I assume tertiary education is the same as higher education(?). It is almost free here in Norway. There's an entrance fee of about 100 dollars each semester which gets you your semester card, but that's all you really have to pay. In addition, you can get a students loan from the government and, if you pass your exams, you only have to pay back 60%. So, if you get 50 000 dollars student loan over the years, that means the government will have given you 20 000 dollars unless you've been a lazy ass with your studies.

What you have to do to qualify for a specific education depends on what education you're getting. Some previous education in natural sciences may be required f.ex if you want to study biology, for example some high school equivalent courses in biology, physics or chemistry.

Getting into higher education is usually not hard unless you're talking med school which has many more applicants than they can take in.

edit :

As far as I know, there's a policy that all university courses shall be available in english. I've had a lot of foreign lecturers over the years. Just how good the english education is varies with lecturer, course and location .. Up in the arctic, they were very good at it!

Thanks for the help you two. :) The info you've given me is very useful.
It sounds crazy to my parents, but I'm actually considering studying abroad. Having to pay 80% of a loan as opposed to 20% interest just seems too appealing to pass up.
Again, thanks a bundle. :D

You're welcome :) I think you can get a lot from studying abroad aside from an education so it's definetly something to consider. I never did go abroad, but I did move to Svalbard to study which I would warmly recommend to anyone interested in arctic engineering, pollution, biology, geology, whatever!

Do you know what you're gonna study yet?

I can't wait for the world cup, mmmm... sweaty men in uniform

if anybody wants to know about life in Budapest then hit me up with Q's. i'm not a native but i've been living here almost 3 years now...

while i'm here i wonder if anyone has dual citizenship. always been curious about the idea.

someone ask me a question! i feel left out.

Brooklyn New York.
Been to Budapest Noise, great city.

I don't have a dual citizenship, but in the Spanish and Portuguese-speaking countries that's quite common, since there are dual-citizenship treaties among them. There always have been very strong migrations in these countries. For instance, between Spain and Latin America, in both senses. And for example, a Latin American (including Brazilians) can acquire the Spanish citizenship (without renouncing the other one) after two years of legal residence in Spain.

i assume there is still an exam involved, or is it as simple as filling out a form?
i'm considering getting dual citizenship. i think that holding both a US passport and an EU passport would be very valuable in years to come...

In Spain, just the usual administrative paperwork and an oath of obedience to the Constitution. But I know in other European countries there are exams and other procedures. Anyway, what is sure is that once you have a EU country's nationality, you can freely travel, live or work in any other country of the Union with the same basic rights the locals have.

Psychology and sociology. I'm on the fence about what I'm going to minor in and what I'm going to major in.

And I think I'll pass on moving to the northernmost settlement on earth. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't survive the cold.

Psychology and sociology? That's pretty cool. I always found them so opposing at uni. One being about the internal, the other about the external. Brain vs. society. One of my majors ended up being sociology, but psych took up wayyy too much of my time so I didn't end up majoring in it.

I have citizenship in both Canada and the US. I was born in Detroit. My parents were living in Windsor, Ontario at the time. Before 1998, I think, if you were born in the US or in a Commonwealth country to one parent with Canadian citizenship, you automatically received it as well as citizenship in the country you were born in. They don't do that anymore, but it's easier for that child to get Canadian citizenship as opposed to somebody who doesn't have Canadian parents.

Dual citizenship offers a lot of opportunities to the person. For example, when I was choosing post-secondary schools to apply to, I had an extensive choice of schools all over Canada and the US. I chose a school in a city just west of Toronto because it offered the kind of program and degree that I want. If I chose an American school, I wouldn't have to pay the international tuition fee. If you have citizenship, they consider you a domestic student. You don't need an address in the US. I believe it works the same for Canada. I'm thinking about grad school in the US because their graduate music programs (Master of Music and/or a PhD in the field of music) come from schools with more credibility, like Berklee College of Music or Juilliard (though it's very hard to get into Juilliard). Though the University of Toronto has an excellent grad program in music, if I decide to stay in Canada.

Dual citizenship also offers you the opportunity to live and/or work in either country without having to get a Visa, of course. Sometimes both, but of course this only works if the cities are close to each other. For example, if you live in Niagara Falls, NY, you could work in Niagara Falls, ON. My parents were living in Windsor and my mom was working in Detroit (both cities are situated on the Detroit River).

I'm not sure about being able to vote in both countries though. I think you need to have a valid address in a constituency in the other country to be able to participate in elections.

I have dual. Australian and Italian/ EU. Although my dad was born in Australia he is Italian which meant I could get an Italian passport. Italy is part of the European Union as well which means I can live and work as a citizen anywhere in the European Union. I haven't used this advantage yet but hopefully when I've finished studying and have some money I can explore that part of the world!

