Whereas higher education is free in most of europe, you are still usually reliant on getting sent money from your parents to finance your living expenses. In Scandinavia you are not dependant on having parents with money to pursue higher education.

If you get accepted to a University, you apply and you'll get equivalent of 13-14k usd every year of study to cover living expenses.

Up to 40% of it gets converted to a grant, depending on how many of your classes you passed. The loan is also under very favorable conditions, interest free while studying, very low interest after finished, usually paid over 20 years, and you can postpone payment up to 36 times (3 years) whenever you want.

Another thing about the loan: My understanding (as an immigrant) is that the loan can be forgiven completely if you move, live, and work up north for a number of years.

Yeah, up to 3000$ a year. Essentially as long as you live there, your monthly payments are deleted.

Not enough to be worth it in my opinion, the dark winters are too much man

I've heard stories!

Folks have some trouble where I am, and I have 'days' during the winter. Sure, they are 4.5 hours long in December and the sunlight is poor, but I technically have days.

That said, I'd be willing to try it for a couple of years, if anything just for the experience. Dark winters are a lot and the weather can be pretty brutal with ocean storms and wind and stuff, but I think clear winter nights would be beautiful more regularly than Trondheim.