Applying to Sweden On My Own, And How You Can Too!

My journey of applying to study in Sweden was mostly a solo adventure. But after moving and making new friends, I discovered an interesting side to this process. One that I also found a bit concerning!

Some of them, especially those from Asia and Africa, had chosen to use external agencies for their university and visa applications. While this method has its perks, I also realized it often came with a hefty price tag. Most of the time, it was much more than what I paid for as someone who applied on their own. Plus, I noticed that students applying through the same agency sometimes had to pay different amounts for the exact same service, which I found both unfortunate and unfair.

This experience sparked my desire to share my story, and also offer advice to prospective students, helping them understand that they too can apply to Swedish universities independently. It’s easier than you might think and it might even save you a lot of money and stress.

Applying On Your Own is Very Simple

I totally understand that it can feel intimidating to go through the application and visa process on your own. But here’s the good news: the Swedish university application system is designed to make it as simple as possible.

One way this is achieved is by unifying all universities under one central application- universityadmissions.se. So that you won’t have to have different portals and different tabs to manage all your separate applications. It’s all just one big application!

This means you don’t have to enter your personal information and upload your documents over and over again. You don’t have to remember multiple different passwords to access these online applications, since it’s just one. And you won’t have to write multiple essays of motivation (unless your specific university requests for it, which happens very rarely).

All of this eliminates most of the anxiety a lot of upcoming students have when applying to other popular study destinations around the world.

My Personal Application journey 

Here’s how I did it!

• 1. I started by visiting the official universityadmissions.se website and browsing through programs that fit my interests.
• I used filters to narrow down my options — field of study, admissions cycle, language of instruction, and so on.
• Once I found a few programs I liked, I saved them to my profile and then visited each university’s own website to learn more.
• When I felt confident about my choices, I added them to my application and ranked them in my preferred order. (You can select up to 8 programs if you’re applying for a bachelor’s, and 4 for a master’s.)
• Before the deadline, I submitted my application, paid the fee (if applicable), and uploaded all the required documents.

After that, I simply checked my account regularly to see if any updates or additional document requests came through. The system also sends you email notifications, so it’s easy to stay on track.

And that’s really it!

The Role of Agencies

Agencies can be helpful, especially if you’re feeling overwhelmed or unsure about where to start. The biggest advantage is that they have a strong clear overview of the entire process and can guide you when things seem confusing. That’s a perfectly valid reason to use one.

But, like I outlined previously, once you get to know the system, you find out that it really isn’t that complicated. And there are so many resources available to you- especially blog posts similar to this very one- that you can use to get an overall understanding of the process. Many students share their tips and advice on social media platforms and everywhere.

Another major selling point agencies often advertise is how they will help you keep track of all the messages from all the different universities, which will save you time. But, while this may apply to countries where there are application portals for each university, it may not really be relevant to Sweden. All the messages these universities want to communicate with you is accessible to you directly from just one website. So, paying someone extra just to check that inbox doesn’t really make sense.

My Friend’s Experiences

That’s not to say all agencies are bad, but in practice, some stories I’ve heard have been worrying.

One of my friends told me that their agency sometimes took weeks to forward important messages from universities. Another couldn’t even access their own application account because the agency refused to share the login details.

And actually, my roommate from my first year of studies also lost the deadline to apply to university housing because the agency had not notified him in time. That one mistake had serious consequences for him.

And like I mentioned at the start, I also know some people who went through the same agency but had to pay greatly varying fees for the exact same service.

Of course, like any other process, everyone’s experience is different. You might have a wonderful experience with such agencies. They might help you find your dream study destination that might end up saving your time and effort

But after seeing both sides, I personally believe that if the process is already straightforward — and free resources exist everywhere — there’s little reason to pay extra for something you can easily manage yourself.

A Question to Leave You With…

So, I’ll leave you with this question.

“Would you rather pay a lot more for someone else to handle a simple process, or learn to do it yourself and gain confidence along the way?”

If you choose the second option, trust me — it’s totally doable.