Oh, and there was no exam or anything that I had to sit. It purely goes by family members' citizenship/background and where they are from in this case of an EU passport.

And yes, you need a valid address in most countries to be able to vote. I can't vote in Italy's elections at this current point in time unless I have a valid postal address/ am actually currently living over there.

How often do Europeans eat burgers/hot dogs?

I'm not listed as foreign yet but since I'm European I thought it might be ok for me to chip in.

I think the answer to this question depends on the country/region and the age group. I think Western/Northern Europeans eat more burgers and hot dogs (in general) than the Mediterranean countries do for example. They seem to be more healthy further down south. But when it comes to the Mediterranean, the amount of young people indulging in fast food is probably about the same as in the North.

In Sweden (where I'm from) you'll find combined hamburger, kebab and hot dog stands/kiosks on almost every street corner and you can easily find 3-5 McDonald's restaurants within a mile's radius in downtown Stockholm so people do seem to eat fast food a lot. But on the other hand, it's not very common to serve hamburgers or hot dogs at home for lunch or dinner. In my family we maybe had pizza a few times a year tops, the same with hamburgers or hot dogs. We mostly had "proper" food (fish, chicken, meat, rice, pasta, potatoes etc).

I'm just wondering if baseball is popular anywhere else in the world besides here in North America and the Caribbean, and maybe Japan? I'm guessing the answer is no because it's an American sport...

Burgers? Hmm, I had one just yesterday. I guess I eat burgers maybe 5 to 10 times a year or something. Half the time or more, these will be homemade, in the kitchen or on the grill.

I eat hot dogs now and then, much more frequent than burgers. I love hot dogs ;)

To Burning Down, just about noone here cares about Baseball. It's something that happens in America and that's about it.

That's not really true. Baseball is also very big in Japan, South Korea, and in parts of the Caribbean.

I would have thought that the Caribbean would be more synonymous with Cricket rather than Baseball.

Oh that might be true. By here, I mean Norway though, not the whole world minus the US! :p:

It's also quite big in Saudi Arabia.

(still a really really boring sport)

In former British colonies like Jamaica sure. But in the Spanish-speaking countries like the Dominican Republic and Cuba baseball is really popular.

Well, you did say "something that happens in America and that's about it".

Interesting, I never knew that.

I agree about it being boring though.

yep, saudi arabia is always a pretty big participant in the world little league championships (how's that for random piece of information). Football is definitely still the most popular sport in the country, but baseball does have a pretty large following. A lot of the kids I grew up with played for the saudi little league team in the world championships.

Ok thanks, I had a feeling baseball is a sport that's popular in certain countries only. There's a lot of professional players from the Dominican and Cuba, and a good chunk of others are from Japan.

Yeah it's boring to watch but fun to play. I've been playing baseball for several years now.

Baseball is pretty popular in Northern Ireland.

Oh wait no that's punishment beatings.

As far as I know, in Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean and Venezuela. There, it's even popular amongst the most ridiculous tyrants.

They just like the idea of hitting balls with bats I suppose.

Castro is holding an aluminum bat so they are definitely not in Major League Baseball; they must be working their way through the farm system.

It's got quite a large following in Australia, my brother played baseball for many years and I think the following in Aus may have something to do with the popularity in Asian countries (Australia is very close to Asia). I remembered when he played they state and national teams were always going to places like Japan and Korea and playing teams from there.

But it's nowhere near as big as Aussie Rules Football, the NRL, netball, tennis, or other sports which are very popular here.

The countries of the Gulf are just obsessed with the American culture. My cousins who used to live in Kuwait actually met a person whose first name is "George Bush".
Talking about some allies to the bones here.

Oh right, I meant that's the general idea I believe people have of it here. If we see baseball, it's something that goes on in american movies or TV shows. It's not something that interests us much beyond that.

I didn't mean to make a statement that it's not popular anywhere else than the US. Even if it is, we don't see that from here and so it doesn't factor into our general opinion of it.

Ah I see. I just misunderstood what you meant.

LOL @ soccer fans calling baseball boring...

Baseball is boring.

I think basketball is the most boring sport on Earth personally.

We are NEVER going to be in agreement over this, but I think soccer is one of the most boring sports on Earth. I won't say the most boring though, because watching a tennis match or golf for three hours are both far worse...

It's definitely more dynamic than football, people score at least a hundred times there.

Yeah but where's the tension in each side scoring so often.

I've seen some amazing 0:0 draws in football where I've been on the edge of my seat for the whole game. (Not counting last friday :( )

See I think basketball is way more boring than football for exactly that reason. Every five seconds there's another point scored in basketball, whereas in football there's more buildup and suspense involved. Football is like a slower, more wussy version of hockey :D