Studera utomlands

Hoi!

I like to think that I managed the start of my exchange to Leiden pretty well, but it wasn’t that smooth. So here are some tips about how to take care of the most confusing/important points during preparation, and I hope it’ll be useful for people who wants to go to Leiden in the future.

1. Arrange your housing early

Finding housing in the Netherlands is notoriously difficult. I was lucky enough to find a room through Leiden University, but I looked into other options as well, like student housing and private renting sites.

Usually exchange students have some priority in queue when applying for housing via the university, but still, it’s not for certain that you’ll be able to secure a place.

For example, I also registered for Room.nl, which is a student housing platform. After registration, your own queue days will be counted according to how long you’ve registered. You can apply for any room you want, but usually it’s given to the applicant with the longest queue days. There are also some rooms that are given to the first person who respond to the ad (also called ‘direct offer’), so you have to check out for the offers constantly.

Overall it’s quite complicated, I was so glad that I found a place here – and it’s even got its own balcony (sort of) and an additional package with bed linen, tablecloth, kitchen towel and a recipe book.

2. Student cards (yes, plural)

Since I’m studying at LUMC, the medical centre, I got two student cards! There’s a LU card, which is the official Leiden University student card. It’s the library card and university pass. And there’s also the LUMC card, specifically for the hospital. The LUMC card is most often used, because most of our lectures and workgroup sessions are held at the hospital site.

One thing to remember about getting the LU card here is that you must upload a photo to the student portal for the card. Unlike KI, the card will be directly sent to your address in the Netherlands, not picked up on campus. And delivery takes time, so it’s usually better to upload the photo for your LU card before arrival.

For the LUMC card the process is mostly the same. But instead of receiving your card by post, you’ll have to pick it up on the faculty morning, which is part of the intro week activities.

Also, there’s a deadline for uploading the photo. If you miss it, you won’t be able to pick up your card during faculty morning. I barely met the deadline because I didn’t realise that I need to activate my account before uploading my photo.

3. Travelling and packing

It’s of course possible to travel green and take the trains from Stockholm to Leiden, and this way you’ll be eligible for green travel grant.

But I found that if I were to travel by train, I’d have to change at least three times and it would take at least 20 hours. Then I looked at my heavy baggage and decided that I probably couldn’t manage it myself.

If you’re travelling by plane like I did, booking the flight early is definitely a good idea. Check for student discounts before booking your ticket, then check the luggage size and see if you need book additional luggage space.

In my experience, I always pack more than I actually need. So don’t put everything into the suitcase, consider whether something is absolutely necessary before stuffing it into your suitcase. I tried to travel light and get rid of everything I might not need, but in the end, I still had about 46 kg luggage to carry.

Here’s a list of things you probably don’t need:

• Shower gels, toothpaste, toothbrush, etc. (you can buy them after arriving at your new home)
• Summer clothing (since I’m on exchange in the autumn semester)
• Books (too heavy!)
• Duvet, pillow, pillowcase, duvet cover, etc. (I got them from the housing. Otherwise, you can always buy them here)

Here’s a list of things that you do need:

• Power banks, cables, etc.
• Personal medication
• Passport, birth certificate, rental agreement, acceptance letter and other documents (necessary for town hall registration)
• Bank card and cash in euros

And this is it! There’s probably an after-arrival guide coming. Hope to see you around!

Xilin