Rautavaara High School
Overview
The school focuses on the sciences and is making efforts towards increasing its international activity. Our speciality is a Medical and Natural Science-line where you can study more Natural Science courses than in a normal finnish high schools. This line can help you if you want to study later for example medicine in university and work as a doctor. This line is also for you if you are interested in climate change.
Student groups are compact, which allows for a more individual approach to teaching; The faculty has plenty of resources to meet each student's individual learning needs. The small number of students inevitably leads to a certain sense of community, where you will know and get to know everyone regardless of age or grade.
As Rautavaara is relatively close to the Arctic Circle, the Municipality enjoys distinct seasons with both warm and bright summers as well as dark and cold winters, when the temperature may dip below -25 degrees Celcius. The transitions between these two are, arguably, the annual highlight in terms of seasons, with evident decay in the autumn and bloom back to life in the spring.
100km to Kuopio, 490km to Helsinki, 250km to Jyväskylä, 260km to Oulu, and 160km to Joensuu.
Just about everything is no further than 1km from the school. Health services are connected to the school, the dorms are visible from some of the classrooms, and the gym is a 2-minute walk from the school.
Requirement
Entrance Interview
No GPA requirement
Study line: The general Finnish curriculum
None in particular. All students follow the same curriculum for the first year, after which individual course selection allows for focus on specific fields.
You have extra studies in Natural Sciences when studying in Medical and Natural Science-line.
Expenses
Utilities (electricity 15€, water 10€) only. Furniture for each student's room must be purchased by the students.
No tuition, free accommodation, laptops, school lunch, all textbooks, necessary e-learning sources, and free healthcare.
Accommodation
Apartments include 2-3 separate rooms and a shared kitchen and lavatory.
The appartments are approximately 300m away from the school, and as such, everything in the municipality is within walking distance.
An outside housing company is in charge of providing students with accommodation.
Since there's a cultural difference, please make sure students can live with someone at the beginning phase rather than alone as well as they are separated according to their gender.
Other
There are no exchange programs to other European countries as of now, however, beginning in the spring of 2023, the school will partake in a youth exchange program, which all students can apply for. This exchange is done in cooperation with Metsäkartano (https://www.metsakartano.com/en).
The University of Eastern Finland and the University of Jyväskylä. The school is in cooperation with the former university (UEF) and allows our students to enroll in open university classes for free.
Individual guidance and structured plans of student support. Qualified teachers.
Foreign students are to be grouped with Finnish students as normal, and they will receive appropriate orientation and grouping activities.
We warmly welcome all students and can't wait to see you :^)