Starting just in the first week of university there is one whole week of welcome activities, as well as getting taught how to use the intranet, how to enroll to courses, getting a campus tour and much more. When you start studying in Finland you will never be alone, there is always someone that will be able to help you. If not the teachers then other students, such as tutors, club members or students from your class.
Each degree has their own overall color in Finland. It varies from university to university, for example, international business is the color red, electrical engineers the color blue, nurses the color pink and the Finnish business students have the color purple. For those overalls it is a tradition to wear them to students events and parties. When participating in most events such as pub crawls, the parties or other various student events of the university and the associations, it is common to receive overall patches. Those patches can be sewn on, some students have hundred of patches, which shows they are a very active students when it comes to activities and events.
Overalls have a lot of tradition and are a huge part of an average Finns life. Not only are there different colors and patches, there are also some “rules” about the overalls.
Some of those rules include, for example that you can only sew the patches on by hand and it has to be YOU. Many people ignore this and ask their mother to do it with a sewing machine, but if you want to stay traditional this should not be ignored. Another “rule” would be that you can not put your overall into the washing machine. It should be only washed in a lake while you are wearing it. There is also a rule of how to wear the overalls. The engineers are allowed to put the overalls on all the way but as non engineers, you should only wear the upper part tied around your waist and not wear it.
Even though there are some traditional rules, not everyone follows them and just remember: Finland is not as serious as you think it is. In Finland you have a lot of freedom and the choice is always yours.
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