If you ask anybody that's been to college, they will probably say their days at the university have been the best. I mean yeah, there's a bunch of studying to do, and all the professors think that their subject is the most important one. But there's also so much other stuff worth enjoying, which you probably won't be able to enjoy, later in life. You are old enough to go out when you please and young enough to still want to go out. Plus, I don't know what's it like elsewhere but, here, at our university, there are usually some free days during the week which means you can go out on Wednesday, which I wouldn't do now when I have a job. And, if you get a student job, so you could have a bit of your own money to go out sometime, no one's luckier than you. 

Oh, it's nice to be a student in Zagreb

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Zagreb is a perfect city for students. One of the coolest things for me is that young people from all over Croatia, and even abroad come to Zagreb to study. Once, I met a group of 15 guys from France who came to Med School in Zagreb. They've confirmed that Zagreb has everything a college student could wish for. As I already mentioned before in a couple of my previous blog, there isn't a day (or night) in Zagreb when at least something isn't happening. There's a couple of student organizations and clubs, such as KSET which tend to organize all sorts of cool events for students. As a student, you can participate in quizzes, game nights, concerts, movie nights, etc. The best of all, when you're a student in Zagreb, a lot of things are cheaper for you. Regular students pay less for transportation, movie and concert tickets. And if you go to student cafeterias, you can get some excellent food for a ridiculous amount of money. 

Something for everyone

Depending on what your interests are, Zagreb has the broadest range of different faculties in Croatia. You can study everything from law, finances, and maths to TV & Film direction, restoration and even medal making & small plastics, whatever that is. Believe it or not, there are around 650 study programs which belong under the University of Zagreb. If we add up higher schools and private universities, I'm sure that number amounts to a thousand. Now, you can't say that there isn't something for everyone here. The hardest part is, probably, choosing the best one for you. But that's a sweet concern. Once you've chosen and registered at one university, you should probably start with studying. The faculty libraries are the perfect place for that, and there is one superior to them all, which we already wrote about in one of our previous blogs. I'm talking about the National and University Library, of course. It's a temple of books, knowledge and published work. There is a copy of everything (or almost everything) published in Croatia from our independence. 

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Home is where the snooze button is

There are over eleven thousand students from all over Croatia, which come to the student residences all over Zagreb. If we add up the ones who rent their apartments, I will estimate that there's, at least, over twenty thousand students coming to Zagreb from other parts of Croatia and the rest of the world every year. If I'm counting right, there are six student homes in Zagreb. The best thing about them is that students can meet, not only Zagreb but each other at the student homes. I'm from Zagreb, so I never experienced living in a student home, but I talked to a lot of people who did. They've said that the experience of living in a student home is priceless, and they will never forget it.

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Eat, Work, Sleep, Study, Repeat

Apart from student homes, there are countless opportunities to work in Zagreb. As opposed to living in a student home, I have a lot of experience working as a student. I've been working on countless student jobs while studying. I tried everything from waiting tables and in-store promotions to door-to-door acquisitions and telephone sales. I think that every student should take two things into account when choosing a job. The first one is, of course, how much money he will earn, and the second one is trying to find work connected to your future profession. That might be a problem for someone who opted for the social studies, but for instance, if you're a veterinary student, you should consider finding a job which involves animals and so on.

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All of the above brings Zagreb forward as a genuine student city, but it's an experience everyone should experience for themselves. The old saying goes: "The student days are the most beautiful ones." And, the Zagreb is a city which confirms that popular opinion. Just come and see for yourself. 

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Author: Tibor Trupec