Norwegian School of Economics

What student life feels like is decided mostly by structure rather than by atmosphere: the rhythm of the teaching week, whether work is assessed continuously or in concentrated periods, how much of it is done in groups, and whether your cohort moves through courses together or separately. Ask the institution how the programme you are considering is organised, since students at the same institution can have entirely different weeks. Ask as well what the year looks like outside teaching periods, because that determines when you could travel, take work or simply rest.

Then ask who organises everything that is not teaching. Associations, clubs and sport may be run by the institution or by an independent student body, and knowing which shapes both how you join in and who you approach when you want something. Ask whether an introductory period is arranged for new students, what facilities are available and to whom, and how students on your programme usually meet outside class. Establish, too, which language teaching, assessment and routine administration take place in, since those need not match. Our general notes on what shapes student life cover the parts that travel between institutions. The part most people underestimate is building a social circle from nothing.

Accommodation deserves attention before an offer arrives rather than after it. Establish who provides student housing in relation to this institution, whether that is the institution itself, a separate housing organisation it works alongside, or the open market. Establish when the process opens and how it relates to the admissions timetable, because the calendars do not always run together. Ask what an application requires, how allocation is decided, and what options remain for someone who applies once the main round is over. Accommodation or student services staff are the right people to ask, and there is no advantage anywhere in waiting.

The details that decide whether an arrangement suits you are contractual rather than atmospheric: the period covered, what is included and what is billed separately, deposit arrangements and how a deposit is returned, whether the room comes furnished, notice periods, and what happens during holidays. Ask how long it takes to reach teaching from the accommodation offered, and ask what needs to be arranged before travelling if you are coming from another country. Sharing brings its own arrangements to agree in advance, which is the subject of handling money with flatmates. The wider process is set out in our housing overview.

An applicant coming from another country is mainly establishing which rules apply to them, not learning a system in the abstract. The categories to work through are entry and residence formalities, local registration after arrival, health cover and how it is obtained, recognition or translation of the qualifications you already hold, any evidence of language ability your programme expects, and whether working alongside study is available to you. This page states nothing about any of them, because the answers depend on your circumstances and are held by other people.

Take each category to the institution's international office and to the relevant official authority, ask them to confirm what applies in your case, and keep the replies. Where an answer depends on which category an institution or an authority places you in, ask which category that is rather than deciding for yourself from something you read elsewhere. Timelines matter as much as rules, so ask how long each step usually takes from their side and build your plan backwards from the start of teaching, with room left for delay.

The softer questions are worth asking in the same message: what is arranged for students who are new to the country, whether anyone is available to help when an administrative problem appears, and how students who arrive without local contacts usually find their footing. Moving countries is a sequence of small unfamiliar tasks rather than a single large one, and it is easier when the order is written down, which is what preparing to study abroad tries to give you.

No entry criteria appear here, and none should. Criteria belong to the institution, differ between programmes and levels, and are revised, so the only usable version is the one the institution publishes for the intake you would be joining. Read it in full, note anything that is unclear, and put those points to the admissions office directly rather than interpreting them yourself. If your previous study was completed elsewhere, ask how it will be assessed and by whom, rather than assuming an equivalence that may not exist.

Then run the process as a project. Establish where an application is submitted and in what form, what the cycle looks like from opening to decision, what documents are expected, whether anything has to be certified or translated, how you will be told the outcome, and what recourse exists if something goes astray. Keep copies and keep dates. Anything you read about entry outside the institution's own pages, including on this site, is a reason to check with the institution rather than a substitute for checking.

This page shows no fees, on purpose. Amounts are the institution's to publish, they change, and they can depend on the programme, the level and the category an applicant is placed in, so anything reproduced here could easily be wrong for you. The caution worth carrying into any fee page you read is this: what is displayed may be tuition, or it may be a semester registration charge, and those are not the same thing. Whether a student is charged at all may itself depend on the category they fall into, which is a question for the institution rather than an assumption to make on your own.

Work from the institution's own fee pages for the year you would begin, and ask admissions or the international office to confirm which category applies to you and what follows from it. Ask what an amount covers, what period it covers, what sits outside it, when it is due and what happens if something in your situation changes. Then place it next to what living there is likely to cost, which is a separate matter the institution does not control. Keeping those apart is what makes a budget honest, and managing money as a student starts from exactly that separation.