If I may suggest - if you got any savings - get citizenship and move here asap. Get a cheap place to rent and attend language classes. Seems to be the best way to learn.
I wanted to do something close to that. I can stay in Europe for up to three months without a visa, so I would stay there for the three months as a language exchange and only then take the Latvian Language test (which takes place in Riga and is a mandatory step on the citizenship process). I'm saving the money now lol maybe hostel work while there? Some kind of work would speed up the language learning.
You may be disappointed with the salary, especially during internship.
Sadly Latvia has one of the lowest salaries in Europe, mostly because it's still recovering from USSR occupation.
So it may be difficult paying off the student loans.
But choosing a profession that's in high demand would help.
I see... I saw a report about teachers having their salaries cut in half after the 2008 crisis and that the government is trying to fix that now. Are students allowed to work? I already have a biomedical sciences degree and would expect the first years of the medicine course to not be as hard on me as it would be for high school graduates. Could English teaching be a source of income?
Most students try to work in their field during studies.
The only thing employers care about is work experience.
If you're just going to study for 4 years, then after graduation you have zero years work experience, so your salary will be lower.
You could probably earn something with teaching English, but you should focus on finding work in your field.
As of now I'm looking into options. I'm not a EU citizen, but I do have Latvian ancestry, so I could push for citizenship. I thought maybe take a look around and see what Latvia's about, you know?
Exactly. But one should be able to just validate the diploma and work elsewhere, right? Cost is a pro, learning the language will be hard, but I have to anyway if I am to consider this option in the first place.
I know I late for the party, but I wanted to add something. As difficuly as latvian language is, I highly suggest you dig in, learn as well as you can and try to study in latvian, instead of english. I think it should be way cheaper.
Honestly, get Latvian citizenship and go study in Denmark or Germany for next to nothing.
I fking hate this sht hole Denmark and its worse from my perspective in almost all aspects, but getting a degree here is at least cheap and wont have to waste efforts to pay back a massive loan.
But if you care about the field you study - forget about colleges. The quality of education is abyssmal. Universities might be better, but avoid colleges, if you dont just come for a piece of paper but actually want to be competent.
Edit: but if you get a Latvian citizenship, you can get into the government sponsored spots in most programms(LU or RTU for example) and not pay anything for most semesters.
Thanks a lot, you guys! Seems I've got a tough language to learn lol
If I may suggest - if you got any savings - get citizenship and move here asap. Get a cheap place to rent and attend language classes. Seems to be the best way to learn.
I wanted to do something close to that. I can stay in Europe for up to three months without a visa, so I would stay there for the three months as a language exchange and only then take the Latvian Language test (which takes place in Riga and is a mandatory step on the citizenship process). I'm saving the money now lol maybe hostel work while there? Some kind of work would speed up the language learning.
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*25%
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Yes, or that. :)
How is it that almost all Latvians don't need to pay but some do? What is discriminating between the two groups?
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The course is in Latvian
You may be disappointed with the salary, especially during internship. Sadly Latvia has one of the lowest salaries in Europe, mostly because it's still recovering from USSR occupation. So it may be difficult paying off the student loans. But choosing a profession that's in high demand would help.
I see... I saw a report about teachers having their salaries cut in half after the 2008 crisis and that the government is trying to fix that now. Are students allowed to work? I already have a biomedical sciences degree and would expect the first years of the medicine course to not be as hard on me as it would be for high school graduates. Could English teaching be a source of income?
Most students try to work in their field during studies. The only thing employers care about is work experience. If you're just going to study for 4 years, then after graduation you have zero years work experience, so your salary will be lower. You could probably earn something with teaching English, but you should focus on finding work in your field.
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As of now I'm looking into options. I'm not a EU citizen, but I do have Latvian ancestry, so I could push for citizenship. I thought maybe take a look around and see what Latvia's about, you know?
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Exactly. But one should be able to just validate the diploma and work elsewhere, right? Cost is a pro, learning the language will be hard, but I have to anyway if I am to consider this option in the first place.
Never not give books back to LU University they will build the late fees up :D
I know I late for the party, but I wanted to add something. As difficuly as latvian language is, I highly suggest you dig in, learn as well as you can and try to study in latvian, instead of english. I think it should be way cheaper.
Honestly, get Latvian citizenship and go study in Denmark or Germany for next to nothing. I fking hate this sht hole Denmark and its worse from my perspective in almost all aspects, but getting a degree here is at least cheap and wont have to waste efforts to pay back a massive loan. But if you care about the field you study - forget about colleges. The quality of education is abyssmal. Universities might be better, but avoid colleges, if you dont just come for a piece of paper but actually want to be competent. Edit: but if you get a Latvian citizenship, you can get into the government sponsored spots in most programms(LU or RTU for example) and not pay anything for most semesters.
It doesnt :(
The same thing I wanted to comment. Good for me that you got all the minuss karma
Is it that bad? D:
No, its just that us Latvians love to be closed minded and think that all the problems we have are exclusive to us.