personally don’t recommend that you live in a studio in your first year, unless you are the type who likes to be alone and really doesn’t need to socialize. The author has never lived in a studio! So there are no pictures!
OK, after talking about the room type, let’s talk about the choice of landlords. Generally speaking, there are about three options in Lund, Sweden:
The first one: LU Accommodation (school dormitory)
I strongly recommend that you apply for this in your first year. Why? It’s very simple. You will meet a lot of friends.
LU Accommodation is the official dormitory provided by the school, and all the people living there are international students. Swedes cannot live in LU ACC! In other words, everyone has just arrived in Sweden, and they are all newcomers. No one knows each other, and everyone is looking for friends, which makes it very easy to socialize. You won’t have that feeling of “I am left behind”.
When I lived in LUACC, my roommates included Japanese, French, Egyptian, American, Colombian, Malaysian, German, Iranian, and Chinese. It was really rich. We often cooked together, ate hot pot together, celebrated festivals together, and went hiking together. It was really fun.
And you should know that Sweden is quite different from the UK and Australia. In the UK and Australia, many dormitories are full of Chinese people, but Lund is really international. Living there, you can feel the culture of different countries, which is very interesting. I strongly recommend everyone to live in the corridor room of LU ACC in the first year!
But LUACC also has disadvantages, the biggest disadvantage is that it is expensive! And I found that it is a bit outrageous recently, and it may be one-third more expensive than Afb we will talk about later! So I suggest that you live in LUACC in the first year, and then transfer to Afb.
Second: AFB (local student dormitory)
AFB is a local student dormitory company that provides housing for students of Lund University (you must provide proof of enrollment when applying). Its advantages are also obvious, that is, large area and cheap.
Especially if you draw a freshman bonus, the price is really cost-effective. Another good thing is that some houses in the AFB corridor do not need to be paid during the summer vacation, and only nine months of rent are charged out of twelve months a year, which can save more than 10,000 yuan, which is really a lot.
But its problems are also quite obvious. First, the houses are generally old, and some public areas are not very clean. Second, the social atmosphere is poor. Because many of AFB’s roommates are Swedish, they are locals themselves, they don’t need to make new friends, and they are not likely to chat with you. At most, they nod and say hi to you, and basically live their own lives.
So if you are the type who wants to meet a lot of people and participate in activities in the first year, then AFB may be a little lonely. But this also depends on fate. Maybe the old Rui that the author met is like this. They really don’t stay in the dormitory on weekends, so this corridor has become our base for Chinese people! Every week, the author will invite many friends to my living room to eat hot pot and play board games, haha!
In fact, Afb is not as bad as the author describes, but the social atmosphere is a little lower. You can live in Luacc in the first year and live in Afb in the second year. After all, it is really cheap!
The third option: rent a house by yourself
I have one sentence for this option: don’t do it in the first year.
You are unfamiliar with the place and don’t know where is safe and where is a pitfall; you can’t see the real thing in China; more importantly, there are too many scammers on the Internet. If you are cheated once, you will really lose everything. A doctoral friend of mine was cheated of 9,000 kronor (manual dog head).
So my personal suggestion is to apply for school dormitories in the first year. If you really want to change in the second year, wait until you are familiar with the environment.
Finally, let me briefly summarize
Live in LU Accommodation in your first year, make friends, integrate into the environment, and the atmosphere is very good.
In your second year, you can consider moving to AFB, which is also good for saving some money.
Renting a house by yourself? Don’t consider it for the first year, unless you have relatives or friends who can help you get it offline.
That’s it, hope it helps everyone! !
If you have received the admission notice, you should start paying attention to the dormitory application now. Don’t delay it, or you will have nowhere to live!
We will talk next time~ Please bookmark this site, thank you for your support!!!
