To the possible benefit of others who plan their study abroad year (which every student should. You will never get more support and backing in getting away and being free in your favorite place in the world. Let nothing hold you back – I left man, home and job behind to do this), I’ll present a few of the things I learned along the road. More reports here.
It doesn’t have to cost you. The Erasmus program is underrated: For all EU/EEA students, it means EU pays the tution fees, fixes all the papers and even pays you a stipendium which goes quite far (well it pays the rent). Many things can be said about the culture-suppressing anti-democratic want-to-be-USA syndicate that is the european union, but free movement of students is definetely on the plus side. For Norwegians, you might also find the Educational Loan Fund paying your plane ticket, which was a pleasant surprise to me as this is not really advertised.
I found it all fairly straight-forward. When you go to the study exhibitions and battle the flyers it seems quite daunting, but most options can be easily eliminated (should be, if your advisor of studies does their job) if you have a splinter of a clue what you want to do (and maybe more important, what you _don’t_ want). Again, if you do Erasmus all you have to do is tick some boxes and write 5 lines about why you want to go. You don’t even have to send it, your school does all that.
Just because your home school treats every application the same within the deadline, doesn’t necessarily mean the other one does. I lost a very nice flat because I waited with applying until deadline, it turned out it was first-come-first-serve (then why a deadline at all?)
Private accomodation can be both cheaper and nicer than the Uni ones, but also more risky. Don’t pay a penny before signing a contract and do have a look at the place before deciding anything (a few people I know have found themselves in a pinch). As all this can be hard to do when you’re coming a long way, I figured a uni flat was easier after all, at least it can be (well, must be, it turned out) fixed beforehand. The catch is they might not let you loose from the contract so you eliminate your chance of finding something better.
For my views on the uni accomodation, refer back to https://murmeldyr.yirdfast.no/2008/10/07/the-flat/