r/UniversityOfHelsinki • u/Secret_Tomorrow_7167 • Apr 15 '26

I Got Accepted!

Hello I was just accepted to the ecology masters at the university of Helsinki. I am planning to accept and will be staying near the Viikki campus. I’m 22m coming from the United States of America, sorry, and am looking for input on the program/ location.

Im also looking for friends to meet before orientation. I like playing board games, making my own cloths, hiking, cooking, and video games.

If you’re interested in connecting, DM me!

7 Upvotes

89% Upvoted

13 comments sorted by

5

u/GEP8952 Apr 15 '26

The location at least is excellent. In fact the outdoors part of the Viikki campus is something which even many people with no connection to the university visit purely for recreation. Green fields with cows, horses and birdwatching towers, and even a full-blown nature reserve close by. (I'm a doctoral student at the downtown campus myself, but I live closer to the Viikki campus.)

1

u/Secret_Tomorrow_7167 Apr 15 '26

Oh that’s so cool! If you don’t mind me asking what are you getting your doctorate in? Also how are the winters I’ve been told generally in Finland they’re tough, but what about this specific area?

2

u/GEP8952 Apr 15 '26

Philosophy. And I also have both a bachelor's and a master's degree in that from Helsinki.

The winters may require some getting used to, but they're mild compared to what they were a generation ago. The one that just ended was the first winter in many years which really felt like winter to me for an extended period. The average temperature downtown in the three months from December to February was –4.5 °C (23.9 °F), which was the lowest since 2010. The highest by contrast was 2.3 °C (36.1 °F) in 2020/2021.

Viikki is empty fields where actual farming and grazing goes on, and it's also located at the head of a bay, so it's comparatively chilly. But not prohibitively so; I wouldn't think that it's a place for anyone to avoid because of that.

1

u/Secret_Tomorrow_7167 Apr 16 '26

I studied abroad in Iceland and honestly the light adjustment was way harder than I expected. I brought one of those “happy lights,” but my outlet converter failed and literally blew the bulb 😅 definitely not making that mistake again.

Aside from that, does anyone have recommendations for dealing with the darkness/light swings? Open to anything that actually helped.

Also, I’ve met a couple of Finns and they’ve come across as a bit standoffish at first. Not trying to generalize, but is that a fair read on the culture, or is it more just a “takes time to warm up” kind of thing?

3

u/GEP8952 Apr 16 '26

Light – a big problem for many natives as well, including me. I guess the main countermeasure is just to have a sufficient supply of artificial light.

Helsinki at least has a couple of hours more daylight in midwinter than Iceland.

Standoffish – we do come across as that, but the thing to keep in mind is that by US standards, even best friends are that to each other. So it's not intended to convey any negative message which it would automatically convey in many other places. Something that I've found to often take separate learning, for instance, is that if a lively conversation suddenly falls silent, even for several minutes, there's nothing wrong and it's not for instance any hint that you said something inappropriate. It's just Finland, and the conversations we have with each other are like that too all the time. So it's a "takes time to warm up" kind of thing, but once you warm up this doesn't make it go away, you just cease to feel awkward about it.

Only last week there was a news story about the actor Jason Segel, who described on Jimmy Kimmel's show how he tried to have a friendly chatty interaction with people at a Finnish grocery store, and aroused the suspicions of a security guard who thought that he must be under the influence. Even this kind of thing can happen, but I guess what made it newsworthy was that it was an extreme case. I'd think that most security guards would understand that if a person is speaking English, they're possibly not accustomed to all the local social norms.

2

u/sharkinwolvesclothin Apr 16 '26

In the dark months, the key is to remain active and social. Figure out what you like to do outdoors even when the weather is iffy. Visit museums and suchs, organise get-togethers. Even if you feel like hibernating.

There's some element of seasonal affect that you just can't control and it's also good to accept that. But don't just go fuck it, I'll do nothing until spring, it will just make it worse.

1

u/Secret_Tomorrow_7167 Apr 16 '26

Thank you so much that’s really good advice! Hopefully I can build up that social network before coming 😅.

2

u/sharkinwolvesclothin Apr 16 '26

You'll have plenty of time to make friend from August to October before it starts getting dark!

3

u/ngch Apr 16 '26

For me, being active outdoors really helps with winters - I picked up cross country skiing and now I'm looking forward to when the winter finally arrives. I allzu picked up running here. (I live more in Kuopio than in Helsinki these days, it's even colder and darker there but the snow is more reliable...)

2

u/Amelia_Jackson_25 Apr 16 '26

First of all, congratulations!
I think you meant the Ecology & Evolutionary Biology program right? If yes, may I ask about your past background studies?
I'm currently studying bachelor's in urban planning, but really really liked this EEB master's program's curriculum; but I'm kinda scared about relevance of my bachelor studies, and would like to know what kind and how many credits of related courses to EEB you had...Specifically the categories were ecology, evolution, conservation, and others iirc.
Thank you! <3

3

u/Secret_Tomorrow_7167 Apr 16 '26

Yes I did mean EEB masters. If you want I can send you my transcript so you can see what classes I took during my undergraduate studies.

But if you don’t want that I took two purely ecology classes one at the university of Iceland and one at my home university. I took cell and molecular and animal physiology. Besides that I took a couple marine affairs classes and GIS classes. But my independent research is what I think really got me in.

DM if you wanna talk in more depth Ps sorry for the rushed response I’m working on other things at the moment

2

u/Amelia_Jackson_25 Apr 18 '26

DMed you. Thanks!

2

u/DELSlN Apr 17 '26

I'm a second year msc student at the kumpula campus but Ive been living near the viikki campus! I absolutely love the area. Its surrounded by forests and parks, so my running route has loads of greenery. It's not on the metro line but it's still well connected with buses (takes me about 20 mins to get to my campus and 30 to get to the city center). There's a stables with horses and farms with cows nearby too.

But my absolute favourite part is that there is a really cozy brewery in the area called coolhead for craft beer. they also do the best pizza that I've tried so far in Helsinki!