ARNStockholm · SEExchange destination
Spread across fourteen islands, Stockholm pairs Nordic design and world-class universities with long summer nights and a laid-back student culture that revolves around fika and the archipelago.
Sweden avg / mo
€850–1,300
Languages
Swedish (everyone speaks English)
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c/o Stockholm group chat · Fall 2026
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City Guide
Stockholm hands you a rare mix: a genuinely international student scene, English spoken everywhere, and campuses like KTH and Stockholm University that plug straight into Sweden's start-up and research world. The city is compact, clean and walkable, wrapped in water you can swim in by summer. It is pricey, but the trade-off is safety, efficiency and a semester surrounded by nature.
Student life clusters around the union houses, THS at KTH and the SU student union, which run sittningar (structured dinner parties with singing), pub nights and welcome weeks. Sodermalm is the epicentre for going out, with everything from dive bars to clubs around Medborgarplatsen. Expect earlier nights too, as many head home before the metro thins out around 3am.
Stockholm is the priciest city in this guide, so budget roughly 10,000-14,000 SEK (about 900-1,300 euros) a month once you add student housing, an SL pass and eating out. Rent is the big line item, with a student room running 4,500-7,000 SEK. You will save a lot by cooking, buying the weekday dagens lunch deal, and using a Mecenat or Studentkortet card for discounts.
Housing is the hard part, as Stockholm has a notorious shortage, so lock in a room before you arrive. SSSB is the main student housing foundation, but exchange students are usually placed through their host university's housing office, such as KTH Accommodation or SU Housing. Never pay a deposit for a flat you have not seen, as second-hand (andrahand) scams are common.
The SL network of tunnelbana (metro), commuter trains, trams, buses and ferries covers the whole region on one ticket. Load a 30-day pass onto the SL app or an SL Access card; the reduced student fare is around 680 SEK a month if you register your student status. The T-bana is fast, and its art-gallery stations are worth the ride alone, though central Stockholm is small enough to walk or cycle.
Sweden's academic style is flat and independent: you are on first-name terms with professors, group work is constant, and deadlines matter more than exams. KTH is the go-to for engineering and tech, Stockholm University for social sciences and humanities, the Stockholm School of Economics for business, and Karolinska for medicine and life sciences. Expect fewer contact hours than back home and a lot of self-directed reading.
It depends on your nationality. EU, EEA, and Swiss students need no visa or residence permit and have full right to study and stay. Non-EU students staying over 90 days need a residence permit for studies from the Swedish Migration Agency (Migrationsverket), applied for online before arrival, with proof of admission, funds, and comprehensive health insurance.
Apply as early as possible, as processing can take weeks or months in peak season. You'll also want to sort a Swedish personal number (personnummer) if you're staying a full year, as it unlocks banking, healthcare, and many services, though shorter stays can get by with a coordination number instead. Keep digital copies of everything.
Daily life runs on fika, a coffee-and-cinnamon-bun (kanelbulle) break that is practically a civic duty. Classic husmanskost means kottbullar (meatballs), toast skagen and pickled herring, but Stockholm's food scene is deeply international too. Duck into the historic food halls to graze and pick up ingredients.
Sodermalm (Soder) is the hip, hilly island of vintage shops, cafes and viewpoints; Ostermalm is polished and pricey; Vasastan and Kungsholmen are calmer and residential; and Gamla Stan is the postcard old town you pass through but rarely live in. Student housing tends to sit further out, like Lappkarrsberget near SU or Kista near the tech campuses.
Stockholm is a springboard. Uppsala is 40 minutes by train, the archipelago's 30,000 islands are a Waxholmsbolaget ferry away, and overnight cruises to Helsinki or Tallinn are a classic cheap student weekend. Gotland's medieval Visby is a summer must, and Gothenburg is three hours by fast train.
A few things catch newcomers out: Systembolaget's short hours, the total reliance on cards and Swish, and just how dark December gets. Sundays are quiet, recycling is taken seriously, and Swedes value personal space, so do not sit next to a stranger on the bus if another seat is free.
Student Reviews
“The city is great and every street is beautiful. You can do almost the whole city by feet, but transportations are very useful and easy, plus metro station are unique and very artistic. The transport card is a bit expensive nevertheless. But there is also the tramway which is fun, and the ferry. The cost of living is high, like prepare 500€ per month (without the rent). I recommend to try as much as possible to have an accommodation proposed by the university, because rent is very high. The city is very very safe. The weather can be hard, because from November, sunset is early (3PM in December), and it starts to be under 0° in mid-November, so prepare ski and thermic cloths! You will miss the sun but everyone has cozy lights in their rooms! The food is great, especially salmon. You can eat healthy easily, and have plenty of eating sports around the city 7 Eleven, Bröd & Salt, Presbyran,...). You can try the local fast food Max that is great. There are plenty of activities to do in Stockholm (parks, exhibitions, museums, bars, clubs, shops,...), I recommend Södermalm which is the best neighbourhood, for restaurants, shops and bars!”
“very safe but very expensive, use the app Mercenat to check some student discount in restaurant or museums, some museums have also hours when it is open and free If you want to organize camping or others outdoors activities but you don't have materials check the Fritidsbanken Skärholmen: you can rent stuff for 14 days for free very practical A lot of nice coffee place, especially close to Odenplan If you take the monthly SL subscription for public transport you can go to vaxholm by boat (it is in the subscription) and it is very nice”
“Transports nickel tj à l'heure et vrm pas bruyant · coût de la vie plutôt cher prévoir pas mal de thune · ville 100% safe aucune galère même dans les gares · temps plutôt clément malgré les idées reçues (0-8 degrés en moyenne sur le séjour) · nourriture bonne (fika et boulette de viande à tester)”
“Its nice to live with other students and be connected. The kitchen can get messy and sometimes I am annoyed that it takes me 30 min to get to the city center. They are super slow with repairing stuff (if they do). Overall, its very nice and practical to live in student housing tho”
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